Vikings Counselor Connection
Schreiber Guidance Department Newsletter April 2023
A note from the Director's Desk
Happy Spring, Vikings!
Although the warm days have been inconsistent, the spring energy can be felt throughout Schreiber! Here in Guidance and Counseling, students' courses for next year have been selected and we are making plans for the end of the year initiatives. Be sure to read more about them in this newsletter.
I had a wonderful opportunity in March to attend the annual meeting of the Colleges That Change Lives, or CTCL. Are you familiar with this organization? Perhaps you saw their NYC college fair announcement in a previous newsletter, or, perhaps you are familiar with the 1996 book, "The Colleges That Change Lives," by author and journalist Loren Pope. The CTCL is a non-profit organization comprised of 44 liberal arts institutions decicated to the advancement and support of a student-centered college search process.
Part of our work as counselors is to be aware of trends in college admissions. We have long been aware of CTCL schools and their dedication to a student-centered approach. They have been practicing holistic admissions long before the term became trendy. These intentionally small-to-medium, selective liberal arts institutions are well worth considering. Students who enjoy a smaller size and personal attention might find one of these schools to be a great fit! With elite colleges receiving record-setting numbers of applicants each year for the last three years, you might want to learn more about CTCL colleges and what they can offer you.
For more recent trends in college admission, be sure to read the articles at the bottom of this newsletter.
Continue to stay tuned to our website, this newsletter, and your inbox for more information from Schreiber Guidance and Counseling!
Lorrie Director, Pre-K-12 Director of Guidance
High School Guidance Team
Counselors and email addresses
Guidance Office phone: (516) 767-5810
Office Hours: 8:00 am - 3:15 pm
Counselors:
Ms. Cerny ncerny@portnet.org
Ms. Galdamez agaldamez@portnet.org
Ms. Garcia vgarcia@portnet.org
Ms. Jacobson ljacobson@portnet.org
Ms. Hazan khazan@portnet.org
Mr. Lorge jlorge@portnet.org
Ms. Ludwig jludwig@portnet.org
Ms. Rafferty drafferty@portnet.org/Mr. Sussman csussman@portnet.org
Ms. Strell dstrell@portnet.org
Clerical staff:
Ms. Hasselberger, Ms. Hernandez, Ms. Marzec, Ms. O'Kelly
Stay in the loop!
Also, don't forget to keep checking our interactive bulletin board for up-to-date information. QR codes are updated regularly. You are always welcome to stop by our office to ask questions. There are many ways to stay informed!
Students, please get in the habit of checking your Portnet email regularly to stay up to date on Guidance and Counseling information. Students and families, you can also find information on the Schreiber Guidance and Counseling website and by reading this newsletter. The newsletters are also on our webpage for your reference.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
2023-2024 Academic Planning
Parents and students, the ASPEN Portal will be open to view your students' course requests during spring break. A letter will be shared with parents on Wednesday, April 5th to provide further details. If you have any questions about your student's schedule, please email your counselor no later than Wednesday, April 19th.
Attention: Class of 2023!
Seniors,
- As you receive decisions from your schools, you must update your Naviance accounts. Don't be shy! This information will help future Schreiber applicants and you will remain anonymous!
- Time to file your FAFSA! Check your colleges' deadlines for filing.
- Does your college require the CSS Profile? Click here for a list of participating schools.
- Apply for scholarships! Fastweb and Scholarships.com are good places to start. Don't forget to apply for the Community Scholarship - due March 6th!
- Remember to check your Portnet email! Be sure your contact information is up to date in ASPEN and on Naviance.
- Have questions? Come to Guidance for more information.
Save the Date! Monday, May 22nd Junior College Essay Writing Workshop
Join Schreiber's Guidance and English Departments to learn valuable tools to jump start your college essays. Stay tuned for further details!
College Planning Guide for the Class of 2024 is now LIVE!
Spotlight College of the Month
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University is a four-year public research university located in Raleigh, NC. It is the largest university in North Carolina and the flagship STEM campus of the UNC system. NC State is one of the three research institutions in the world-renowned Research Triangle of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. Students who are interested in a top-tier research experience are encouraged to visit ncsu.edu.
Want to learn more about NC State? Check out their website or contact our Long Island Admissions Representative, Eric Tradup at etradup@ncsu.edu.
Navigating Selective College Admissions - Hosted by Reed College
This webinar is virtual and will take place Wednesday, April 12th from 2pm-3pm Pacific Daylight Time (That's 5pm-6pm our time). You must register here to attend.
During your college search, you might encounter rankings and selectivity markers. These numbers seem important, but what do they really mean? How are college rankings determined? Reed College's Senior Assistant Dean of Admission Dev Devvrat will unpack the rankings system and show you how these numbers are set. This candid discussion will help you reflect on what matters most to you in your college search. His expert advice on the strategies of a successful college application will put you a step ahead in your pursuit of admission to a selective college.
College Fair Information
Schreiber College Consortium - College Panel
If you missed our panel of admissions experts at our March 29th college consortium, you can still watch! Click the link below to watch the recording of this informative discussion.
SUNY Spring College Fairs
The State University of New York (SUNY) has announced its spring college fair schedule. Click here for information and to register.
Nassau Counselors Association College Fair April 25th
The Nassau Counselors' Association is hosting their 50th Annual Spring College Expo at Hofstra University on Tuesday, April 25th, 2023 from 5:30 - 8:30 pm. Meet with representatives from over 300 colleges, universities, career schools and military services. Visit www.nassaucounsselors.org for additional information.
Six Colleges Consortium
The Six Colleges Consortium (Amherst, Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, Swarthmore, Williams) is hosting workshops for juniors this spring. Learn about the college process, building a community, and more. Click here or the button below for information and to register.
Summer Opportunities
North Shore University Hospital - High School Short-Term Shadowing Program
The High School Short Term Shadowing Program at North Shore University Hospital is designed to expose high school students to various careers in healthcare. Areas include Engineering, Environmental Services, Human Resources, Material Operations, Nurse/Registered Nurse/Nurse Practitioner, Nutrition & Dietary, Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy/Speech Therapy, Patient and Family Centered Care/Patient Experience/Guest Services, Pharmacy, Physician Associate (PA), Physician/ Surgeon, Quality Management, Security & Transport (Patient/Visitor).
This program runs from August 1 - August 31st. You must review the required documents by clicking on this link.
Legislator Josh Lafazan's Summer 2023 Government Internship Program
Government Internship Program
Office of Joshua A. Lafazan
Nassau County Legislature, District 18
We are excited to welcome students to our Summer 2023 Internship Program! Students will assist Legislator Lafazan's Office to improve Nassau County for all who call it home. From communicating with constituents to facilitating county events, we have a full agenda to achieve our goals. Click here or on the link below for information and to apply.
Summer Exploration Opportunities at North Shore University Hospital
North Shore University Hospital is offering students an opportunity to explore their career interests. The Nursing Exploration Program and Dietetics and Culinary Exploration Programs are offered to high School students who are currently in their junior year, and will be seniors in Fall 2023. All completed application documents, essay & reference letter must be received by 5pm on March 31, 2023. Click the links below for more information and to apply.
Barry Tech/Hofstra Summer Camps Announcement
These summer programs are open for students going into 7th- 10th grade and it is a great way for students to spend two weeks immersed in programs that are offered during the school the year here at Barry Tech.
As you will see on the flyer, we are having a summer camp Open House here at Barry Tech on Thursday March 2nd starting at 5:30 PM for any families that may be interested.
Career Information
Mid-Island Y JCC Summer Job Opportunity
Riverhead Building Supply wants YOU to join their team!
Grow your career with a company that cares about rewarding great work ethic, leadership, and skill development that keeps you engaged and fulfilled every day. You’ll receive a competitive total compensation package that will provide you with the support you need to thrive both inside and outside of work. For more information, visit Riverhead Building Supply.
Methodize (formerly Method Test Prep)
Are you interested in getting a quick sense of where your son or daughter stands as far as the SAT and ACT? Port Washington provides all families with access to Methodize, a learning tool that includes an SAT and ACT Evaluation Test. Students take short (15 to 25 minute) sections and get an accurate sense of where they stand.
Click on the QR code to activate your son or daughter's Methodize account. Again, there is no cost to the family; the district is already providing this program to all students.
Once you activate the account, click on the SAT or ACT course and scroll down to "Evaluation Test" to begin the diagnostic.
In addition to full SAT and ACT prep courses, Methodize also provides a Financial Literacy course, an Academic Success course, vocabulary builder module, and more!
Naviance Single Sign-On Update/Login for Students
Some of you have noticed that your Naviance username has changed. A system update has completed the Naviance/Clever integration. Students must now log in using Clever to access Naviance. Click the Portnet Bookmarks folder (found in the upper left corner of your screen) and click the Clever button. You will see an image that looks like the one below. Then click the Naviance button and voila! You are in!
Parents will still use their username and passwords - Single-sign on access is only for students with Portnet accounts.
Schreiber Writing Center
Click the link below for more information.
Twilight Program at Schreiber High School
Schreiber Twilight alternative high school is our new partnership with Nassau BOCES. Twilight provides an alternative setting in the late afternoon for students who may benefit from a smaller, more structured environment. Twilight provides students the tools to either return successfully to Schreiber during the day or to complete their high school requirements through Twilight. Twilight students are prepared for post-secondary education or employment upon graduation.
Students attend this Regents-based program in the late afternoon/early evening. Students receive strong academic and social-emotional support, as classes are small and largely student-focused.
Students can enroll in Twilight at any time. of our counseling and administrative team are currently reviewing and meeting with students to discuss Twilight. If you have any questions about Twilight, or if you believe your student might be a candidate, please contact your student's counselor.
Passport for Good
Paul D. Schreiber is a Passport for Good school!
Passport For Good is a mobile-friendly web-based platform that simplifies, recognizes, and celebrates your engagement outside of the classroom. It allows you to journal and verify your community service, career development, and participation in extracurricular activities.
To make this transition a success, we need your help. You must first register for Passport For Good - Click the flyer below for the link and QR code to register. Once your account is activated, you are ready to begin using Passport For Good!
Some of Schreiber's clubs and groups have switched to using Passport For Good, logging their community service and career development hours directly within the platform.
Ask your Counselor if you have questions about Passport For Good.
Articles
Next by Jeff Selingo
March Madness is, of course, synonymous with college basketball, but there is another college tradition it might also describe these days: admissions. The admissions process is now one that essentially runs year-round. Still, this month is when colleges typically send out their final batch of decisions. And this year is a particularly maddening one for applicants and the big-name colleges that, yes occupy a small subset of the higher education ecosystem, but also drive a lot of the narrative about admissions. This year’s seniors submitted more applications to colleges than any group before them—at least in applying to the thousand colleges that are part of the Common App (which is a good proxy for the overall national numbers). That huge surge in applications has resulted in an unusually large number of deferrals from early action. Here was a group of students who had applied early action (in November) for the purpose of getting a decision early (in January) but were told to wait until now to find out if they’re in or out. The number of deferrals at many top-ranked colleges way outstrips the number of potential spots in the freshman class. As I wrote in the opinion pages of The New York Times yesterday:
☘️ Good St. Patrick's Day morning. Thanks for reading Next. If someone forwarded this to you, get your own copy by signing up for free here.
Wisconsin deferred 17,000 of its 45,000 early action applicants. U.S.C. deferred around 38,000 — or some 94 percent — of its early pool (they accepted the other 6 percent and rejected no one). Clemson told nearly 15,000 of its 26,000 early applicants to wait another two-plus months for a decision (it rejected only 300).
The problem is that as applications have skyrocketed—they are up 32 percent at selective institutions over the past three years—the campuses have encouraged early action to spread out their workload and have more time to yield the accepted applicants they really want. USC and Clemson did that this year by adding early action for the first time. Admissions officials at both institutions told me that as a result they were unsure how the applicant pool would shake out. “We didn't know if the early-action deadline would skew the high-quality apps to the front, so we were extra cautious,” said David Kuskowski, associate vice president for enrollment management at Clemson. In other words, if they said Yes to the early academic rock stars, then they’d have to hand out more No’s in the regular-decision process to avoid over-admitting, but could still risk losing the early admits to other top-ranked colleges. Ah, the intricacies of enrollment management. Kuskowski said he was “not in love with the way we had to manage the process this year.” He hopes that Clemson can apply what they learned about this year's application trends and yield rates to next year’s cycle. “I believe that next year we will have more denials,” he said.
The U. of Southern California collected 40,000 early apps and then doubled that number during the regular decision cycle for a first-year class expected to be just 3,400.
My piece in yesterday’s New York Times was the result of a phone call I got from Frank Bruni in December, when he told me that he’d be taking a few weeks off from his weekly newsletter and was asking others to fill in. Frank has long had an interest in higher ed and college admissions—he is now a professor at Duke—so he assumed there would be something to say about admissions in March. I accepted the generous offer without knowing what I’d write about. But then I started hearing from parents and counselors about the wave of deferrals coming in from colleges. And I was also hearing the same names again and again: Clemson, USC, UVA, Wisconsin, Richmond, Villanova, among others. As I started calling admissions deans about all the deferrals, however, they didn’t really want to talk about it or share numbers. To many of them, it wasn’t a big deal: the admissions process wasn’t over and they were simply telling students to wait. But the reason students applied early I told them was precisely to get an answer early. A deferral wasn’t an answer. What’s more, if you’re a senior sitting on multiple deferrals they don’t necessarily mean the same thing from every campus. For some colleges, they might mean what they did at Clemson: we want to wait to see how the early pool compares with the regular pool. For others, it means they want to see more information—mostly senior year grades. And yet for others, a deferral is much like the wait list in the spring: deferred students fill gaps in the class when a school might need more humanities majors or boost enrollment of underrepresented students or need more students from a particular region. Once again, I was reminded that colleges admissions is about the institution and not the student. That’s fine, we all get colleges are a business. But the secrecy surrounding these numbers also means that students and their counselors can’t figure out what to do next because they lack the context of the applicant pool. Here's what I wrote about one university I called:
The University of Wisconsin initially told me how many students it deferred, then asked that I not publish the number, but relented when I suggested they weren’t being transparent with applicants. Why the secrecy? A spokesman said the university has a “longstanding practice of not commenting on admissions … before the class matriculates.” Um, that’s in the fall, long after admissions season is over for this year’s seniors when they can’t do anything with the information — like maybe apply to some backup schools on their lists.
This lack of transparency extends to so many things in admissions these days—from who is and isn’t getting accepted without submitting test scores to the race and ethnicity of who applies early action and early decision. Colleges owe students clarity on the numbers and the honesty to deny more students. You can't tell me that out of the 28,000 or so students USC deferred there weren't 10,000 or so that they know in December they're never going to admit in March.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Search for Prospective Students is About to Change
Ever wonder how colleges/universities obtain students' information? Even if you know, you'll want to read this article by Eric Hoover for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The process is demystified, however; upcoming changes may create some confusion. Your counselors are here to guide you through the process!