What Freshmen Need to Get the Green
Photo provided by: Miryam Elshaer
Cheema offers tutoring in his room four days a week after school in order to ensure that his students are truly understanding and excelling in the material that he teaches. On Tuesday August 22, Mr. Cheema worked diligently after school to help student Zacharia Elshaer with his homework.
January 18, 2018
There are many reasons why high school students cannot go to college. Not having enough money should not be one of those reasons. Scholarships can change this, they help students pay their way into college for those who are not financially able. Scholarships are not easy to receive and require a lot of hard work in high school. Many high school students start applying in during senior year, which may be too late. There are certain criteria that need to be met, requiring students to improve their grades and test scores beginning during their freshmen year. High school freshmen need to work on these criteria to help them improve their chances of obtaining scholarships.
The criteria to work on is student’s GPA, ACT, SAT, and volunteer hours. Take Bright Futures scholarships for example. Bright Futures is a program where if students meet the criteria, students can get a scholarship. Bright Futures requires students to have at least a 3.0 GPA, a 1,170 on the SAT, a 26 on the ACT, and at least 75 service hours. These are very high standards that can be met during student’s freshman year. Senior Skylar Miller is working to get a Bright Futures scholarship and has advice for the freshmen looking into scholarships.
“For them to think ahead,” Miller said. “Look into scholarships early to see what the requirements are so that way they [freshmen] can start working on those requirements as a freshman instead of trying to help fix what they needed back their freshman year their senior year.”
Getting good grades is one thing that is imperative for getting scholarships, but taking harder classes is a good way to better student’s chances in receiving a scholarship. Guidance Counselor Laura Baker works with students to help them get the more challenging classes they need to improve their scholarship chances.
“Reevaluate each year as you make your choices in your classes,” Baker said. “Choosing if you’re ready to move up to an AP class or from a Standard to an Honors, to take that chance and rise to the challenge. If it gets a little tough in an honors or an AP class, don’t automatically want to switch to a lower class. Stay for the challenge. Colleges like to see that you’ve worked through something that’s hard. Somebody who comes to high school with straight A’s and has never really encountered a struggle at some point, never encountered a class that gave them a real challenge, they may have a real eye-opening experience when they go to college. At least in high school you still have a support system. You still live with your parents and you could reach out to a guidance counselor and to teachers. A lot of times professors are very stand offish.”
Freshmen need to get better grades, take harder classes, and also focus on their studies. Zacharia Elshaer is a freshman who focuses a lot of his time on schoolwork. He wants freshmen to be self-aware and try to work harder on their school work to earn a scholarship.
“Focus on your studies,” Elshaer said. “Actually study for big tests because you can’t get away with not studying. This is high school, not middle or elementary.”
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