the Stall Door paper - April 2014

This month, as students get ready to interview for summer programs, tour colleges, apply for jobs, or simply co-exist with others, we wanted to focus on manners.  Here are a collection of manners that we felt students needed some reminders about.  Would love to hear your comments on any others that we should have added.  Happy Spring!

the Stall Door paper - March 2014

Here is the March issue of "the Stall Door paper"!  Stephen Covey has a great book our called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (from which this issue was modeled after) which is a great read for high school students.

the Stall Door paper - February 2014

As the students know, each month the Guidance Office publishes an issue of "the Stall Door paper".  It is hung up around school in, you guessed it, bathroom stalls!  There was a suggestion to publish each month's issue on the blog so here is last month's issue.  Hope you enjoy it!  Happy reading.

Congratulations! Now, how are you going to pay for college?

HTHS Parents, 

As all the acceptances start coming in, many of you, after celebrating your child's great success, may be wondering how you are going to pay for such excellent colleges.  

Remember, filing the FAFSA is important!  I know some of you are saying "I won't get anything so why file?".  Keep in mind that some colleges will not give you the merit aid your student received unless you file a FAFSA so check with the colleges your student has been accepted into to see if that is the case before you make a decision.  If you are filing, you should be starting that process now.  Go to fafsa.ed.gov for more information.  Be careful of FAFSA sites that charge - FAFSA is free!

Scholarships are another way to offset some of the costs.  There are multiple ways to find scholarships.  The first, and most important, is the HTHS Guidance Office.  We have a folder in the conference room that your student can come and browse through.  We also put most of those scholarships online at www.monmouthcountyscholarships.com.  Some very specific HTHS scholarships cannot go on the website because that is open to all students from all the MCVSD Academies so it is wise for your student to check in Guidance once in a while! 

Another way to search scholarships is to log into Naviance and click on the Colleges tab and then click on Scholarship list.  That will give you a national list of scholarships.  And, www.fastweb.com is also a very good resource.  Please never, never, ever pay for a scholarship search.  If a company charges you ANY amount to search for scholarships, even $0.50 - it is a scam.  All scholarships searches should be free.

Let us know us know if we can help you at all.
Mrs. Bufis and Mrs. Tice

College Tuition vs. Salary

Last week I attended an engineering career day and they presented us with this data showing the correlation between college tuition and salary.   It is not just for engineering majors either.  The idea is, for the best value, to be in the top right quadrant.  Thought you might find it as interesting as I did.  The image and additional information can be found at the link below.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/littlelittleeske/buzzfeeds-best-value-colleges

be careful of what you post...

Just another reason to be careful what you post online!  A "must read"...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/business/they-loved-your-gpa-then-they-saw-your-tweets.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1&

Need Financial Aid/FAFSA information?

Between now and the end of January, different high schools across Monmouth County will be hosting FAFSA/Financial Aid workshops to help senior parents better understand the FAFSA and to ask questions.  As we learn of more dates, we will post them to this site.   Please confirm all dates and times with the high school before attending in case of any changes to their schedule.

Red Bank Regional - Monday, November 11th at 6:30 in the Auditorium

Manalapan will host the FRHSD's FAFSA information session on November 13th at 6:30pm in the Auditorium

Raritan High School - Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30pm

Wall High School - Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30 in the Auditorium

Keyport High School - Thursday, November 21st at 6pm in room 108.

Allentown High School - Tuesday, December 3rd at 7pm in the Auditorium

Middletown South High School - Wednesday, December 4th at 6:00 in the Theater

Manasquan High School - Thursday, December 5th at 7pm in the Auditorium

Matawan - Aberdeen Reg. HS - Wednesday, December 11th at 7pm in the Auditorium

Shore Regional HS - Monday, January 6th at 7pm in the Auditorium

Holmdel High School - Tuesday, January 7th at 7pm in the Auditorium

Ocean Township High School - Wednesday, January 8th at 7pm in the Auditorium

Neptune High School - Thursday, January 9th at 7pm in the Library

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional HS - Thursday, January 23 at 7pm in the Auditorium

Monmouth County College Fair

The Monmouth County College Fair will be held on Sunday, October 6th from 1:00 - 4:00pm.  The fair will be held in the Collins Arena located on the Lincroft Campus of Brookdale Community College.

A list of the colleges can be found here:
http://www.brookdalecc.edu/pages/105.asp?item=9735

Welcome Back!

It is hard to believe that the summer is already over!  As the air turns crisp, thoughts turn to new classes, new books, homework, college applications and essays.  For those seniors in the throws of the college application process, the Guidance Office has some resources that will prove helpful for you.

First, there is a Senior Student/Parent Night on Thursday, September 19th at 6pm to discuss everything you need to know about applying, the common application, letters of recommendation and colleges visiting HTHS.  It is strongly encouraged that BOTH students and parents attend to learn the process of how to get transcripts sent to colleges and about the application process in general.

Second, this year the Guidance Office is hosting EIGHT College Essay Writing Workshops.  These sessions are for seniors only and will be held during the school day for the students to meet with various Admission Counselors to learn about what should be included in a college essay and what should NOT be included in a college essay from the people reading the essays!  The workshops are scheduled each week between now and the end of October to accommodate when students start writing their essay.  No need to attend more than one, though students can with teacher permission.  The following schedule is below and students need to sign into Naviance and print a pass in order to attend.

date:                          hosted by:                           time:                         location:

Sept. 19                    U. Southern California         12noon                     check Naviance

Sept. 24                    Univ. of Chicago                 12noon                     check Naviance

Sept. 30                    Duke Univ.                          10:45am                  check Naviance

Oct. 7                        Harvey Mudd College        12noon                     check Naviance

Oct. 11                      UPENN                               12noon                    check Naviance

Oct. 17                      Rutgers                                10:45am                  check Naviance

Oct. 23                      Cooper Union                      12noon                    check Naviance

Oct. 25                       Rice University                   12noon                    check Naviance

And finally, there are approximately 40 colleges coming to visit HTHS this fall.  Students need to sign up on Naviance in order to attend.  Please log into Naviance to see a complete list of the colleges visiting and check often as there are additions to the list daily!  It is always in the students best interest to attend a college visit if he/she is applying to that college.  Juniors can attend to learn more about the college.  Please note that college visits are open to Juniors and Seniors only.

As always, please feel free to stop by and see us in Guidance if you have any questions.

Who Are You?

I have always bought into the following notion that a former guidance colleague of mine once said.  He believed that students need to graduate being able to answer the following three questions: "Who are you?", "Where are you going?" and "How are you going to get there?".   I am sure that many school districts disregard his idea because it is not quantifiable.  True, you cannot measure the return or outcome of those questions, but I believe in them.  I think there is something to "planting seeds" and helping students become more familiar with their interests, likes and dislikes.  My favorite of the three questions is the first one because you cannot move to the other two if you can't answer number one.  So, like most high schools, we have students take a personality assessment that links their personality with potential careers that people with their same personality are successful at in the workplace (Students, you took this freshman year so feel free to go back and see your results in Naviance by logging in and clicking on the About Me tab.  Parents of HTHS students, you can also see your child's results the same way).  Now of course, if you are like me, after you found your personality type and careers, you found the most ridiculous career on the list and went home and complained that your "Guidance Counselor said you were going to be a Park Ranger" (sorry to any Park Rangers out there!).  And I know this has not changed because just this weekend my niece complained that she was told she was going to be a bail bondsman until I kept pushing and asking what else was on the list.  But if you look at the complete list, you will realize that all those careers have something in common...your personality.  When I took the test in high school it said that I should be a teacher, counselor or priest - someone who helps people (guess which one I went home and complained to my mom about?).  But I wanted to do nothing of the sort.  I wanted to go into business and be an advertising executive on Madison Ave.  So, despite my personality, I went to a business college and in my junior year, realized that I did not actually want to study business.  I graduated and went to work for a college, pursuing my master's degree in, you guessed it, counseling.  Fast forward a few years and here I am finishing almost two decades of working in education.  Helping people.  Go figure.  

About a year ago I was listening to NPR and heard a women say that her Guidance Counselor told her she would be a farmer based on her personality test and that she laughed, thought it was ridiculous, and went on to a very lucrative job in NYC making  a lot of money.  Years later, she moved to Iowa because she wanted to live "off the grid" and fell in love with growing all her own food, which then turned into her second career - being a farmer. Turned out her personality test/career guide was right.  As was mine.

I bring this up because today I was reading this article in Sunday's New York Times and couldn't help but think about how this all related.  Whether you are still in high school (recently graduated, working in an unfulfilling job or maybe even unemployed) it is a good idea to start figuring out "who you are" so you will know "where you are going" and "how you plan on getting there".  This article discusses the idea of how you can show prospective employers (but feel free to interchange that with part time job, college, internship, etc...) how you can "add value" to their company.  So if you are applying for a summer job, camp counselor, summer academic program, or college, start by knowing "who YOU are" and what YOU can bring to the position for which you are applying.  In other words, help the person hiring or admitting you understand how YOU (and only you) can "add value" to their organization.

I would love your thoughts or comments - especially if you took a wrong turn and then ended up right back to the place you were trying to get away from.