What to Do After Your Applications are Submitted

by Katherine O'Brien, Certified College Planning Specialist 

Founder, Senior Private College Consultant, Celtic College Consultants

 

 1. Mark the Accomplishment! 

Keep a pdf of each application, for your records, and to document the accomplishment. It took a lot of time and effort to craft that application. Mark that. You also might want to look at it later, as you decide which college to attend. 

 2. Check your email! 

Colleges send announcements, links to their portal, messages about missing materials, invitations to apply and compete for top scholarships, to apply to their honors program or college, etc. Check DAILY. You never know when a significant, potentially life changing email will come in!  

3. Check your portals

Many colleges have a portal that they use to communicate and to take you through the next steps of choosing housing, getting your aid package, etc. Be sure to set up your portal right away and check it regularly. Keep track of your login information. This takes effort – there can be many new logins to keep track of!  

4. Take time to reconsider your top college priorities

What are the key opportunities you are looking for at college? How do the colleges you’ve applied for stack up, now that you’ve learned more about them through the application process? Are there additional colleges you want to apply to? There are colleges with later deadlines; it’s not too late to add a college! 

 5. Apply for Scholarships, 

both at your schools and private. Have you combed through their private database yet? Have you paid attention to scholarship emails your high school counselor has sent? What about at your church, bank, parent’s workplaces, clubs, etc.? Have you taken the time to explore using online search engines? Look at groups related to your ethnicity, career interests, personal traits, etc.  

6. Midyear Grade Reports 

Verify that your midyear grades have been sent to your schools, no matter whether you’ve applied early action or regular decision.  

7. Update admissions 

with any important additional accomplishments, awards, leadership roles, improved test scores, or competitive (especially prestigious) scholarships you’ve won. Email to the admissions office AND to your regional admissions representative. Be sure to include your applicant or college ID (if they’ve assigned one to you) in your email. This is particularly important if you have been deferred or waitlisted. Your letter of continued interest is vital in those situations.  

8. Evaluate your colleges more deeply 

As you are admitted, attending those colleges become real possibilities. Re-examine them, look more deeply at student life, campus ministry, clubs, academic offerings, paying particular attention to your “must haves”. Follow their social media, attend events in your area, read the online version of the student newspaper, etc. Keep up to date on your colleges as part of your deep evaluation of them. 

 9. Withdraw or decline any offers of admission that you want to reject

Doing so frees up a spot for another student and releases any scholarship money you’ve been offered. This is courteous and respectful. Just send a polite email to the admissions office, again including your applicant or student ID. 

 10. Thank those who helped you prepare your application

Give thoughtful handwritten thank you notes to your recommenders and counselor as well as anyone else who helped you along the way. Thank those people who have been invaluable in helping you become the person you are today. And take time to savor the experiences of this final semester of high school. Enjoy those last games and dances and classes….  

11. Finish well

Stay in the present. While the prospect of going to a beloved college is exciting, today is still today; today is the day you have been given. Live it well. Pay attention in class, do well on exams, projects, and papers. What you learn this semester continues to build the foundation for your future. If you change your courses this term, you need to let the colleges (both those that have admitted you and those still evaluating your application) know, which could negatively impact your situation. Finish strong, continue to build effective study skills. Prep for your AP exams as they can still turn into college credits, but only if you do well. 

For help with the college process, from 8th - 12th grades, from leadership skill development, career exploration, college funding planning, college budgeting, to scholarships, college selection, applications, essays, visit CelticCollegeConsultants.com or email Katherine: KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com

Catholic Training joined to Trade School?!

In recent years, four trade schools have opened. Combining training in various trades, each of these schools offers courses in Catholic liberal arts. The focus of each is to form young people to be strong, well formed and well informed Catholics who are skilled in a trade.

Harmel Academy of the Trades, Grand Rapids, MI offers men a "path to form the whole person: mind, body, and soul. Harmel students live together, creating a community of workmen that supports one another in all things. Additionally, mentoring and networking with experienced tradesmen and business owners is part of life at Harmel. Harmel requires all of its students to work 20-30 hours per week while they are students. Information about tuition and scholarships can be found here.

 

They offer three programs. The "Foundations of Skilled Stewardship" program is project based and required of all first year students. Training men in the "fundamentals of skilled work and spiritual maturity," this program can serve as a gap year between high school and college or as the preface for training in the trades. Its purpose is to help young men become "intentional, mature, and self-reliant." Additionally, the program introduces students to these trades: auto repair and maintenance, carpentry, construction, electrical work, home maintenance, HVAC, machining, plumbing, and welding.

 

The Machine & Systems Technology program is a one year apprenticeship based program designed to train young men to work on full systems within manufacturing and machining environments. Students will learn manufacturing theory while gaining deep, practical experience.

Lastly, Harmel's "God and Man at Work" Humanities program is a four semester (two year) cycle of humanities classes. Apprentices take all four semesters while gap year students only take the first two. Topics such as living in a post-Christian world, conforming one's life to Christ, the vocations of husband and father, co-creator/laborers with God, and servants of the larger community, practical wisdom, prayer, and the call to intimacy with God are deeply addressed through this cycle of courses.

Scholarships are available. See https://www.harmelacademy.org/ for complete information.

 

The College of St. Joseph the Worker, located in Steubenville, OH offers a six year program to both men and women. Students will receive training in carpentry, electrical work, HVAC, or plumbing as well as earn a bachelor's degree  (BA) in Catholic Studies. The first three years are completed onsite in Steubenville while the final three years are completed in the student's home state or other chosen qualified area. The program's focus is on the three dimensions of the lay vocation: work, family, and the temporal order. The first year includes broad training in the building trades. The NCCER program results in a nationally recognized certification in Ohio. (The College will help students obtain certification in other states as well.) The second and third years' focus is on the classroom/shop training in the student's chosen trade. The following three years are spent doing on the job training and completing the liberal arts courses online. Information about tuition and fees can be found here. For complete information, go to: https://www.collegeofstjoseph.com/

Santiago Trade School in Silverado, CA accepts fifteen new men to become students each semester into their two year program. Students gain experience on jobsites, are mentored in spiritual wisdom, and form manly friendships, ultimately leading work projects and being train in a specific trade. Friendship between students is a key pillar of the program, forming manly relationships through which the men build each other up. Students learn the trade skills needed to build their own home someday. Their practical training includes work on the actual on-site efforts to increase the capacity of the Santiago Retreat Center which sits on 800 acres in the Orange County foothills. The men are developed in a two year formation program which includes daily prayer and Mass as well as bi-weekly formation courses. For complete information, please see: https://www.santiagotradeschool.com/

 

San Damiano College for the Trades, in Springfield, IL is run by the Norbertines from St. Michael's Abbey in Orange County, CA. They hope to open Fall 2025 with 75 men. During the first year, students are introduced to arborist, carpentry, multi-disciplinary church restoration, HVAC, masonry, roofing, and welding. These students will work 24 hours per week during the first year. Apprenticeship in one's chosen trade will begin the second year and run for two years. Apprentices work 40 hours during the summer and 24 hours per week during the school year during their first year. During the second year of apprenticeship (their third at San Damiano), students will work 40 hours per week. During apprenticeship, students' work is expected to cover most or all of the fees. They will learn a trade as well as earn an AA degree in liberal arts. SDCOT also offers a non-degree program in their House of Formation. Men in this program will be formed in the moral, intellectual, and theological virtues as they learn a trade. It is expected that students will complete their program with no debt. Complete information is available on their website: https://www.sandamianotrades.org/.

Catholic human formation you seek is being offered at these schools in conjunction with the training in the trades.

 

For more information about college prep services, especially for Catholics, and our highly effective College Success Program, please visit our website, Celtic College Consultants. We do serve teens and families from all backgrounds.

by Katherine O'Brien, ThD Cand., Certified College Planning Specialist

Creating a Growth Plan, 101

 

As the new year starts, I feel called to ask a big question of you, the same question I ask, in one way or another, of all of the students I have the privilege of mentoring on their journey to college:

 

How is God inviting you to grow this year?

 

Here are some practical ways to respond to that prompting from the Lord -

Discern with a trusted person. Consider: Is that goal in line with the Christian Faith? Does it make sense? Does it make sense for you at this point in your life? Is it from God or from yourself or somewhere else? Do you have peace about it (even if it daunts you a bit, if it’s from God, there will be peace)

 

Once you have discerned the goal, the invitation the Lord is offering you, then pray and think about how to cooperate with the grace He is giving. 

Here are some questions to help you with that…

 

What sacrifices are needed?

 

Who do I need to forgive?

 

What do I really want? Why?

 

What do I need to do differently?

 

How can I start to forgive? To do things differently?

 

What milestones of transformation do I see?

 

How can I work toward them?

 

What timeline makes sense?

 

What help do I need?

 

Then start to implement those answers. Post the goals in your planner and on your calendar. Get an accountability and a prayer partner. As Mother Mary tells us: "Do whatever He tells you." 

 

Be assured of my prayers for you and your family this year. In turn, I ask for your prayers, especially as I prepare to marry on March 1^st. I’m also working on my dissertation, with the hope of finishing it and defending in the summer. May God be glorified in your life, and in mine!

 

 

Your sister in Christ,

 

 

Katherine O'Brien, ThD Cand.

College Planning Specialist

Founder, Celtic College Consultants

 

PS I will be out of town and out of the office from January 2 – 6^th 2025. I look forward to working with you and your family this year. Let me know when you’d like to schedule our first meeting to discuss how I can best help you and your college bound teen(s). Email me: KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com

No Cost College Prep Gifts for Teens & Adults Alike

 

by Katherine O'Brien ThD Candidate, Certified College Planning Specialist, Founder of Celtic College Consultants (KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com)

Improving our use of time, our memory, and our ability to learn new things, these appeal to everyone. These strategies might have odd names but they are easy to learn and will create cascading gifts in the lives of teens and adults alike. Both have been researched and shown to improve human abilities. The new field of neuroscience bears rich fruit yet again!

 

Chunking

 

Chunking is a tool useful both for time management and for organizing and recalling information. Basically, it involves chunking your day into periods of time and giving each of them a focus. Having a single focus for a given half hour, for example, makes it easier to complete the task assigned to that time. Chunking can also be used to organize information, in fact, many of us use some sort of chunking already. Learning more about it can increase our ability to retain new information.

More info and tips on chunking as information organization: https://www.talentcards.com/blog/chunking-memory/

and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29698045/  

 

 

 

Info and tips on time chunking (also called batching):

https://sites.rhodes.edu/academic-and-learning-resources/news/productivity-time-chunking-method

 

Interleaving

 

Per the University of Arizona, "Interleaving is a process where students mix, or interleave, multiple subjects or topics while they study in order to improve their learning. Blocked practice, on the other hand, involves studying one topic very thoroughly before moving to another topic. Interleaving has been shown to be more effective than blocked practice for developing the skills of categorization and problem solving; interleaving also leads to better long-term retention and improved ability to transfer learned knowledge. This strategy forces the brain to continually retrieve because each practice attempt is different from the last, so rote responses pulled from short-term memory won’t work. Cognitive psychologists believe that interleaving improves the brain’s ability to differentiate, or discriminate, between concepts and strengthens memory associations. Because interleaving involves retrieval practice, it is more difficult than blocked practice. It is important to remember that effortful studying feels worse but produces better long-term results."

 

More info and tips on interleaving: https://academicaffairs.arizona.edu/l2l-strategy-interleaving

and https://www.coursera.org/articles/interleaving  

and https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/

 

Here's to your success!

 

For more information on Katherine's College Success Program, with its three pillars: Premier Student Preparation, Savvy College Selection, and Abundant College Funding, please visit her website here: https://www.celticcollegeconsultants.com/college-prep-services Her 2024 students were offered, on average, over $300,000 each in scholarships.

 

 

Help Teens Be Holiday Blessings

by Katherine O'Brien, Certified College Planning Specialist, Founder Celtic College Consultants

The holidays are a special time of the year. Thanksgiving, St. Nicholas Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Christmas, and New Years. These special days bring various groups of people together, friends, co-workers, and extended family members. In addition to all the merry making, good food, and fun activities, most teens are silently suffering from anxiety as they wonder how they fit in. Teens (and some adults) wonder:

 

What do people need that my talent can provide? What can I do to help? How do I fit in, now that I am no longer a child?

 

They wonder how their gifts and talents, personalities and interests can become something, become useful in a meaningful way. One of the basic human desires is to be seen and acknowledged. Another is to be useful, to do something meaningful and lasting with one’s life.

 

Here are a few examples of how teens I have worked with have been able to connect their gifts with the needs of those around them:

One of my students, a gifted musician, uses her music to give people a respite from their daily lives. Seeing how stressed people in her life are, she invites them to sit with her and let go of their phones and burdens for a while. She listens carefully to them, joining them in whatever is going on in their lives. Also sensitive to the needs of the elderly in her community, she occasionally plays piano and sings at a local nursing home in order to help meet the people's needs for connection. Playing songs from their past, her audience members connect through memories to people they have known over the course of their lives. Playing songs of the season, she helps them celebrate the blessings of today, and brings the community together, connecting them with shared song and music.

 

Another of my female students has the gift of emotional sensitivity. She uses this in her peer counseling roles, drawing students into small groups or one on one discussions. She helps by listening, and by teaching various coping strategies. Just the fact that they are noticed and reached out to has helped break through the isolation her fellow students have felt, thinking they were the only one who was grieving or sad or lonely or afraid when, in fact, many people feel those things. It is not uncommon, for example, for high school students to experience the loss of one or more of their grandparents. This loss is significant. Not only have they lost someone who likely provided them affirmation and encouragement, a tie to their past, to the heritage of their family, to the stories and customs and traditions of their family has been lost. Life is never again the same after the death, or the birth, of a human being. It takes time to adjust to that change in our family and community.

 

A young man I worked with recently, used his own need for physical exercise in order to keep his mental health healthy to motivate him. Rather than sit inside and get depressed, he tapped his organizational skills during the pandemic lockdown. With help from his dad and a few friends, he modified his family’s garage into an open air weightlifting gym with the help of a group of friends. This same group was then able to come together and lift and exercise, thus meeting their social, physical, and mental health needs. His ingenuity, creativity, and leadership skills served his community well. He also gave encouragement to his friends, thus boosting everyone's moral during those difficult and uncertain days. Each of those young people, with their lower personal stress level and calmer demeanor was able to help support his or her family through the difficulties everyone faced during the months of lockdown.

 

Another young man I had the pleasure of working with throughout his high school years was extremely introverted. Finding opportunities to exercise his gifts and talents in ways he was comfortable with was challenging. One day, when we were talking, I noticed that his whole demeanor underwent a subtle change. He had been talking about making a particular dish for a family gathering. This dish was special to his family, and he had been taught how to make it by his grandmother. He was now the custodian of that part of his family’s patrimony. His quiet work in the kitchen was celebrated by the family when they gathered around the table. With my encouragement, he sought out a younger cousin and began to teach her the recipe and techniques needed to make this special dish, thus ensuring that this part of their family’s heritage would not be lost, since more than one of the grandchildren could carry it forward.

 

Please join me in helping teens use their gifts to bless others

 

When you meet with teens at holiday gatherings this month, how can you help them begin to recognize their talents and find ways to use them to meet the needs of the people in their lives? Be creative. Invite them to make their own unique contribution to your family and community.

 

One of the things you can do is invite them to meet with me. For 20 years I have guided teens through the process of getting to know and appreciate their own giftedness, then explore possible roles to begin to use those gifts now. These conversations blossom into considerations of post high school possibilities including trade school, community college certificate programs, as well as various programs and majors at college.

 

Katherine can be contacted by emailing: KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com

Teens, Become Who You Are!

 by Katherine O'Brien, Foundress, Celtic College Consultants

The holidays are approaching! The dreaded, "So what are your plans for when you finish high school?" question will be heard by teens everywhere.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

How am I supposed to know?

For over 20 years, I've helped teens explore options, come to know themselves, set goals, and take steps toward accomplishing those goals. Sometimes, however, a teen genuinely doesn't know. Then, there's a shift...

Knowing one's skill set and interests is enough to get started. This year, for example, I am working with a gifted story teller/writer/strategist. That skill set can be used in a number of fields and endeavors. At this point in her life, she really has no idea what direction to focus her skills. In her case, then, her initial college goals are a program where she can hone her skills and continue to develop as a young woman in an environment that shares her values and offers her numerous and varied beneficial growth opportunities.

Late blooming is okay!!!

 Today is my 60th birthday. As I write this blog, I am ensconced in a study room at a university library. I will spend most of my day researching and writing my doctoral dissertation. In some very real ways, I am only now beginning to bloom as a person. The experiences I have had so far have, in a very real sense, been a practicum composed of periods of various on the job training of sorts. All those experiences are being drawn upon in my doctoral work and the ministry that is beginning to be formed based on my thesis.

Some would call me a late bloomer. Those familiar with the work I'm doing recognize that a long period of preparation is necessary to handle the topic I'm working in, both to provide necessary insights as well as to allow healing and maturity to inform those insights and the delivery of them in my talks and writing. There simply is no substitute, in some cases, for life experience.

BE WHO YOU ARE!

You were created on purpose, for a purpose. Be not afraid to be yourself, and bloom, just be you!!!

Katherine can be reached by email: KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com

What do College Prep, Taylor Swift, and Aristotle have in Common?

 by Katherine O'Brien, ThD Candidate & Certified College Planning Specialist

 

An Irish philosophy professor recently wrote an article comparing Taylor Swift and Aristotle. When I read it, I recognized the work that I do with teens, too. (Not that I am on par with Aristotle!)

 

Like Aristotle, Taylor Swift regularly deals with core identity questions. In her lyrics, she addresses various aspects of this. In Mirrorball, she reveals the idea that you can strategically shift your sense of self. In Happiness, she sings about the me of now not being the same as the me of the past, and that she has not yet met the me of the future. Repeatedly, she approaches various aspects of the questions we all, but especially during the teen years, wrestle with- Who am I? What sort of friend am I? What sort of artist am I?

 

Inviting young people to examine who their true selves are, develop the good habits they need to be excellent (Aristotle would call that virtuous), and encouraging them to live in accord with who they truly are, these are the core tasks of my work with college bound teens. As they learn to be themselves, they need time and encouragement to explore who they are. They need coaching to identify the skills, the habits they need to develop so they can become excellent at being who they are. In order to develop good habits, accountability and encouragement is needed. These are the key elements of my work, particularly during the 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th grade years. As Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom” and “We are what we repeatedly do.”

 

Selecting majors and colleges come after that work is done and is completely directed by that work. Skipping the foundational work done during the first two years of high school is like building a building directly on the ground. It has no foundation and will slide or sink or collapse when the rains and the winds come. Building a foundation is even more important in our children than in our houses.

 

If you have a college bound (or potentially college bound) 8th grader, or high school freshman or sophomore, it is time for us to meet. Every month that goes by, opportunities for growth, affirmation, direction, and healthy “coming into their own as a person” are missed. NOW is the time to start investing in the next phase your children’s futures. Email me today to schedule a consultation. I’m offering 40% off consultations this month, in honour of my birthday. (Discount offer ends 11/30/2024) KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com

 

To read Susan Andrews’ article: https://philosophynow.org/issues/164/Taylor_Swift_A_Philosopher_For_Our_Times