Goal: Counselors should schedule 1-2 check-ins with seniors starting now until the end of the semester. Use texting apps, email, or Google Voice to inform students of the process and schedule appointments. Use Calendly to ensure students can quickly schedule a time with you without the need to exchange many emails. Follow the preferred method of communication of your school’s leaders at all times. See our suggestions related to leveraging technology here.

Resources

• Calendly

• Video Conferencing Options (Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams)

• Recording options for lessons and communications to parents/students/staff

• See all of our student privacy and safety considerations here

Final financial aid award letters are critical for college decisions, as they are an important step to ensuring affordability. Students who haven’t received award letters likely need support with submitting additional financial documents, and the list of these university requirements may often be found in the student’s university account (which they’ll need to set up using the instructions typically found in the student’s email.)

Make it a goal to collect ALL students’ financial aid award letters, and require award letters for any “top choices” named by the student. Encourage students to submit letters via email, dropbox, or Google form. Students can use a scanning app to turn pictures of award letters (or of any other documents) into PDFs. Make sure they make an appointment with you to review letters and issues with verification. Assume you are the only person reviewing and comparing award letters with your students.

Families who have experienced hardship should submit documentation for additional grants and scholarships and may choose to appeal their financial aid through an appeal letter (see resource below). As a reminder, many college financial aid and admission officers are still working remotely and you can reach out to them via phone or email.

Students whose out-of-pocket cost exceeds $5,000 should be flagged for support with their appeal letter as soon as possible.

Resources

• Tax Return Transcript request FORM

• Scanning Apps (CamScan, etc.)

• Sample financial aid appeal letters may be found here.

• Student and counselor financial aid comparison tools can be found here

With some exceptions, May 1^st is still the deadline to enroll in most colleges, so while students and staff are working remotely, it’s important that you continue to prioritize support for seniors who need to matriculate by May 1. We recommend having at least one advising conversation about college decisions with each student prior to May 1st. Please prioritize students who are at risk of attending an undermatch college by ensuring they and their parents/guardians understand their options.

As students share their final choices with you, ensure that they have completed the following:

• Collect and compare financial award letters for all top choices

• Compare underrepresented minority graduation rates for top choices using resources like collegeresults.org to easily identify trends and gaps

• Identify whether college acceptances are a match, undermatch, or overmatch using the CRN college-going checklist and embedded Barron’s Selectivity Ratings (counselor support is likely needed)

Counselors should track all admission decisions, financial aid awards and matriculation requirements in a shared tracker. We suggest you use the Counselor College Decision Tracker and/or the Student Matriculation Passport. Please view these 3-minute video overviews on the Counselor College Decision Tracker’s “Accepted College & Award” tab and “Matriculation Tracker” tab and spend some time exploring the tool.

Watch our Webinar on final college decisions and matriculation resources. We’ve created multiple tools for you and your students as they finalize decisions remotely. You may access the webinar video recording here or the deck here.

Resources

• NACAC’s list of 1,000 college updates with campus events, deposit dates, and more may be found here

• Most essential information students need to finalize their choice

• ACCEPT Group’s list of colleges that have changed their deposit deadline to June 1, 2020, or later may be found here

Complete with seniors prior to graduation(April - June)

Enrollment Requirements

Proof of enrollment (enrollment confirmation or deposit)

If living on campus:

• • • housing application,

    • housing deposit,

    • recorded move-in date

Financial Aid

Proof of final financial aid award letter

• • • Accepted financial aid award letter with loans

If taking out student loans

• • Proof of Entrance Loan Counseling

  • Proof of Master Promissory Note

FSA ID password and username recorded somewhere for Oct access

Successful start

Proof of placement testing completed OR date of testing

Proof of orientation registration

• Recorded orientation date

Summer meeting scheduled with Alumni Advisor

Complete with students during the summer prior to Fall start (June - August)

Enrollment requirements:

• Final transcript submitted to college

• Proof of health insurance submitted to college

• Immunization records submitted to college

Financial Aid

• Confirm first semester out-of-pocket cost

• Recommend Payment Plan application - If applicable

• Recommend Parent Plus loan application - if applicable

Successful start

• Meet with Alumni Advisor to review course registration following orientation

• Recommend Plan to travel to campus plan

• Recommend Office of Student Success registration

Students should document statuses of all college applications in Naviance. This includes admitted, denied, or waitlisted admission decisions. Record this information when you check in with students or require them to update it themselves. Please remember that this is very important for your ability to benchmark and use scattergrams next fall, and that all applications and admissions decisions must be logged in Naviance by June 5, 2020 in order to be included in your end-of-year Naviance Application Report.

If you have trouble accessing Naviance or need a new user account, talk to your Naviance account site manager or contact Stephanie with questions (sarias@cristoreynetwork.org)

Resource

• Naviance

New! Senior Enrollment Deposit Funding Available: The Senior Deposit Funding intended to deploy up to $150 per student to cover or offset their college enrollment deposit may now be expanded to include students’ housing deposits. Students in the face of financial hardship may receive up $150 for either Enrollment or Housing deposit (not both) and counselors are expected to work with students and their colleges to waive or reduce these fees before using these funds. Before utilizing any awarded funds to cover college enrollment deposits, please 1) review all financial aid packages to ensure student is selecting the most affordable, best-fit college option, and 2) verify that you or the student have connected with the college of choice to first try to waive or reduce any enrollment fee. Funds are very limited so please distribute them with fidelity to the guidelines expressed here.\

College Success Fund Wave I RFP Now Open! Cristo Rey Network schools may apply for funds to seed the partial cost of a new, full-time college counselor or Alumni Advisor position being filled between July 1, 2020 and October 1, 2020. Learn more and apply here. Priority will be placed on applications for college counselor or Alumni Advisor positions that help schools achieve:

• 1:200 college counselor-to-student ratio

• At least one Alumni Advisor

Please contact Audrey Michaelson (amichaelson@cristoreynetwork.org) with questions.

While we recognize that seniors and current college enrollees are a counseling team’s top priority and expect certain summer immersion programs to extend their application deadlines or even alter their program schedules, please continue to support your students’ enrollment in summer program opportunities, an important element of their future college applications. Ensure you are in contact with summer program officers and support communication of key updates with students and their families.

Resources

• Cristo Rey Network Summer Program Masterlist