BRIDGE Activity for 12th Grade Students -
Identify Your Next Step / Celebrate "GA Apply to College"
We will complete our BRIDGE requirements as we observe NMHS Apply to College Day during GA Apply to College Month. Thank you for celebrating Apply to College Day with us! Most seniors will participate during their senior science class.
Part 1 - Identify Your "Next Step"
Or access the slides at this link, if the above embeds strangely.
Part 2 - Apply to Your Next Step!
For many seniors, this may be your first college application. We hope that this activity's side-by-side help from NMHS counselors as well as admissions staff from GNTC and Dalton State will make the process more smooth and less intimidating.
[Have you already completed a college or apprenticeship application, or requested information from a trade school or military branch? You can skip to the last section about what to do when you're done with today's activity.]
Please do at least ONE of the following today:
Apply to College,
Apply to an Apprenticeship, or
Request Contact / Information From a Trade School or Military Branch.
APPLY TO COLLEGE
The website of your school of interest should have an "Admissions" menu. Under the Admissions menus/pages, look for such key terms as "Undergraduate," "First-Time," or "Freshman" to find the right application information.
In celebration of GA Apply to College Month, several Georgia colleges are waiving application fees this month:
APPLY TO AN APPRENTICESHIP
Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of satisfying careers with good wages and benefits that do not require a 4-year degree. For instance, many trade careers can be entered via an apprenticeship program. Did you know...
- Apprentices earn while they learn, reducing the potential to take on career training debt.
- 92% of apprentices retain employment after completing a Registered Apprenticeship program.
- The average starting wage after completing a Registered Apprenticeship program is $72,000.
Visit www.apprenticeship.gov/career-seekers to learn more about Registered Apprenticeships and find/apply for apprenticeship opportunities.
REQUEST CONTACT / INFORMATION FROM TRADE SCHOOL OR MILITARY BRANCH
Instead of an application, it's common for trade schools or military branches to have forms on their website for you to fill out to request more info.
If you have a specific trade school in mind, look up their website. If they don't seem to have an application page, look instead for a prominent link that says something like "Request More Info." You can fill that out for today's activity if they don't offer an actual application.
If you are instead/additionally interested in joining a branch of US armed forces, you can request more information and/or express interest in speaking with a recruiter using the following links:
[Have you already completed a college or apprenticeship application, or requested information from a trade school or military branch? You can skip to the last section about what to do when you're done with today's activity.]
Please do at least ONE of the following today:
Apply to College,
Apply to an Apprenticeship, or
Request Contact / Information From a Trade School or Military Branch.
APPLY TO COLLEGE
The website of your school of interest should have an "Admissions" menu. Under the Admissions menus/pages, look for such key terms as "Undergraduate," "First-Time," or "Freshman" to find the right application information.
In celebration of GA Apply to College Month, several Georgia colleges are waiving application fees this month:
- Click here for a list of GA colleges that are waiving fees. Notice how some are not all month, some provide a waiver code you'll need to use, etc.
- Dalton State College - They are simply waiving applications for the month of November.
- Georgia Northwestern Technical College - Use fee waiver code MATCH23.
- Is your GA college of interest not on the list? Contact their admissions office to ask if they are waiving fees for Apply to College Month. Many are, but choose not to get their name added to the list linked above.
- Is your college of interest private and/or out of state? That's OK, we can still help you complete the app! You can save your application progress and check with the college to see if they'll waive their fee at the moment or in the near future. Then, submit it later when you do have a method of payment available or when they do offer a waived fee.
- For applications that still require an app fee (e.g., some GA private colleges, an out-of-state public or private college), you can save your application progress, and access it again later when you have payment information available. Please note that if a fee is required, your application is not considered complete/submitted until the fee is paid or waived.
APPLY TO AN APPRENTICESHIP
Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of satisfying careers with good wages and benefits that do not require a 4-year degree. For instance, many trade careers can be entered via an apprenticeship program. Did you know...
- Apprentices earn while they learn, reducing the potential to take on career training debt.
- 92% of apprentices retain employment after completing a Registered Apprenticeship program.
- The average starting wage after completing a Registered Apprenticeship program is $72,000.
Visit www.apprenticeship.gov/career-seekers to learn more about Registered Apprenticeships and find/apply for apprenticeship opportunities.
REQUEST CONTACT / INFORMATION FROM TRADE SCHOOL OR MILITARY BRANCH
Instead of an application, it's common for trade schools or military branches to have forms on their website for you to fill out to request more info.
If you have a specific trade school in mind, look up their website. If they don't seem to have an application page, look instead for a prominent link that says something like "Request More Info." You can fill that out for today's activity if they don't offer an actual application.
If you are instead/additionally interested in joining a branch of US armed forces, you can request more information and/or express interest in speaking with a recruiter using the following links:
All Done?
Let's use of the rest of the class period constructively, especially while you have live help available from school counselors and local college admissions representatives. You also may be wondering what you can do after this activity to keep moving forward in this process. Either way, here are some suggestions:
- Take a moment to complete this Senior Words of Wisdom survey :) It's NOT for the yearbook or grad ceremony. We just want to compile Class of 2024 words of wisdom for the benefit of the cohorts coming after you.
- Don't stop at one application or info request form! Start or complete another. For college planning/applications overall, the recommendation is to complete the application process for 3-5 colleges of interest. It's healthy and practical to have a few good, true-to-you options in the works. If Plan A doesn't work out the way you hope or you change your mind, you can still be on track for Plan B. Sometimes people don't find out Plan A has fallen through until it's too late to start Plan B and C, so they're stuck with Plan D or with waiting until the following semester/year.
- Gather more information about admission requirements. The application isn't all there is to the college admission process! Most colleges also require that you submit college entrance exam scores (ACT/SAT), high school transcripts, college transcripts (for those who have participated in DE), shot records, and/or letters of recommendation. Check out the admissions pages of your colleges of interest, and look for their admissions/application checklist and deadlines. Compile this somewhere for your colleges of interest, so you can see the requirements side-by-side and prioritize deadlines/tasks.
Also, you don't necessarily have to submit all these additional items in a particular order or all at the same time. But, you do typically need to submit the other required items by the same deadline as the application, unless otherwise stated. - Make plans for your college entrance testing (e.g., ACT/SAT). A growing amount of colleges are going test-optional, but when they do it's common for them to require a higher high school GPA for students who don't submit scores. Testing also keeps your options open for scholarship opportunities that require ACT/SAT scores.
- Start your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA; see info here, or the FAFSA itself here). This is the key that unlocks most $$$ free money $$$ for higher education from federal and GA funding sources (including HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship).
- Search for scholarships! Check out the scholarship search engines featured in the last section of our College Financial Aid page.
- Learn more about how all this ties together on our Senior Info Night Resources page.