Contents
General Guidelines
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- Meet with your mentee at least once a week for 30-60 minutes
- Try to meet in person if possible
- If you can’t meet in person, skype/facetime is preferable to phone calls/texts
- Use the College Tracker 2022 spreadsheet to guide your check-ins — this is the main spreadsheet that you should be using throughout the mentoring program
- Make a copy of it for each of your students and fill it out for that student
- If your mentee has a different tracker from their school/partner org, that is fine to use – make sure to share it with Rachel & Billie
- Use the Mentoring Resource list/checklist to guide you throughout the mentoring program
- Before initial meeting:
- Make google drive folder for mentee
- Share with:
- Mentee
- Mentor
- rachel@yleana.org + billiepingree@yleana.org
- Share with:
- Make a copy of the College Tracker 2022 spreadsheet
- name it (Mentee’s name) College Tracker 2022
- put it in Google drive folder for mentee; make sure sharing is turned on
- Go over the following documents and make sure you know how to use them:
- Mentoring Plan (this document)
- College Tracker 2022
- Mentoring Resource list/checklist
- Tell your mentee, in preparation for the initial meeting, to get his/her cumulative GPA (freshman->junior year) from his/her guidance counselor. This is the GPA colleges will see. Get unweighted; weighted if it’s available, but unweighted as the default.
- Make google drive folder for mentee
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Initial meeting
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- Introductions/get to know you – who you are, where you go to school, what you do/study, what are your dreams and goals, tell me about your family, etc.
- Look over College Tracker 2022 spreadsheet
- show your mentee how to use it
- fill out first tab together – Student Info
- Make the mentee actually log into the College Board website to get SAT scores – and you guys should choose the scores for the superscore together!
- Look at second tab – College List – start filling out if mentee has that information
- Initial check-in:
- Where are they on FAFSA? (they should submit ASAP after it opens October 1. Tell them to begin talking to their family about this now – there is a lot of information they won’t have on their own.)
- Where are they on their college list? Do the schools that they have for each of these correspond with their grades/GPA?
- Safeties
- Targets
- Reaches
- Where are they on Common App/other apps – have they started yet?
- Have mentee share access via google docs to any personal statements/essays they are currently working on – put in their folder
- Make a plan for next week:
- Every time you check in, fill out the Mentoring Check-ins tab of the College Tracker 2022
- After initial meeting, mentee should work on filling out the College List tab of the College Tracker 2022
- Check the spreadsheet before every check-in to see whether students are staying up to date with what is expected of them, and so that mentor and mentee are both clear about what’s being asked of them
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Make sure you are asking your mentees these things:
- We have resources/information for most of these things; if you have any questions about any, don’t hesitate to reach out to Rachel!
- Are they planning to/do they need to retake the SAT?
- SAT Test Dates and Deadlines
- Are they planning to/do they need to retake the ACT?
- Registration – The ACT Test
- Check that they don’t undermatch OR are only looking at reaches
- Look at test-optional schools if they feel that their scores do not reflect their ability
- Assessing pros and cons of different schools
- Thinking about schools they might not normally consider (women’s colleges, HBCUs, out of state)
- Look at specific colleges with specialized college access programs (EOP/HEOP/AOP, TYP)
- Answer questions/general info about being in college/dealing with college life
- Thinking through real majors/not making up their minds too soon
- How to find their place on campus
- Fly-in programs
- Early action (non-binding) (common deadlines) – getting familiar and prioritizing accordingly
- Early decision (binding) (common deadlines) – getting familiar and prioritizing accordingly
- Regular decision (common deadlines) – getting familiar and prioritizing accordingly
- Honors programs
Big Checklist/Things to Keep in Mind:
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- FAFSA
- Should be completed ASAP
- Opens October 1 each year
- LAST DATE to submit is June 30, 2023
- College list
- Get rid of any schools that really outstandingly don’t make sense (academic fit, test score fit, financial aid fit)
- Get them to consider other schools that might be a good idea (ask us for resources if you need them)
- Make sure the list is weighted Target/Reach/Safety → mostly targets. Base it on:
- GPA primarily
- SAT/ACT scores secondary
- Personal statement
- Talk about what progress needs to be made next – what can still improve, what can be made better
- Common App
- Step-by-Step Guide
- Create a schedule for how much mentee will do before you meet next
- Review the information that has been input and scan for obvious errors (spelling/grammar errors, fields that have been left blank)
- Make sure the student fills out all the optional personal statement fields/questions – more information historically gets students a better shot at admission!
- Letters of recommendation
- Get these as early as possible!!
- Other apps
- Look at any other applications your mentee may have to fill out (places that don’t take the Common App) – make sure that they are dividing the work for these at the same rate as the Common App work
- Scholarships
- Look over the lists of scholarships together according to what the child is eligible for – location, ethnicity, special status (foster care, undocumented, etc)
- Add scholarship details to the College Research_Master Tracker tab 2 (Deadlines)
- Shoot to cover the student’s Expected Family Contribution → calculate this using the FAFSA forecaster or net price calculator for a particular school
- Work through the applications for those scholarships according to the deadlines
- Spring 2023: Choosing a school
- Additional resource: comparing college options worksheet (post-acceptance) (template): Use this to compare financial aid packages/costs of schools your mentee has been accepted to
- Talk about interpreting financial aid award letters → guide your mentee to choosing the right school (right fit personally, academically and financially)
- Talk about preparing your mentee for college: how to navigate the on-boarding process to avoid pitfalls
- Scholarships – now that your mentee knows their financial aid packages, they know how much they’ll need to cover in scholarships
- FAFSA