College Night is an annual event at Clarke Central High School hosted by the administration and counseling department for students and their parents. CCHS counselor Samuel Hicks believes it is a beneficial opportunity to get parents informed. “We have already done this presentation with all our seniors for post-secondary options and looking at all options,” Hicks said. “Now we want to bring parents on board and so (we present a) modified version of this presentation because we want to send the same messages.” Photo by Suncana Pavlic.
By SUNCANA PAVLIC – Managing Editor
College Night will be held on Sept. 8 to keep parents and students updated on the college application process and financial aid.
Clarke Central High School will host College Night on Sept. 8 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for all seniors and their families in Mell Auditorium. The night focuses on the college application process and financial aid to make sure parents and students stay informed and on track for applying to colleges this fall.
“(College Night is) a resource for parents. There are a lot of parents who are familiar with the college process and a lot who aren’t,” CCHS counselor Samuel Hicks said. “Whether you are first (generation student attending college) or whether you’ve been through the college process for a while, we want to present information that is valuable to both sets of people.”
Senior Denise Sunta questions whether students will attend due to lack of advertisement.
“I’m not sure which schools are going to (appear at) College Night, but if there are any schools I have been looking at I will attend,” senior Denise Sunta said.
College Night will focus heavily on financial aid and how students can apply for Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to receive financial aid packages.
“For students to be prepared for the best financial aid package available, they need to do it early and need to be able to know what it is and have it in place before they make their decisions of where they want to go to school,” Hicks said. “I’ll give you an example of one student who got accepted late to a private college in North Carolina so they said, ‘Yeah I want to go there,’ went there and now do not have any idea how they are going to pay for it.”
Hicks encourages all seniors should complete their FAFSA early so they can have more time to weigh their college options to see which best fits their interests and budget.
“Instead of having to wait until January senior year, students can fill out FASFAs in October,” Hicks said. “It relaxes the process a lot and in theory, what it should do is let people have a real clear understanding of their financial aid package long before they start saying what school they will choose.”
