Senior night was held at 7:00 pm on the lecture hall, this was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the college process, transition after high school and how community college can be a good option.

The introduction was given by Jennifer Crump-Strawderman where she announced the format of this event, “Parents will be able to attend two out of the three sessions available, each session will last 30 minutes and parents will have the chance of asking some questions to the speakers”. After Mrs. Crump-Strawderman finished the explanation of this event, the PTSA president talked about participation from the parents and especially how important All night-grad will be for Students and Parents.

Once the presentation was over, Parents were allowed to choose the session that they are interested in, the most attended session as “AHS application process” by Rebecca Lockard, Cheryl Kim and Robin Roth.

In this session, the speakers talked about the application process, they discuss the idea that students should have an average six schools on mind for their applications and we need to put in importance that they should be divided into two three categories, Reach School, Match School and Backup School, a good advice of these two counselors is to don’t put all colleges at the same classification but indeed divide equally or close enough.

The second point talked in this meeting is the introduction of a new form by the FCPS department that recall the consent for the release of student’s records; Each student is now required to sign this form to be able to send any official transcripts. In addition the school will now send all transcripts via electronically and the first three will be free, after that you will pay 5$ each; The same rule will apply if you are trying to send your transcript for scholarships. On the same paper you will be able to select if the college need a counselor recommendation letter and you will have to provide the deadline of the application; The two counselors strongly recommend to send the transcripts with three weeks in advance of the deadline to give them time to send the required paperwork

The other important information to consider is that you ask your teachers for a letter of recommendation in advance, also it will be helpful if you provide them with a list of activities and classes, in that way they will be able to know more about you and it will be easier for them to write. The same rule apply for counselors, they will need this paper in order to write about you and it will be helpful too if your parents send some information to them.

The third point recalled was college visits and senior interviews, the two counselor talked about the college visits that Mrs. Roth was in charge of promoting and scheduling, there are over 60 colleges coming during the following months and each student should be able to take advantage of it and they have to be aware of the deadlines of their applications, if they are applying for early action they should do their senior interviews as soon as possible to know the process with the help of their counselors.

Once the session was over, parents were able to go to the following session of their choice. For some parents it was applying to college where the speaker was an admission officer from Mcdaniel University Mrs. Betsy Cotten; she was able to explain more about the point of view of admission officers and what she would recommend on different applications. She mentioned how school performance is important as well as after school activities but for admission officers what matter the most is the college essay.especially the fact that it needs to be error-free.She also mentioned how important is that you notify your admission officer if something happens during your application process with circumstances such as the delay of your scores or other factors that would affect their decision.

The point of the whole event is to emphasize the importance of the deadlines and how students need to focus on it but they should not stress with it instead enjoy for the reward being able to go to a higher level of education.