This site is designed to provide Newton North students and parents with online resources to help guide them through the college search and application process.

Whether you're wondering when the next Financial Aid Night will be held, want to know the difference between a Teacher Assessment and Teacher Recommendation, or want to know NNHS's CEEB code (it's 221555), you can find it right here.

You can also drop by the Career Center, which is in Room 330 on the third floor of NNHS, or call the Career Center Counselors at (617) 559-6349. The Career Center is open during school hours. Also, you can call or email your guidance counselor - for contact information, please visit the Counselors page.

ON THIS PAGE -

NNHS has Naviance - Click here

College Planning Timeline - Click here

Questions about the SAT: Subject Tests - Click here

Info for Freshmen and Sophomores - Click here

About other pages on this website - Click here

About the Career Center - Click here

About the Career Center Counselors - Click here

Newton North is now using a web-based tool for post-high school planning called Naviance. This program contains data on colleges throughout the country and keeps track of recent NNHS college applications, student statistics and admissions decisions. Naviance is accessible to counselors, students and parents (with a NNHS approved registration code) from any computer with web access.

HOW TO ACCESS NAVIANCE:

1. Go to the Naviance Family Connection website, www.connection.naviance.com/nnhs

2. Under the "New User" section of the page, enter the registration code provided to all students by their counselor. Click "Register".

3. Enter an email address (required of all users) and create a password. Important: Students should select passwords they are comfortable sharing with their parents as the only way for parents to access the system is through the students' accounts.

4. Complete the registration procedures as instructed.

USES OF NAVIANCE:

Once a student has registered to become a NNHS Naviance user, the student and his/her parents may access Naviance as frequently as they wish. Note that an individual student's personal profile and statistics are confidential and are only accessible to the student, the student's parents, and the student's counselor.

REMEMBER: The data and statistics are most effectively used in conjunction with your guidance counselor and the counselors in the NNHS College & Career Center.

Once you have entered the Naviance Family Connections page, use the menus on the left side of the page to navigate through the various features of the system. These menus are organized into three categories entitled: "About Me", "About College", and "From Your School".

1. "About Me" contains information and statistics specific to you. Examples of the many features in this menu include:

My Test Scores - This feature lists your college entrance scores to date.

My Colleges - This feature allows students to keep track of the colleges they are considering and to create an "active application"; list as they decide where to apply.

My Personality Type -This feature is an excellent tool to give you some insight into your personality type and how your pattern of interests and personal characteristics mesh with different occupational categories.

2. "About College" contains information about colleges and admissions statistics. Examples of the many features in this menu include:

- College Search - Students can use Naviance's extensive database of over 6,000 colleges to search for colleges based on criteria such as location, size of student body, majors offered, cost, etc.

- College Lookup - It's easy to look up information on a specific college of interest to you. Students can find out admissions requirements, majors, activities offered and statistics about the student body at the click of a button. Current college contact information is readily available as is a direct link to the college homepage.

- Scattergrams -Through Naviance students can keep track of their own applications and can access the statistics and graphs that represent all of NNHS applications to specific colleges and the admissions decisions for each of those colleges from the past two graduating classes. This data, which includes the SAT scores and GPAs of applicants (without names) allows students to have an understanding of how their statistics match up to previous applicants.

3. "From Your School" contains copies of forms and instruction sheets we use at NNHS in the future planning process as well as many links to relevant websites.

Questions about the SAT: Subject Tests (formerly called SAT IIs)? ---

Who wants what?

Only 45 colleges in the US require SAT: Subject Tests. (At 18 of these, if an ACT score is submitted, Subject Tests may not be required.)

Most only require 2. Only 4 colleges want 3. Some colleges "recommend," but don't require 3.

Check out this web site to see which college require them and, if they do, how many? http://www.compassprep.com/admissions_req_subjects.aspx

Info for Freshmen and Sophomores

PLEASE NOTE: The information on this website is geared toward JUNIORS and SENIORS and their parents, though all students and parents are welcome to browse the site.

If you are a FRESHMAN or the parent of a Freshman, please click here first for some relevant information.

If you are a SOPHOMORE or the parent of a Sophomore, please click here first for some information before browsing the rest of the site.

SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES! --- For information about taking summer courses, special summer programs and other summer opportunites, click here.

Also visit the NNHS Counseling Department Web Site by clicking here.

Check out this great website for study and test taking skills ---

http://www.studygs.net/

(Move around the site by clicking on the name of the page you want to visit on the navigation bar at the top and bottom of each page.)

College - The "College" page contains a variety of helpful information and advice about the college search and application process.

Senior Packet - The "Senior Packet" page explains everything that students and parents need to know about the Newton North High School Senior Packet, including what's in the Packet and how to send it to colleges.

Testing - The "Testing" page describes the standardized college entrance exams that are required by many colleges, and the preliminary exams that prepare students for them. You can find out which ones to take, when to take them, and how and when to register for them.

Financial Aid - The "Financial Aid" page contains links to helpful websites that will give you the information you need to pay for college and the forms you need to fill out to be eligible for financial aid.

Resources - The "Resouces" page contains links to the most helpful sites on the web for college searches, testing and test prep info, contacting colleges, and specialized information.

Gap Year - More and more students are deferring college for a year and engaging in a wide variety of other experiences before starting college. The "Gap Year" page has great resources for students considering this option.

Counselors - The "Counselors" page contains contact information for all of the members of the NNHS Counseling Department.

OTHER PAGES (not on the navigation bar) -

BUILDING YOUR COLLEGE LIST - The "BUILDING YOUR COLLEGE ;LIST" page discusses many of the important characteristics to consider during your college search, how to research colleges with your preferences in mind, and how to expand and narrow your list of colleges.

APPLYING TO COLLEGES - The "APPLYING TO COLLEGES" page gives a timeline of what students should be doing and when they should be doing it in order to get things done well and on time. It covers the time between February of the Junior year and May of the Senior year.

Global Education Page -The Global Education Page contains information and links to websites for students interested in studying in another country. Information is available for students interested in studying abroad for a summer before college, a semester or a year while in college, or earning their whole college degree in another country. The Global Education Page has links to colleges and universities in other predominantly English-speaking countries as well as English-speaking colleges and universities in countries where other languages are spoken.

About the Career Center

Newton North's Career Center houses an excellent collection of reference materials for educational and career planning. Materials include: information on occupations arranged according to the World of Work Map on ACT's PLAN test, directories of two and four year colleges and specialized programs, directories of private secondary schools, directories of college programs for learning disabled students, information about summer programs (click here for links to SUMMER PROGRAM WEBSITES), and sources of financial aid. In addition, the Center contains one of the largest collection of college catalogs in New England. A collection of over 250 college videos is also available. Many of these materials may be taken out on loan.

The Center is staffed by specialized counselors who provide career and college counseling. Students are welcome to make Career Center appointments beginning at the start of the third term (late January) of Junior year. Parents may also participate in the Career Center meetings. These meetings focus on specific post-secondary educational plans and how they fit with career and life objectives.

The Newton North College Study is also available to help students make college choices. This Study, updated for each graduating class, provides a college-by-college profile, showing statistics of students admitted, waitlisted, and not admitted without using the students' names. This information allows students to compare their profile with students in each category in order to assess their own chances of admission to specific colleges.

About the Career Center Counselors

Bradford R. MacGowan, Ed.D.
Room 330B
(617) 559-6349

Brad MacGowan has been a Counselor for twenty one years. This is his 12th year as Career Center Counselor/Director. He visits colleges throughout the country and regularly attends conferences on college admissions. Brad has also presented on various topics related to college admissions at regional and national conferences. His articles on college admission issues have been published in the Journal of College Admission, Professional School Counseling, the NACAC Bulletin, and College Counseling Connections. His dissertation is titled "By chance or by design: Structures of opportunity for college bound African Americans." He is a Past-President of the New England Association for College Admission Counseling (NEACAC) and is currently the Chairperson of the Government Relations Committee of the Massachusetts School Counselor Association (MASCA).

Brad maintains the website and is responsible for its content. Please call him with any comments and suggestions about the site.

Amanda Tsetsi
Room 330A
(617) 559-6233

Amanda Tsetsi is in her second year in the Career Center at Newton North High School. Amanda received her Bachelor's degree from Ithaca College in 2000 and was a counseling intern at North while completing her graduate work at Boston College in 2005. She then went on to work as a high school counselor in Brunswick, Maine before returning to Newton in 2006. Amanda has visited many colleges around the country and regularly attends workshops and conferences focused on the college admission process.

Irmhild Liang
Room 330C
(617) 559-6346

Irmhild Liang has been a counselor in the Career Center since September 2000. Prior to that she was a Career Center volunteer and a counseling intern with Brad MacGowan in the Career Center. Her three children and Chinese host son all attended and graduated from Newton North High School. She has assisted many international students with the college and financial aid application process. Irmhild visits colleges throughout U.S. and attends counseling and college admissions workshops and conferences. She also coordinates and supervises the Career Center Aide Program. She is an active member of the Diversity/Human Rights Committee of the New England Association for College Admission Counseling (NEACAC).