Post-Secondary Planning
Below you will find College & Career counseling is offered to all students seeking post-high school education. Designed to help students identify and clarify their abilities, interests and goals. Through a number of group and individual meetings, we will assist students in making appropriate educational decisions. Students will continue to draft their resume to assist in preparing for the college application processions. The formal college planning process begins with classroom lessons and individual planning meetings in the junior year with their School Counselors.
These sessions continue through their senior year as needed. In order to assist students fully, the following activities take place:
students are encouraged to take interest inventories and complete career search assessments in a timely fashion
students are encouraged to take appropriate standardized tests
students are encouraged to utilize the facilities of the career center, which includes computer-based college search programs, college catalogs and Internet resources through NAVIANCE
in the junior year students are scheduled for an appointment with their counselor
students and parents should attend college nights, college fairs and financial aid programs, as appropriate
all juniors and their parents are invited to a Junior College Planning Night that occurs in the late winter.
Career Search Websites
O*Net is a great career research site. There are career quizzes and indepth looks at thousands of careers.
Sponsored by the State of CT, it is designed to fill high need areas with short-term licensure and certificate training programs and courses designed to meet the needs of Connecticut residents and businesses.
Main page for all US Armed Forces. It will provide more information and contact info for local recruiters.
College Websites
All students have a Naviance account. Naviance is another college and career research database.
The main source of applications for most colleges/universities. Students can create accounts as early as their junior year to learn about what applications entail.
Collegeboard's Big Future site is equipped with College and Career searches. Also recommended for students to build their college list on. Additionally, it will house PSAT and SAT scores.
Scholarship Searches
Scholarships.com divides scholarships by a variety of unique categories, including GPA, military affiliation, ethnicity, artistic ability, ACT or SAT score and residing state. And when you select one of these categories, you’ll likely see a large list of subcategories, where you can then view all eligible scholarships. This system helps students find niche awards with smaller applicant pools that they’re more likely to win.
Fastweb aggregates awards from both large and small directories. You have to make a profile to search for scholarships, which is similar to other sites. But after the initial sign-up process, you can easily search for scholarships and filter your results based on several data points. Fastweb will also notify you when a new scholarship matching your description is posted and when you have upcoming deadlines
Collegeboard Scholarship Search
After you create an account, you can filter awards by your interests, field of study, club affiliations or specific situations, like if your parents are divorced. College Board will also automatically match you with eligible scholarships based on the information in your profile. There is also an autofill function, which allows you to reuse information from other scholarship applications, saving you time and helping you apply for more awards.
The U.S. Department of Labor has its own scholarship website through the CareerOneStop portal. There are more than 8,000 scholarships listed, and you can filter awards by keyword or sort them by amount, deadline, residing state and state where you’ll be studying. There are scholarships available for students enrolled in a vocational school or working toward an associate’s degree, as well as for undergraduate and graduate students.