MBHS PTSA - Junior Class Page

August 22, 2010

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TIPS FOR 11TH GRADE PARENTS FROM BLAIR HS PTSA

Download these tips in English or Spanish.

JOIN THE PTSA: Join us as we advocate for our school.  Get more information at http://ptsa.mbhs.edu.

ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO VISIT THE CAREER CENTER: The Career Center can help your child with all parts of the college process,  from targeting schools to editing essays to helping research scholarships.  The Career Center is open from 7:15 am through B lunch and from 2:15 pm to 3:00 pm.

SIGN UP FOR FAMILY CONNECTIONS: Encourage your child to sign up for a Family Connectionaccount.  This program allows you to explore an array of college and career-related searches, compare college requirements with your own grade point average and test scores, and track your college application process from start to end.  To activate your account:

1. Go to the Blair home page (http://www.mbhs.edu), and click on Career Center in red on the left;
2. Click on Family Connection along the left side;
3. Click on Family Connection in red on the first line.
   1. Your login is your email address;
   2. Your password is your student ID number without the graduation year

Some of the most popular features of Family Connection include:

• My Profile: Consider creating an email account to use only for college and career related activities.  This email account should have a professional name such as "firstname.lastname@gmail.com" -- an inappropriate or unprofessional email address may make a negative impression on an admissions representative or a scholarship committee member.  The email address you provide here is the one where you will receive the weekly Career Center Notes, which give you information on upcoming events in the Career Center, open houses, jobs, scholarship deadlines, etc as well as other email alerts about other enrichment activities.
• Visit Schedule: See when college representatives will be visiting Blair's Career Center.  Seniors and juniors should obtain a pass from the teacher whose class they will miss to attend the sessions.  These sessions are a great way to learn about offerings of visiting colleges and to ask questions.  The visit schedule is updated daily.  Sign up for the visits that interest you by clicking "Sign Up".  (Once you've signed into Family Connection, you can access the visit schedule through the "About College" section on the left side of the screen.)
• College Lookup: Look up any particular college and go to its website.
• College Search: This feature will allow you to begin thinking about the features (public versus private, two-year versus four-year, location, etc.) of a college or university that are most important to you.  You can narrow down your choices from over 5000 to a group that is manageable and makes sense to you.
• Scattergrams: You can see what the grade point average and SAT scores were for Blair students who applied to selected colleges during the past five years.  Comparing your grades and SAT scores with other applicants from Blair to that college or university can give a sense of your likelihood of acceptance.
• Scholarship List: There are several hundred scholarships listed here.  Exploring the list takes time but can be a worthwhile effort.  Blair students are eligible to apply for many of these awards.

ACCESS TEST PREP SOFTWARE THROUGH BLAIR: Follow these links:

• http://imc.mbhs.edu - Media Center
• Online Databases
• Research Tools
• Testing & Education Reference Center
• Users will be prompted to enter the password "blazers" from the chart below.
• Once in the product, click on a test or test book.  Users will be prompted to create a personal account with an individual username and password.
• After creating the account, users will be prompted to enter an individual username and password for subsequent sessions using the product.  Sessions can be saved and resumed for later access.

TIPS RELATING TO COLLEGE APPLICATION PROCESS:

• Consider when to take SATs.  Some students take a practice SAT late junior year to learn where to focus studying and retake early senior year;
• Consider spending spring break/early summer seeing a mix of school types (big, small, urban, rural) to see what clicks with your student;
• Assess if student needs to take the SAT subject tests, required by only most selective schools and if so, which ones and when;
• If a student takes the ACT, take it with writing;
• Websites: College Board: http://www.collegeboard.com; ACT: http://www.act.org

WARNING: Senior photos are during first week of school.

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