Father Judge High School Guidance Department
Dear Parents of the Class of 2022:
Welcome to Senior Year! For many of you this is old hat. However, for just as many this is brand new. We in the Guidance Office are committed to helping you and your sons through the next year in as best a manner as possible.
Your son has six major options available to him upon graduation: 1. Entering a four-year college.
Our Guidance Office has information about all these options available to your son. There are books, computer programs, numbers to call, addresses to E-mail, Internet sites, and so on. You and your son are always welcome to examine these options. If your son is unsure about what option is the best for him, we will work with him to try and identify this as well.
If your son is applying to colleges (2 or 4 year) or trade schools, there is a procedure that he will be asked to follow to ensure that his application process goes as smoothly as possible. The following points listed below will be introduced to your son in the Senior Guidance Assembly, and are also being distributed to him during his Senior Interview along with additional information regarding a variety of topics. We invite you to review these points with your son. Please note that Senior Interviews are being conducted thru December. Your son may come into the Guidance Office at any time to schedule his, and his counselor will then be calling him down in a matter of days.
Please feel free to call any of the counselors with questions at any time throughout the year, and have a great year!
Points to follow:
Your next step is to work on the applications themselves. You may choose to do this on paper but the preferred method is on-line. You can do a number of applications through the Common Application if you choose. Go to www.commonapp.org to set up an account. A list of colleges that accept the Common Application is on the website. Your should then log into your Naviance account, go to the “Colleges I’m Applying To” section, and match your Naviance & Common Application accounts by clicking on the Common App Account Matching button. You will need your common app email address to do this. If a school does not accept the common app, you just need to apply through the school’s website. Either way, you MUST come into the Guidance office to complete a Transcript Release Form! The processing fee for each application is $4.00. If any parts of your application need to be mailed, we will provide the stamps & an 8x10 Father Judge envelope. The processing fee can be paid by cash or check (written out to Father Judge.) The Guidance Office will then complete our reports and will send them along with your transcripts and Letters of Recommendation. If you are applying on-line we STRONGLY encourage you to have Mrs. Purcell review your application before you send it! This is MANDATORY if you are using the Common App! You can review your application in the Guidance Office with your counselor & there will be a Common App Review every Thursday by appointment after school. Judge English teachers are always willing to critique college essays as well so take advantage of this! The processing of applications, whether on paper or on-line, is a time consuming process. Please pay attention to deadlines & allow 7-14 days for your counselor to review, prepare, and mail your material. REMEMBER: If applying on-line you must actually SUBMIT your application BEFORE you come in to request a transcript! Please do not request a transcript if you have not yet pushed the SUBMIT button on you computer!
Application For Federal Student Aid (FASFA). It is strongly recommended that you complete the FAFSA on-line at www .fafsa.ed.gov. You will be using your 2020 tax returns and using the 2022-2023 FAFSA. You should see an IRS Data Retrieval link which will populate your tax data into the FAFSA form. It is free to complete the FAFSA, so if you are on a web site that is charging you, you are on the wrong site (there are scams out there). If you are filling the FAFSA out on-line, you can complete an on-line worksheet first in order to assist with the process. These worksheets will also be in the Guidance Office. If you have questions when filling out the forms, you can call 1-800-4-FED-AID. We also strongly recommend calling the Financial Aid Office at the school you are interested in for the best answers to your questions. Remember that some Financial Aid Packages are negotiable as well. If you are not satisfied with your package, you may wish to call that school and ask to speak with your Financial Aid Officer personally with the intention of improving your package.
your financial aid package letters, into the Guidance Office. A common mistake that seniors often make is to only bring in acceptance and financial aid letters from the school that they plan to attend. Please bring in all your letters even if you do not think you received any aid. We print all scholarships and grants at graduation, and we do not want to miss anyone! In May, the Guidance Office will distribute forms asking you to fill out where you want your Final Transcript to go. This includes your final choice of a college, trade school, military branch, or apprenticeship. There is no charge for sending out Final Transcripts.
College Recommendation
Most colleges, universities, and trade schools ask that guidance counselors write recommendations that are personal and individualized regarding the student applicants. To this end, we invite you to provide us with information about your son, that we may not know or he may not be likely to tell us, so that we can write the best recommendation possible. Please feel free to use a second sheet of paper for your comments if necessary.
You may return this to the Guidance Office at your convenience, but please try to do so before (or at the same time) your son turns in his applications to be reviewed. Thanks for your assistance!
Name of Student:__________________________________________________Section:_______
Parent Signature______________________________________________________Date_______________