Welcome to Antonian College Preparatory High School
"Enter to learn. Go Forth to Serve."
This section is design to empower you the student and parent with the knowledge to make the right choice for the college/university for you. With knowledge, prayer, and any help we can give from our Counseling office this can be a most positive experience.
This is a time of change, and with change there is always stress. Together we will achieve success, and this time next year our precious seniors will be in a brave, new and exciting world.
There is a lot of information in the areas of college choices, scholarships, financial aide, essays, applications, tour days, and transcripts to name but a few. At Antonian College Preparatory we are here to help. Our Counselors are Venezia Ramirez, the designated counselor for students whose last names begin with A thru H, and Leslie Macias, the designated counselor for students whose last names begin with Herschell thru Z. There phone numbers are 344-9265, extension 110 for Mrs. Ramirez, and extension 126 for Ms. Macias.
Please allow us to help you, no question is too small. We welcome students and parents to come to meet and talk with the counselors by calling and setting up an appointment at a time that is convenient for you.
Please review the following pages to learn about the college application process.
Colleges are too numerous and complex to be chosen by chance or whim. To make an intelligent decision, you must consider the following:
• Know yourself. (Your strengths and weaknesses—be honest with yourself)
• Know your objectives and goals. (Both short-term for college and long-term for life)
• Know the realistic options open to you.
Any college that you apply to will require two pieces of information about yourself:
1. Your official high school transcript, and
2. Your scores on at least one college entrance test: The SAT I or ACT
Other colleges (colleges which are more selective) require additional information about yourself. For example, they often require you to write one or more essays. They often ask you to get one or more teacher recommendations. And they often ask you about your extra-curricular activities, your interests and your community service activities. A few colleges may require interviews. And a few may require you to take additional college entrance exams
Finding the right college is really a matching process. Your personal profile needs to match the profile of the college to which you are applying.
Get to know your own own profile. Your profile—in the simplest terms—is the combination of abilities, achievements and personal characteristics that make you the unique individual that you are.
Part of your profile is the career you’re thinking about. To research centers of possible interest, the school library has the “Occupational Outlook Handbook,” published by the Department of Labor to help you. The internet is full of up-to-date career information, as well. Yahoo, for example, has an abundance of web sites offering the latest information on careers and career planning. The College Board web site at www.collegeboard.org also offers excellent analysis of careers in which you may be interested.
Every one of you has your own special gifts, talents and uniqueness. You must not only recognize your profile, but you must also learn to project your profile. You have to learn to “look good on paper” because, in most cases, that’s all the college admissions’ offices have to go on as they process your application.
Where is the school located?
Is its size and location compatible with your personality and needs? Big universities
tend (but not always) to be “impersonal”—small colleges are usually very personal. A big city has many advantages—but can also be a source of numerous distractions from your
study time!
How far away from home are the schools you are considering?
How important is distance to you and your family? Do you want to stay near home?
(If you do, there are several good choices of colleges in and around San Antonio.)
Do you want to move out of town—but no so far that you can’t come home on some
weekends? There’s always Austin, College Station, San Marcos and Houston.
Truthful answers to the questions above can help you sort out a few colleges and universities to which you might apply.
The application process is both time-consuming and expensive because almost all colleges require an application fee.
Therefore, I recommend that you narrow your choices on paper before actually beginning to send out your applications. Do your college hunting “with a rifle rather than with a shotgun!”
Have a dream school (or maybe two). A dream school is one that you would really like to attend, but realize that your profile may not quite match that of the college’s “typical” freshman Sat scores or grades.
Have a couple of realistic college choices where your profile and the college profile match.
Have a safety net college—a college whose profile you exceed, but which could be a satisfactory choice if all of your other college choices fall through, or simply are not affordable.
If you take this approach to your applications, you should probably submit between three (at a minimum) and six (at a maximum). If you do your homework before you begin applying, your choices should be focused, narrowed choices.
Selective colleges are those that accept fewer than half of the students who apply. Applying to them takes extra time and special attention on your part. Unlike colleges where your admission is likely, selective colleges—as their name implies—are much more difficult to gain admission.
The admission committee of Amherst College in Massachusetts, for example, annually chooses fewer than 20 percent of applicants. Thus, if you decide to apply to a college like Amherst, you must apply to several colleges with similar admission standards so that your odds of being admitted to one of them are increased. Do not, however, apply only to colleges with difficult admissions criteria. Instead, choose two or three that are the most difficult, two that are more possible (chances are that you will have at least a 50 percent chance of being admitted), and at least one that is likely to accept you. You may have already heard the terms that counselors use for these categories: reach, possible and likely. As a rule, you should apply to a total of six or seven colleges spread across these three categories if you include selective colleges among them.
To determine the category of admission selectivity into which a college falls given your particular credentials, talk with your guidance counselor or a college admission representative. You may also figure out on your own which category a particular college falls into by comparing your grades and test scores with those of its incoming class.
Application materials from selective colleges are often more involved. You will undoubtedly need to write answers to essays and may need to interview with a college representative or alumnus. Keep in mind, too, that these colleges will be scrutinizing more carefully your grades, the types of courses that you have elected, your test scores and recommendations from your guidance counselor and your teachers. One observer noted that selective colleges have many highly qualified students from which to choose and their task is to decide which applicants to deny.
However, do not be scared off. Apply to a selective college should your interests and qualifications fit. Remember, a carefully completed application and a sensible list of colleges will help your case. Those colleges provide some of the greatest intellectual challenges for the nation’s strongest students.
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