Preparing for Graduation
Ready to take that step towards graduation? Below you’ll find some information to help prepare you for your path to graduation!
Which ceremony will you be attending?
June 13th, 2024
August 29th, 2024
January 23rd, 2025
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FAFSA
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is an important step for college-bound and vocational school students seeking financial aid. By completing the FAFSA, students can access federal grants, student loans, and work-study opportunities to fund their education. Many colleges, vocational schools, and universities use FAFSA information to determine eligibility for their financial aid programs.
This application opens yearly on October 1st. For more information about how to fill out the FAFSA, click here.
The following are information videos to help you with your FAFSA Application:
SAT/ACT
Students planning to take the SAT or ACT as part of their college application process should register for these tests early. Early registration gives students ample time to prepare for the test and allows for potential retakes if necessary to achieve their target score. When registering, students should pay close attention to the application deadlines of any colleges or universities they may be interested in. It’s important to align test dates with these deadlines to ensure scores are submitted on time.
- To access test prep and to find your local SAT testing sites, dates, registration information, and practice tests, click here.
- To access test prep and to find details on ACT dates, registration deadlines, and local test centers, click here.
How and When to Apply for College/ Vocational Schools
Applying for college is an exciting step toward your future. Here’s what you need to know about the process and timelines:
Suggested timeline:
As students near graduation, it’s important to follow a timeline for researching and applying to colleges.
Here’s how to get started:
- Develop a list of institutions: Begin by creating a list of 5-10 colleges to which you are interested in applying. Schedule visits or online counseling sessions with their admissions representatives to ask any questions you may have about the school or program of study you’re interested in.
- Possible questions to ask and admissions representative:
- What are the admission requirements and deadlines?
- What scholarships and financial aid options are available?
- What academic and extracurricular opportunities are available?
- What is the campus culture like, or online resources for online schools?
- What support services are available to students?
- Possible questions to ask and admissions representative:
- Narrow down your choices: After gathering information, narrow down your list to the colleges you want to apply to.
- Submit Applications: Begin submitting applications either through the Common App or the individual college websites. Be mindful of your course plan for graduating from Citizens High School and the application deadlines for the college term you want to start.
- Send Transcripts: Send official transcripts through Parchment, found on www.citizenshighschool.com to any schools you wish to attend.
- Apply for Financial Aid and Scholarships: Submit your FAFSA application and begin the scholarship application process if you plan to apply for scholarships.
- Make your final decision: Once you’ve made your final decision on which college or university to attend, complete their orientation and register for classes.
Researching Institutions:
Start by researching colleges that align with your academic and career goals. Consider factors such as location, size, programs offered, and campus culture.
- Big Future – BigFuture is a comprehensive online resources provided by the College Board that helps students navigate the college planning process. This tool helps students find colleges and universities based on their preferences, such as location, size, and programs of study. Additionally, students can access financial aid information, career exploration, standardized test preparation, college application guidance, and college visit planning. BigFuture is designed to guide students through every step of the college planning process, from exploring colleges and careers to applying for admission and financial aid.
- Appily – College research planning tool that helps students with the college search and application process. This resources features college and scholarship search engines, college matching, college admissions advice, student reviews of colleges including academics and campus life, application tools that help students organize and track their applications.
- Collegevine – CollegeVine is an online database that provides students with personalized resources and tools to help them navigate the college admissions process. The website offers a variety of services and features including: College matching, admissions chances, essay guidance, peer mentoring, community forums, and college admissions advice.
Scholarships
For students looking to finance their education, scholarship search engines are valuable tools and databases that can help students fund a college education. Scholarships play a significant role in making higher education affordable, so it’s important to know where to look and how to apply.
From extensive scholarship search engines to platforms offering personalized scholarship matches these tools offer access to a range of resources to help students finance their academic goals.
- Fastweb – Fastweb is one of the largest and most well-known scholarship search engines. Students can create a profile to receive tailored scholarship matches and access information on financial aid and internships.
- Scholarships.com – Scholarships.com offers a comprehensive database of scholarship matches and explore various financial aid resources.
- Appily.com – Appily provides a scholarship search tool that matches students with scholarships based on their profiles. In addition to scholarships, Appily offers college matching and admissions information.
- Going Merry – Scholarship search database that enables students to submit multiple scholarship applications.
- Raise Me – Scholarship search engine that awards financial aid money based on students’ achievements. Awarded money is only accepted at specific colleges/universities.
- www.tuitionfundingsources.org
- www.studentscholarships.org
- www.college-scholarships.org
Requesting Letters of Recommendation
For students seeking letters of recommendation for college applications, Citizens high School provides the following options:
- Chief Academic Officer: Email letter of recommendation requests to academics@citizenshighschool.com
- Individual Instructors: Send requests directly to individual instructors through the Canvas email box.
All requests are processed weekly. To facilitate your letter of recommendation, please provide the following information in your emailed request, remember to include any information you want included in your letter of recommendation:
What college(s)/ universities/ trade schools are you applying for?
What you are interested in going to college for?
What are your hobbies?
Do you play sports?
Are in in clubs?
What are your interests?
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Over forty years of being a distance education school has provided us with the experience to understand what non-traditional students need and want. Our fully accredited program has sent students to the top colleges across the country.
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