Senior Annie Davis has been accepted to her dream college of Kansas State University and is beyond thrilled.
“I hope to go into interior design and Theatre and combine my interests and construct sets for movies and plays,” Davis said.
Davis has come to the realization that out of state tuition is not cheap.
“Now my main focus is spending time on scholarships and trying to come up with the money to help pay for it right now,” Davis said.
For that reason, HHS counselors are ready with tools like Naviance and Education Quest to save the day. But before they think about cost, they need to decide on a school.
“One main thing that a senior could do right now to help decide on a college is attend a college fair,” Hastings High counselor Patrick Vogel said.
There are many college fairs going on around Hastings in surrounding towns and areas. On Monday, October 12 Hastings High will load buses up with seniors and take them out to a college fair right here in Hastings at Central Community College. All seniors are required to attend this fair. More information on upcoming college fairs and where and when they are can be found here on the Education Quest page.
When it comes to scholarships some of the best things a student can have to get a good scholarship is, good letters of recommendation, lots of community service, and good grades. Information on scholarships and other college information can be found here on the Hastings High School home page.
“All students needs to be making a positive relationships with their teachers for good recommendations,” Vogel said.
Naviance is another one of the tools that students can use to help build their college applications.
“Naviance is one of the most useful things that students can be using. It helps put one student’s application above another students,” Vogel said.
Currently counselors like Vogel and Jalaene Choquette are trying to meet with every senior to get them set up on Naviance and teach them how to use it.
If students are worried about how they can pay for their college, there is a program called FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). This is a website for students to apply for college financial aid. Here, students find out how much federal student aid they will qualify for and whether they could receive federal grant money. If a student qualifies, it could mean thousands of dollars for college.
If a student does qualify through FAFSA but is still worried about the cost of room and board and additional expenses, one of the options in this scenario is going to college in their home town. They can live at home, eat at home and not have to pay room and board. They would still be able to get the college education that they want and need without having additional costs.
“The counselors are highly encouraging students to get signed up for classes here at the high school that may help them choose what they want to do in college,” Vogel said.
There are many classes offered here at the high school that also go for college credit, which is a great thing for many reasons. They can first figure out what they want to do beyond high school in these classes. Also students can get college credit for little to no cost, which as most all students know college can be very pricey.
“Our teachers here are devoted to helping students choose what they want to do,” Vogel said.
And once they make that choice, the counselors will guide them through the entire process. Davis appreciates any help they can offer at this point and is working on scholarship applications like it’s her job.
“If the cost doesn’t get down to $1,000 to $5,000 then I will have to start looking at other colleges,” Davis said.
