School Information:

Robert E. Lee High School

411 ESE Loop 323

Tyler, TX  75701

Counseling Office Information:

Charlotte Wade, Counseling Secretary

Phone:  903.262-2698

Fax: 903.262-2630

Requesting

Applications

 College

Deadlines

1. Request application materials from colleges the summer before or early your senior year.  Texas public universities all use the Apply Texas Application.  Student can access this application and apply on-line at www.applytexas.org. 

2. Mark all deadlines in a planner or post the date in a visible location.  There are no deadline extensions when it comes to the application process. Deadline means deadline.

SAT/ACT/

SAT II

 Working

 on your application

Recommen-

dations

 The Common Application

 Waiving your rights

 The “Extra’s”

 The

Follow-up

3. Make sure you take the SAT and ACT in spring of your junior year.  Registration information is available in the Counseling Office or you can register on-line at www.collegeboard.com or www.ACT.org.  You may need scores to be sent to a college as early as November, so plan ahead.  Most universities take either scores from SAT or ACT; check with your college to make sure.  Check university admission requirements prior to registering for the SAT or ACT. Some colleges require the SAT Subject Tests as part of the application process. Please check with each individual school.

4. Apply on line if at all possible. Your application remains a working document until you click "Submit".

5. Complete your application by yourself. College admissions officers have a good nose for sniffing out embellished or borrowed work.  Approach applications individually, completing one at a time.

6. If your application requires an essay, always have a reliable person proofread your essay for you. 

7. Consider creating color-coded files, one for each college, as a way or organizing the enormous amount of material you will receive.  Many students have found this organizational tool invaluable in the past.  Save a copy of everything you send to colleges.

8. When applying to college do remember that schools charge anywhere from $20 and up for application fees. Theses fees are non refundable. Go to the colleges websites and see statistics concerning the average GPA and SAT/ACT score for the previous year's freshman class and see if you would be a good fit.

9. Contact teachers who will be writing recommendations for you well before the deadline.  Some teachers will be asked to write 30 or more recommendations so they must be given ample time to do justice for each student.  In addition to your unending thanks, you should provide those writing your recommendations with a brag sheet and a resume of your school and community activities, job experiences, and other pertinent information.  Also provide them with a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the school to which they are sending your recommendation.

10. For selective and private schools use www.commonapp.org

11. On both teacher recommendation forms and on the Secondary School Report forms, you will see a section stating your rights under the Buckley Amendment.  Under the Buckley Amendment you have the right to review your educational record if you enroll at a given university.  You also have the option to waive your right of access to specific recommendations.

Consider waiving your rights of access.  It tells your recommender that you trust them to write a positive recommendation.  Furthermore, if you do not waive your right, you leave yourself open to the suspicion that you are trying to prevent the recommender from revealing something that is not positive.   Remember that when you sign, you are only waiving your right of access to specific recommendations; you retain access to the rest of your file.

12. When listing your activities on your application, be sure to arrange them in decreasing order of importance.  Either you can avoid chronology altogether and arrange all your high school activities in order of importance, or you can begin with senior year, listing all activities in order of importance, and proceed down the chronological line from there.  In general, colleges are looking for leadership, commitment and longevity, talent, accomplishment, and maturity. A job or significant responsibility at home would qualify as an important activity; so too would any recognized work in the arts.  Remember that colleges look for that “spark” in a candidate. 

13. Colleges make it your responsibility to constantly check their  websites to see if your application is complete. They do not send reminders.

14. If you are applying Early Decision, once you have been accepted, please write a letter to other schools who have accepted you and ask that your application be withdrawn.  Other students are on the wait list for a spot.

Please do not hesitate to ask your counselor any question that you may think of throughout this lengthy and important process.  Please notify her once you have been accepted to any college.  We will ask seniors for their final college choice  in the spring so we can plan for our college signs on  Loop 323 late May.

Robert E. Lee Counseling Department

903-262-2698

 TOP TEN PERCENT AUTOMATIC ADMISSION

In 1997, the 75^th Legislature passed House Bill 588 making college admission guaranteed for students graduating in the top ten percent of their class.  The Texas public college or university of a student’s choice must automatically admit them if:

Their grade point average places them in the top ten percent of their high school class;

They apply no later than two years after graduating from a Texas high school; and

They submit a completed application and meet all college or university requirements and deadlines.