As we roll into this school year, it’s finally the class of 2024’s time to get ready for the first part of growing up; applying to colleges.
As we approach the end of the first term, applying to colleges, scholarships, FAFSA, etc. has become crucial. November 1st was many in state and out of state colleges early action deadlines. Many of our seniors applied for early action and are waiting on emails. So far, a well respected senior, Nathalia Vazquez, has gotten accepted into Oregon Institute of Technology, Congrats Nathalia.
Applying to colleges has gotten more and more easy as the “common app” has become a thing. Common app is a website that you can easily apply to all of your colleges too and keep track of your colleges. It helps make the applying process easier, it doesn’t have every single college but it has most.
Scholarships and FAFSA go hand in hand. FAFSA is federal aid for students who need it for college, it can help you lower your tuition and your college funds. Every student can apply for it, and it is helpful for scholarships. It is recommended that every student should make and apply to, if you fit the requirements, a FAFSA account. Many scholarships require FAFSA and your FAFSA ID.
Early action means being able to apply to a college or university early and getting your results early as well. There are two early applications applicants can do, there is early action and early decision. Be careful which one you choose because the early decision is committing to a college if they accept you right then and there. While early action is applying to the college early but not being locked in to the college.
There is a special class for seniors called Senior success that helps them get prepared for what’s to come academically. They go through the ins and the outs of everything college, university, trade, or even just career related. They are providing the best of the best information for seniors and making sure they know all they need to for when they’re out of high school and in the real world.
So if you’re an upcoming senior next year, sign up for that class to understand more and be fully prepared. Centennial has many colleges come present for these classes to help students who may not know where they want to go or are torn between two schools make up their mind. So far, we’ve had 8 schools come down to try and convince students why they should be their top choice.
University Of Oregon came in the beginning of the year and gave a very in depth and eye catching presentation for students. They included everything from what they look at on your application all the way to sports and what clubs they may have. They kept it to a good amount of slides and kept it short and sweet while still providing good and reasonable information that grabbed your attention.
Linfield University also came, which is a D3 school in McMinnville, Oregon came as well and showed off every important aspect, while their presentation was on the longer side it still got through to everyone and showed off their best qualities and even gave information on what they do and don’t look at for applications and admissions.
As we continue on in the year, many college deadlines are now January 1st 2024, or February 1st 2024 and sadly FAFSA doesn’t open until sometime in December which is pushing it with students who need to apply to federal aid for their application. Scholarships are still accepting applications even without FAFSA because the terms are so different this year and moved all over the place. Colleges and universities, as well as select scholarships, are letting you input Federal Aid to compensate for students who either did early action/early decision or want to apply now.
As we wait for the future to come and for colleges to start getting back to us, this is only the first part of growing up for us.