May 1st Commitment Deadline

May 1st is the commitment deadline for seniors to make their college decision.  It's been months leading up to this day.  Countless hours tracking students down to make sure that they applied to college, submitted necessary documents and followed deadlines.  Now, I am monitoring my students' academic progress so that they can graduate in June.

At the beginning of April I gave students a questionnaire for them to write down college information.  This allowed me to follow up with particular students and keep track of college decisions.  Next, I will follow up with students to show me proof of their college decision.

Here are the forms:  April Information and April Information Questionnaire

These forms help me stay organized in a sea of paperwork that I already have.  Creating "To Do" lists with important deadline information and reminders monthly is helpful for the students.  They do receive a "Senior Timeline" at the beginning of the year, but the monthly "To Dos" is detailed information relevant to that month.

Also, I use the program Naviance to track college information, but good ol' paper still works for me!

How do you track seniors' college decision?  How do you make sure that seniors are following through with college and financial aid deadlines?

Please check out this link The first school counseling blog that I came across!  I was searching for organization tips because my desk is always a mess, I love planners, and I am always finding ways to organize meetings with students, parents, and just notes/paperwork in general.  One of the first school counseling blogs that inspired me to write my own blog.

Here I go!

This is my first attempt at blogging although I used to be an avid journal writer and I love to jot down notes and ideas.  When I have some extra time, I peruse the blogs about school counseling.  I was inspired by the many elementary and middle school counseling blogs so here I am!  I also owe some credit from the encouragement of my students.  

I came across high school counseling department blogs, which is a fantastic idea for a school's website, but wanted something of my very own.  I hope to post high school counseling ideas to this blog as well as my adventures in high school.  

I hope that you stay tuned and share my blog with others!