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Good Afternoon Seniors!

October is jam packed with events and information. FAFSA opened up, there are numerous FAFSA related help sessions, fair break is around the corner, a Career Fair, several college representatives are coming to BCHS, and the Fairfield County College Fair will be taking place. Let’s dive straight into the information!

College Fair

The Fairfield County College Fair is in two days! It is scheduled for Wednesday, October 5th, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm! There are approximately one-hundred colleges expected to be present! Besides each college being represented, there will also be financial aid information sessions held at 6:00pm and 6:30pm.

This is one of the best opportunities for students/families to explore colleges, ask questions, and gather information about post-secondary plans, especially considering all the college exposure in such a short period of time. The Fairfield County College Fair will be held at Ohio University Lancaster. For more information or to save/view the flier, click College Fair Flier.

FAFSA Intro/Review

The odds of a student going to college goes up drastically when FAFSA is completed. What is FAFSA? FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Essentially, it is a form completed by students/families in order to receive financial aid from the government to help pay for college.

“Each year, over 13 million students who file the FAFSA get more than $120 billion in grants, work-study, and low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Education”.

FAFSA - United Way | In-Person Help Session

United Way hosts personalized, in-person FAFSA help sessions. United Way recommends students and parents attend together. Families are also encouraged to bring their tax information to the session. Call United Way at 740-653-0643 to schedule an appointment.

FAFSA College Board Assistance

College Board created Wyatt, “your personal FAFSA assistance chatbot” to help students and families complete the FAFSA. All students’ families can sign up to utilize Wyatt. However, one of the first steps to utilizing Wyatt is to sign up to win scholarships. Wait, what? Yes! College Board has a program where students can earn scholarship money for completing college-bound activities, including FAFSA. To view how to earn scholarships for completing college-bound activities, including FAFSA, as well as earning other College Board scholarships, click here.

FAFSA Resources - ODE & ODHE

Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Higher Education

have developed a website devoted to all things FAFSA. You can apply for FAFSA, learn more about the FAFSA process, utilize their FAFSA checklist, and more by visiting itsforyou.org.

FAFSA - Sallie Mae Webinar & Resources

Sallie Mae is holding multiple college related finance-based webinars over the next several months. The next webinar is titled, “The first step to finding the money you need for college: Completing the FAFSA®,” and it is scheduled for Wednesday, October 5th at 7pm. To register for this event and/or to view future Sallie Mae webinar events, click here. 

NACAC Virtual College Fair

National Association for College Admission Counseling sets up free virtual college fairs that students can attend. “The next NACAC Virtual College Fair is this Sunday, October 9th, from 1-6 p.m. ET!” You can learn more information and register at virtualcollegefairs.org.

Hocking College Showcase

Hocking College is hosting a series of Showcase Events for students to explore all that Hocking has to offer. There will be hands-on program demos and campus tours. The Showcases will be held on October 8th and October 12th. To learn more, check out this flier. 

 Ohio Means Jobs Career Fair

There will be an Ohio Means Jobs Career Fair taking place on October 20th from 4:00pm to 6:00pm at the Fairfield County Workforce Center in Carroll. All students are welcome to attend the event. Registration is preferred and can be completed via the QR code located on the event flier.

College Application Types 

Quick review and reminder, application types generally include: early action, early decision, regular decision, and rolling admission. Keep in mind that early decision is binding, meaning if that college accepts your early decision, you are obligated to go to that college. To read about the details of each application type, click here. 

FYI - Many early action deadlines are in November: e.g. Ohio State University’s early action deadline is November 1st, and Ohio University’s early action deadline is November 15th.

College Applications | Planning & Quick Tips

Some of the steps to completing an application include: performing your own research & asking questions, requesting a copy of your own transcript, getting letters of recommendation, inviting Mr. Kelley to the Common App, filling the application out, etc.  Each step takes time. Attempting to crank all of this out in a time period of a couple days, let alone a couple of weeks, may result in your application not being completed in time.

Tip: Know when your application needs to be completed and expect it to take a lot longer than what you may think (a month is a good timeline for everything).

More on this topic in November’s Newsletter.

Requesting Transcripts

If you need a transcript for personal records or to be sent to a college, you can do that electronically by visiting Bloom-Carroll's website and clicking on "Forms" (or click here). Then, under "High School" you will see "Transcript Request-Current Students Only."  You will need to complete the transcript request every time you want a transcript sent to a college. BCHS processes transcripts in one to two business days. 

Note: You will most likely need a copy of your transcript in front of you when applying to college as many of the questions relate back to records that you will find on your transcript (GPA,Class Rank, etc). 

Common App Transcript Request Exception: As long as you invite Mr. Kelley to your CA, then you do NOT need to complete a transcript request (for any school listed within your CA). However, it is still recommended that you complete a transcript request for CA because if something goes wrong (email address is spelled wrong within CA, etc), then the invite will end up lost electronically and the counseling office will not know about it. In short, completing the transcript request form AND sending an invite through CA ensures your CA is completed appropriately.

College/Future Search

There are a ton of college and technical schools in the United States. You have preferences as to what you are looking for in a technical school: e.g. major, price, on-campus housing, etc. Trying to match all of your preferences to a college may feel daunting. Using college-matching websites can help ease the overwhelming feeling by making the computer do a lot of the work for you. Bigfuture is one college matching website. Give it a try: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org 

Similar to the college search, Roadtrip Nation can help match your interests with careers. Additionally, Roadtrip Nation maps a plan to obtain that career. Check it out: https://roadtripnation.com/

Caps and Gowns