Counseling Resources

Topic outline

• College Information

  
  

  • College Entrance Tests

    Sophomores and juniors take the PSAT every October which is paid for by the State of Idaho for juniors and MTCHS pays for the sophomores to take this. MTCHS registers the students for this. The test is a practice SAT. The juniors can also qualify as National Merit Scholars if they score high enough on the test compared to all other juniors that take the test in the country.

    Score reports are usually available before the December holiday break. Sophomore will get their scores and have a class presentation on how to read them by the counselor. Score reports for juniors are given by the counselor and a one on one discussion takes place about the scores and what they are thinking of doing after high school. They are directed to look at the resources that are free from the College Board using the link on their score sheet to study to improve on the next PSAT or the SAT for juniors. 

    All juniors take the SAT as part of the Idaho SAT Day in April each year. This is paid for by the State of Idaho and MTCHS registers the students. 

    ACT website to register is www.act.org.  To take advantage of the free study materials go to http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation.html. When registering to take the test you will need a school code or AI code. The code for our high school is 130392.

     Check out the comparative features of the ACT vs. SAT below.

    Higher Education Day

    In February or March, MTCHS will host it's annual Higher Ed Day. There are 11-12 Idaho Colleges and Universities here for Juniors to choose from. The counselor has the Juniors sign up to visit with 3 college representatives for 20 minutes each. There will be a introduction/overview of all of the colleges before hand. Higher Ed Day takes place from 12:40pm to 2:10 pm.

     Please look below for more information such as college prep/steps for each grade level, articles and handouts that address important topics when trying to find a good college fit.

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    Comparative Features of the ACT vs. SAT File
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    College Preparation for Sophomores File
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    College Preparation for Juniors File
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    Senior College Information Steps File
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    Top Ten Ways to Test Drive a College File
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    Top Ten Strengths Colleges are Looking For File
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    Advanced Opportunities (Sometimes called FastForward)

    Advanced Opportunities is a program offered by the State Dept of Education that allows students to take college classes, certification tests, and other tests such as CLEP and use money provided by the state to pay for the tuition or test fee. If a class requires other fees other than tuition these will not be paid for with the state money, but will be an "out of pocket" fee for the student/parent. The form below must be filled out and signed by the student and parent before the student can start using their Advanced Op Money.

    MTCHS offers several dual credit classes and opportunities for certifications over and above what is offered in classes. Most dual credit classes start junior year. (See the list below). Some students also will take classes over and above the regular schedule or during the summer and these will paid for with the Advanced Opportunity Money as long as they are approved by MTCHS. The counselor will assist students in setting up their account for the Advanced Opportunity portal and show them how to request the funds needed to pay for their class or test. Use the link below. 
    

    
    

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    Fast Forward Participation Form File
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    Advanced Opportunity Portal URL
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    MTCHS Advanced Opportunities File

• How to Pay for College

  The first link below is for The Student's Guide to College Scholarship and Grants from bestcolleges.com. Best Colleges is a website that has topics such as Grants vs. Scholarships, Types of Grants, Types of Scholarships, How to Apply, How to Get a Scholarship, and FAQ's.

  
  Most other links are for scholarship search websites or providers of information about scholarships.  There is also the link for the official Financial Aid website. FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid so if you go to a website that wants a fee you are using the wrong one. 

  
  

  Some scholarships applications will ask for a school code or CEEB, AI, or school code. The code for MTCHS is 130392.

  
  

  URLs: 5

• Service Academies

  Service Academies are colleges within the specified branch of the military. It is recommended that you start the process for applying to attend towards the end of your junior year. Each year in the fall there are information sessions in the Treasure Valley where representatives from the academies provide information about the process and what life is like at a service academy.
  

  Text and media area: 1 URLs: 5

• SCOIR

  SCOIR is a system that MTCHS uses to assist students with finding a good fit between what they are good at and what they enjoy. When students complete the career interest assessment they'll be matched with "Best-Fit Careers". From there they are told to save five that match the focus areas that we teach. They can then look at the saved careers and starting researching college majors and colleges that offer these majors. They can follow colleges, research colleges, schedule online visits or go to the website of the college to find out about "in person" visits. We start this with the freshmen doing the career interest assessment and then having sophomores, juniors, and seniors doing other tasks as necessary for their grade level. Seniors will can also use SCOIR to apply to colleges and request letters of recommendations from teachers. It is a great tracking tool to help students organize and track their post secondary choices and applications. It is also a great tracking tool for the counselor and a more efficient way to send the required documents to the colleges the students have applied to.

  This is the link students will use for SCOIR. They created their account as a freshman. We recommend that they invite their parent(s) to see their account for discussion purposes.  https://app.scoir.com/signin

  Below is the link to a video 

  URLs: 2

• ALUMNI - Request Transcript Form

  Once you have graduated, please use this link to request a transcript either for yourself or to be sent somewhere else.

  https://www.mtchs.org/transcripts/