Understanding PSAT Results Breakfast

The Guidance Department at Burlington High School and KAPLAN Test Prep will host an “Understanding PSAT Results Breakfast” on Wednesday January 28th, beginning at 8:30 A.M. The event will be held in the Guidance College and Career Center (room 106). The purpose of this breakfast is to give parents of students who took the PSAT on October 15^th the opportunity to ask questions and get clarification on how to interpret, understand and use the PSAT results.   Attending this breakfast is also open to any other interested parent. Please join us for this informative event on January 28^th. If you plan to attend please call 781-270-1780 to confirm your attendance. We look forward to seeing you there.

Free Bay Path College Spring 2015 Offering

Bay Path University, in conjunction with Burlington High School, is happy to offer a free Spring 2015 course never before offered to BHS students. The course is called " Financial Literacy"(full course description can be found on the application). As a reminder this course is only offered to BHS juniors and seniors 2nd semester.

This is an excellent opportunity for selected seniors (and juniors) to receive dual credit. Dual credit gives BHS students the opportunity to receive college credit and high school credit. Given that Bay Path has a satellite campus at BHS travel requirements are minimal. Click here for an application and details or stop by the Guidance Office to pick up an application. Please bring completed applications to the Guidance office.

Important Financial Aid Event for High School Seniors and Senior Parents

Event: FAFSA DAY 2015- http://www.fafsaday.org/
Date: Sunday January 25, 2015 1 :00 P.M.
Location: Burlington High School
Description: This is a non-profit volunteer driven effort across the state. High School parents and high school seniors will receive:

• Free assistance completing the FASA

• Access to experienced financial aid administrators, and FAFSA experts, available to answer FAFSA questions.

• Guidance on the financial aid process and next steps after filing the FASA.

Parents MUST register at http://www.fafsaday.org/. Although computer labs are available, it is highly recommend that parents bring a laptop that day. Also if any parents are interested in volunteering as a Support Volunteer (registration tables, setup, cleanup, etc)  please feel free to register at http://www.fafsaday.org/volunteer.php

Financial Aid Night for Senior Parents

                                                                     

Financial Aid Night for Senior parents was well attended with roughly 70 parents. Many aspects of the financial aid process were covered by Amy Staffier from Harvard University. For parents that missed the event all the information it be be televised on BCAT (date/time will be posted next week). We also want to encourage parents to get familiar with the MEFA web-site. MEFA provides a wealth of free, accurate and up to date information. Amy encouraged parents to try the MEFA tools page, which has a number of tools you can use such at the EFC Calculator. The EFC calculator can estimate the figure that colleges will use to determine eligibility.

Two very important forms were mentioned. The FAFSA and the CSS profile. We encourage parents to investigate both applications ASAP. Don't forget you can take advantage of  a FAFSA on the web work-sheet. This can be helpful as you navigate through the FAFSA process. 

Please remember that the BHS will be a host site for FAFSA Day on Sunday January 25th beginning at 1PM. Parents MUST register for this event in advance. FAFSA Day is a volunteer driven effort which allows parents to get free assistance on how to complete the FAFSA form.

        

Important Financial Events for Senior Parents

Burlington High School will be hosting two upcoming financial aid events. We highly recommend Burlington High School senior parents attend ( Class of 2015 ). Since both events are in January we felt it was important to remind parents before the December vacation. Please be sure to check out the side bar on the Guidance Blog for links to more specific information in regard to financial aid and scholarship information. Below are descriptions of each event:

Event: M.E.F.A. (Massachusetts Educational Financial Authority) Financial Aid Seminar
Date: Thursday January 8, 2015
Location: Burlington High School
Description: This seminar covers the financial aid process in detail. A Financial Aid Advisor will be the presenter beginning at 6:30 P.M. in the BHS auditorium.


Event: FAFSA DAY 2015- http://www.fafsaday.org/
Date: Sunday January 25, 2015 1 :00 P.M.
Location: Burlington High School
Description: This is a non-profit volunteer driven effort across the state. Parents and students will receive:

• Free assistance completing the FASA

• Access to experienced financial aid administrators, and FAFSA experts, available to answer FAFSA questions.

• Guidance on the financial aid process and next steps after filing the FASA.

Parents MUST register at http://www.fafsaday.org/. Although computer labs are available, it is highly recommend that parents bring a laptop that day. Also if any parents are interested in volunteering as a Support Volunteer (registration tables, setup, cleanup, etc)  please feel free to register at http://www.fafsaday.org/volunteer.php

KAPLAN Program

For the past ten years roughly 90 % of BHS seniors take the SAT exam. The Guidance Department strongly recommends that juniors take the exam in either March, May or June. SAT registration information can be accessed through collegeboard.org

The KAPLAN program offers SAT/ACT test prep courses at Burlington High School. Burlington juniors receive a subsidized rate of $249.00. Please click here to see the KAPLAN schedule and enrollment instructions. We recommend that BHS Juniors take advantage of the free ACT/SAT practice test on Saturday February 7th, 2015 at 9 AM. This practice test is offered at BHS. Please register by calling 1-800-KAP-TEST.

* In addition, Kaplan offers Free on-line PSAT, SAT and ACT test prep using the below access codes effective January 1. Go to http://www.kaptest.com/College/SAT/sat-prep-courses.html and select On Demand (regularly $699). The codes beginning January 1, 2015 will be:

For SAT:          KAS1215SAT               (This is for practice SAT)

For ACT:          KAS1215ACT              (This is for practice ACT)

PSAT Scores released

PSAT score reports will be mailed home to parents on Friday  December 12, 2014 to Sophomores and Juniors that participated in the exam on October 15, 2014. The PSAT/NMSQT exam is a measure of three key areas: critical reading, mathematics problem solving and writing skills. The exam prepares students for the same types of questions on the SAT exam. In addition, juniors who achieve high PSAT/NMSQT scores may qualify for National Merit competition and corporate scholarships.

The PSAT score report is very parent/student friendly. Parents/students should take notice of the section at the bottom of the score report called "Improve your skills”. This section gives specific data based on the student’s individual PSAT exam. All Sophomores and Juniors will have an assembly on January 13^th in which the BHS Guidance Department will give an overview on interpreting and using these results. Also the BHS Guidance Department will host a "PSAT Results" breakfast on January 28th at 8:30AM

Google Parent Breakfast on 11/18

The Guidance Department at Burlington High School will be hosting a Parent Breakfast on Tuesday November 18, 2014, from 8:30-9:30 AM in the BHS Guidance College and Career Center. This breakfast will be hosted by Michael Westervelt from Google. The purpose of this breakfast will be to help parents understand the impact and importance of your child building a digital footprint in preparation for college. We look forward to seeing you! Please RSVP at by calling 781-270-1780. 

Focus on Freshmen

As in years past the BHS Guidance staff puts a tremendous amount of focus on incoming freshmen. An incoming 9^th grader faces many new challenges with the transition to high school. Freshmen are dealing with a new environment, new teachers, more freedom and responsibility, etc. The Guidance staff makes every effort to be in tune with this process and to serve as a resource.

Each year Guidance Counselors meet with freshmen in small groups within the first month of school. We call students to the Guidance Office and introduce ourselves, and discuss the many resources available to them. Although we have found this process useful, we also feel it is not enough. In fact, what we have learned from our freshman over the past several years is that they prefer to hear about graduation requirements, academic expectations, how to go about making a level change, etc.

For a second year the BHS Guidance staff worked with Ms. Sullivan in the health department. Ms. Sullivan allowed the BHS Guidance staff to teach a lesson during her Freshmen health class. The Guidance staff covered and discussed BHS graduation requirements and the importance of identifying resources. One teaching practice that we used again this year was a “ticket to leave”. The ticket to leave is simply a form that we ask freshmen to complete at the end of the lesson so we can gauge if students understood what was covered. Based on the data, we felt our message was clear to a vast majority of freshmen.  We look forward to continuing and refining this practice in years to come. 

Parent Breakfast on 11/12/2014

The Guidance Department at Burlington High School will be hosting a Parent Breakfast on Wednesday November 12, 2014, from 8:30-9:30 AM in the BHS Guidance College and Career Center. The purpose of this breakfast is to give parents of Burlington High School students the opportunity to have an open dialogue around stress and anxiety with the school psychologist, Ms. Elizabeth MacKay and the school social worker, Ms. Christine Conceison. Stress and Anxiety impacts all students in a variety of ways. The breakfast is aimed at providing insight into stress and anxiety in adolescents and effective coping strategies.  We look forward to seeing you! Please RSVP at by calling 781-270-1780.