Paly’s first College Awareness Day will replace regular classes on a minimum day this Wednesday, Oct. 14.
College Awareness Day will consist of college-related workshops for seniors and standardized tests for freshmen, sophomores and juniors. According to Assistant Principal Kim Diorio, the Paly administration got the idea for College Awareness Day from Mountain View High School and Los Altos High School, which already have College Awareness Days.
“My concern was that if we’re going to have an instructional day, we want it to be worthwhile,” Diorio said.
Senior workshops will be centered around the college application process and life after Paly. Seniors can sign up for workshops on Naviance.
In past years, College and Career Center representative held some of the workshops afterschool, according to Diorio.
The most popular workshops are “College Interviews from the Inside Out,” “Find Your Passion,” and “College Essay Help!”, according to Dirio. Some workshops have limited space, so students who sign up first will have first pick. Seniors must sign up by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, or they will be randomly assigned to a workshop, according to Diorio.
“We tried to think of the whole spectrum of students,” Diorio said. “Some students are really on top of the college application process, so we have seminars like ‘Show Me the Money,’ because even for the most well-planned senior, money for college doesn’t usually fall into place until second semester.”
While seniors attend seminars, juniors will take the PSAT/NMSQT. If a student is unable to take the PSAT/NMSQT on Wednesday, she or he should arrange to take the test on Saturday, Oct. 17, at a testing center that still has space available. Neither Paly nor Gunn will offer the test on Saturday.
The administration changed the schedule for PSAT/NMSQT day after receiving complaints from parents and students last year.
“The idea was to have a minimum day in order to take out the over-testing element,” Diorio said. “We want to get rid of the additional stress associated with the PSAT.”
Sophomores and freshmen will be take the EXPLORE and the PLAN tests, respectively. Both the EXPLORE and the PLAN are ACT prep tests and are comprised of sections that test academic achievements and sections that gather information about student interests.
The EXPLORE and the PLAN test students’ knowledge of English, mathematics, reading, and science.
Partners in Education will be paying the $10,000 dollars needed to offer the PLAN and the EXPLORE at Paly.
“We want our kids students to be successful in college,” Diorio said. “These tests provide a benchmark for college readiness. We want to get kids to start thinking about life after Paly.”
According to Diorio, 94 percent of Paly students attend either a two-year or four-year college after graduation, with 79 percent going on to a four year college, and 15 percent attending a community college.
School will start at 8:15 a.m. and end at 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Freshmen, juniors, and sophomores will report to testing rooms, while seniors will attend an assembly in the Haymarket Theater. Testing rooms will be posted on the library windows on Wednesday morning, according to Diorio. There will be no advisory.
Staff members will take attendance on College Awareness Day, and students who do not attend must have a parent or legal guardian call them in as absent, or they will receive a cut.
Students who do not have a Naviance login and wish to sign up for senior workshops should contact the College and Career Center to receive their username and password, according to Diorio.
The administration hopes that College Awareness Day will be a fun day for students, especially seniors, to learn about and prepare for life after Paly, according to Diorio.
“If there’s something we can do to make college a reality, and not just a dream, we absolutely will,” Diorio said.