Academic Advising

1. Apply, apply, apply! After applying, colleges will want various supplemental/supporting documents that they’ll list in your portal and/or will email you, such as your initial transcript, letters of recommendation, etc. After everything is submitted, they will review your application, and you can start looking for your acceptance letters. Once you get accepted, begin asking about housing applications and scholarship applications. If you are not accepted, see what it will take to get accepted (personal statement, retesting, etc.) You may also consider taking a different route—a junior college.
2. Midyear: At semester, you may want to request your midyear transcript to be sent if your GPA improves, as this could give you more merit-based scholarships. This is also the time of year that scholarship applications should be coming out. 
3. Final: At the end of the year, you will need to decide on your post-secondary plans: college or joining the workforce. For college, you will need your final transcript submitted. If you have taken any dual-credit classes, you will need to also request your transcript from Lewis and Clark or any other college you received credit from in the past four years. Contact the colleges to request these transcripts. 

1. ACT/SAT: We recommend that students take these tests in the spring of their junior year, as they will have more education in their core subjects to help them. Either test is accepted by colleges, but students need to find which test is best for them. Students should plan to take these tests because they will not know until this coming summer or fall if their college/university of choice will be test optional (don’t require a test score—some allow you to submit a test score to admit or deny a student if it is submitted), test blind (they do not care about your score and will not look at it—though, this can change if you are going into a specific program that will require it), test free (test scores are not used for admissions or scholarships), or test flexible (the school has more flexibility on your scores, so they may superscore your results). 
2. PSAT: Students will take these tests in October, administered at MCHS. In taking the PSAT, students can qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program. This is also a great practice test and indicator of where the students are in regard to math and English/Reading.
3. College Search: It is imperative that juniors begin researching schools that have a potential major they could be interested. We recommend that you visit various colleges and request information. If you set up a college visit through the admissions office, and you end up attending this school, the school will have record of your visit, and this could apply to scholarships in attending this school. Also, attend college representative visits at MCHS.
4. Student-Athletes: Email colleges now. Division I and II can give scholarships as well as NAIA schools. DIII cannot give money. DI and DII start recruiting and putting money aside for student-athletes junior year, so each day that you wait, someone else is taking that money. Send emails, and then follow up because coaches are busy—find a reason to follow up (schedule is finished, video footage, etc.)
    

Paragraph #1: Introduce yourself and give your sport, accolades (all-conference, etc.), positions played, teams played for, mention you are a good student if you have a strong GPA, etc.

Paragraph #2: Describe your interest in playing for that coach and ask about any scholarship opportunities for the 2023-2024 season/school year. Also, discuss how you will follow up with your schedule once it is finalized—this is a great reason to send another email in a few weeks.