1. It is easy to sit back and let this year happen. What you do in your
senior year counts. Keep up your grades.

2. More than ever you need to have a calender with important dates
on it. When test days are, when college deadlines are, when your
financial package needs to be completed, scholarship deadlines.

3. Get organized, the more organized you are the smoother this
year will be.

4. Have a list of all colleges that if excepted you would attend, make
sure one of them is an automatic admissions school.

5. If you need waivers talk to your counselor and have the appropriate
paper work on file.

6. Choose the people you would like to write recommendation letters
for you. Make sure they know you well and what your goals are. Give
them addressed stamped envelopes along with requirements. Giving t
hem at least one month to prepare the letter. Politely remind them
once a week. Send a handwritten "thank you" note for their help.

7. Work on your essay asking fellow students and teachers to critique it.
Checking for spelling and grammar as well as content.

8. Visit campuses of colleges you would like to attend.

* TEST DATES....SAT, ACT know where and when they
can be taken. If you need a waiver talk to your counselor now.
* College admission deadlines for each college you are
going to apply to.
* Scholarship deadlines
* FASA deadline

FINANCING YOUR HIGHER EDUCATION

Start with the FAFSA.

1. When all the information has been collected for your tax
return you should fill out the FREE federal student aid packet
(FASA). You want the information to reach your choice of
schools by their priority deadlines, so summit the form as
soon as possible

2. File it electronically at www.fafsa.ed.gov.. Ask a financial
aid specialist how to acquire a pin. After you receive your
pin you can fill your FASA electronically.

3. Make sure you have requested they send the results
to 4 of the schools you are interested in attending.

4. It takes 4 to 6 weeks to get your results.

5. In June the aid office sends you an Award Letter, listing
the types of aid and amounts of aid the college can offer you.

6. It is important that you understand that you can decline
any part of the financial aid package.

SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AN EXCELLENT WAY TO HELP
WITH THE COST OF COLLEGE

There are unfortunately scam artist out there who would
like try to take what money you do have. If they
^offer to do all the work,
^want money for scholarship information,
^they ask for your account number, or
^they claim that you are a finalist in a scholarship contest
that you can't remember entering then.....
they are most likely scams.
There are numerous web sites for scholarships.
www.fastweb.com
www.fedmoney.org
www.student.gov
You can conduct your own search by typing in "scholarship search"
in a search engine.