College and Career

During summer, there are often workshops to help students with college planning. Please read the Student Body Emails from Ms. Laurenzana to find out about events over summer.

During the year, students are encouraged to utilize the center for post-high school planning. We are here to provide the following services: counseling students in every aspect of the college process, guide students through self-analysis, career exploration and educational goal setting, hosting on-campus college visits from participating schools, standardized testing, and college funding.

College and Career Specialist: Ms.  Laurenzana, [email protected]  
Schedule an appointment.

College Exploration

It is time to narrow your focus for your post secondary plan. Spend time using Scoir this summer researching schools, going on campus visits, working with recruiters, and getting ready for applications.

Deadlines

Spend time this summer creating a list of schools in Scoir and their application deadlines. Many schools have fall deadlines.

Essay

Work on this over the summer. Here is a list of prompts:https://www.commonapp.org/apply/essay-prompts.For helpful hints on writing an essay, visit the Guidance Canvas page. (Link below).

Guidance CANVAS page

There are many resources for you to review on this page. It is under the student body page at: https://ocps.instructure.com/courses/1291062/pages/guidance-home

Recommendation Letters

Some colleges and scholarships may require a letter of recommendation. Over the summer, you can fill out the senior profile that is required for a recommendation letter. You must send this to your counselor in order to receive a letter of recommendation. You MUST ask teachers and/or your guidance counselor at least three weeks in advance of any deadlines.  Link to profile: 
https://windermerehs.ocps.net/UserFiles/Servers/Server_124933/File/Guidance/Seniorrecletterinfo.pdf

Scholarships

Summer is a great time to look for scholarships. Scholarships have varying deadlines. Use a scholarship finder to find scholarships and add the deadlines to your application calendar as a reminder. You can find scholarships and scholarship finders on our canvas page at: 
https://ocps.instructure.com/courses/1291062/pages/scholarships?module_item_id=29400644

SCOIR and Application Sites

SCOIR
SCOIR

Click on the Scoir tile through LaunchPad.  Create a College List and enter your profile information.  Scoir is a fantastic tool used to explore colleges.  You can use SCOIR to research schools, make a list of schools, indicate schools applying to, etcYou do not apply through SCOIR. It is the expectation that you use SCOIR and add the colleges you are applying to. Counselors will use SCOIR to send transcripts and letters of recommendations.

Application Sites

There are a number of ways to apply to colleges. Schools may use an Institutional application or may use other sites like, Common App, Coalition App, Send EDU, etc. We recommend that if possible, you use the Common App or the Coalition App for schools that use that platform, especially if you are applying to multiple colleges that accept applications through one of those application sites.