Bellevue East High School
Counseling Office
(402) 293-4151
College Admissions Information
Overview Search Tools College Info Application Process Admissions Tests Placement Tests
This page is intended to provide some quick resources to help students find information they will need to choose a school or a set of schools that interest them and then proceed with the application process. In addition to the resources listed below, the student is encouraged to take advantage of our Career Center and the Counseling Office where they can find lots of help and advice to assist them in finding a suitable path to follow after graduation from Bellevue East High School. If you would like to view a PowerPoint presentation about this subject area, click here for College 101.
In general, a student needs to start by determining what career area interests them and find out what level of education is required to get into that line of work. This could lead to a decision that one of the following possibilities will apply:
1. College may not be necessary
2. A trade school might be best
3. The local community colleges might offer the required associates degree or diploma
4. Maybe a college or university is the only place to earn the required bachelors degree
If the student needs to complete some form of higher education, the next step would be to find a school that fits their goals for the most reasonable cost. Students normally will pick up to a handful of schools that fit their needs and then start working the application process for those schools.
In the sections below, you will find some resources to help with selecting those schools, finding information about each school's admissions requirements, and completing the required admissions testing. This should be a big part of what students should be doing during the Fall of their senior year. Of course, the challenge is to find time to take care of this planning while continuing to do well in school and stay active in extracurricular activities at school and in the community.
There are still books you can find at the bookstore or in a library that you can use to find appropriate schools, but the best and cheapest way is to use the many resources available to you on the Internet. Here are a few places to look:
www.bridges.com (Under the Site ID tab, enter 0034243 and use password smart to find the BEHS page. Then use their School Finder under the Choices Planner.)
www.EducationQuest.org (Select Criteria on their College Profiles page.)
www.petersons.com (Select Advanced Search on their Colleges and Universities tab.)
www.anycollege.com (Click on Start Your Search.)
http://salliemae.collegeanswer.com (Find Search for Schools under their Selecting tab.)
www.students.gov (Select Choose a School under the Plan Your Education tab for lots of other links.)
Helpful Links to Information about specific Schools:
If you already have certain schools in mind and want to find more details about those schools, your best bet is to go to the web site of that school for details. There is a handy index of web sites for colleges and universities, both 4-year and 2-year schools, at www.ecola.com/college.php that we like to use, but you can also link to schools through many other web pages. Or, you could simply type the name of the school in your favorite search tool or even directly into the browser bar on your Internet interface. Then check for their main page that usually ends in ".edu" to be sure you are going in the right direction.
For schools of all types within Nebraska and the six states that surround it, one of the best web sites to help you get to the right web sites is www.EducationQuest.org where you click on College Profiles. Select a state on their map to get a list of schools in that state. When you call up that school's profile, the name of the school at the top of the profile is also a link to their Internet home page.
If you want a government web site with information and links to most schools throughout the country, try the U.S. Department of Education's College Navigator (formerly COOL) website at http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator and type any part of the school's name in their search tool. A list of schools containing that word or words will appear, leading to details about the school and the link to their web page. You can also choose the parameters that interest you and put those in the tool to find schools that match your interest anywhere in the country.
Once you find the schools that interest you, you will need to determine what their admissions process is. Most school web pages have a link on their home pages for Prospective Students, Future Students, Undergraduate Admissions, Admissions, or something like that. Find your way to the Admissions Office home page and you will find all the details about who is eligible to apply and how to submit your application. The majority of schools now have their admissions application automated on the web, but they may give you the option to print out an application instead. If you are looking for a paper application, you can also check our college library to see if they provided us any, or ask us to download one for you. Sometimes admissions fees are lower or even waived if you apply on the web...that varies by school.
After determining that you are eligible to apply, find out what the deadline is to submit an application for admission with the best consideration for scholarship opportunities. There may also be different deadlines for Early Action or Early Decision that come months before the regular admissions deadline. These are only important if you are certain you want to attend that school and you want to find out your chances as early as possible. Don't wait for your latest ACT scores or the end of the first semester of your senior year to see if your GPA goes up, just get that application submitted as soon as you can and let revised numbers catch up later. Be sure to follow all directions carefully for additional materials required like counselor forms, essays, letters of recommendation, and transcripts.
Speaking of transcripts, that is something we are happy to help you with. Once you submit your application online or when you have your paper application ready to go, just stop in the counseling office and ask us to send the required transcript for you. If there is a form for the counselor to complete, please bring that in with you. We will ask you to get a release form signed by your parent or guardian (or you can sign it if you are 18) and then we will gladly process your request. The normal set of materials we send include an official transcript of your grades, your admissions test scores, your senior class schedule, and a profile of our school that explains our grading system. If you have a paper application, we can mail that and any other attachments along with the transcripts.
The most common admissions test required in this region for college admissions is the ACT Test. You can pick up a package of information about the test and instructions for registration in our office or you can simply go to their web site at www.ACTStudent.org and find all of that information and the registration tools online. There are usually five test sessions available in this region each year, but we only offer the test on our campus on three of those dates. Most Juniors start with the session in April while seniors usually retake the test in October and/or December.
You will find an option to take or not to take the Writing portion of the test that is often confusing. The majority of the schools in this region do not require this portion of the test, so you can save your money and skip it. However, before you do that, be sure that none of the schools on your list require or recommend taking that part of the test. If one does, sign up to take it. If you are going for early admission, you might want do to that while you are a Junior, but otherwise, it might be better to take that during the fall of your senior year. In short, it is rare that you will need to take the writing portion unless you are applying to a highly selective school or one that requires the SAT Test.
Speaking of the SAT Reasoning Test (aka, SAT I), that is the other major college admissions test that is preferred by many elite schools and those located on the east or west coasts. You can also pick up registration and practice materials in our office for the SAT test or you can simply go to their web site at www.collegeboard.com and get that information online. They also offer several test dates to chose from each year and we usually offer the November test here at Bellevue East. Again, you can take this test during your Junior year and then retake it during the fall of your senior year.
No confusion on the writing portion of this test, because it is included whether you like it or not. However, there is some confusion between the SAT I and the SAT II Subject Tests. The Subject Tests are more focused, one-hour tests on specific areas such as Chemistry, Calculus, or a language. Again, most schools will accept the SAT I for admissions, but the more selective ones also require one or several of the SAT II Subject Tests for admissions. The selection may be up to you or may be specified according to your desired major and that will all be spelled out on the schools web page. These SAT II tests are presented on the same dates as the SAT I, so you need to plan that into your testing sequence so you can get all of the required tests in before your deadlines. Registration is done the same way as you would register for the SAT I, but you can sign up for up to three of these tests on any one test date.
You might be able to skip the ACT or SAT if your plan is to attend a community college or technical school instead of a 4-year college or university. In that case, you will most likely not need to compete for admission, but the will want you to test for placement in the appropriate English or Math classes required for their degrees, diplomas, or certificates. Most of the community colleges in this area require the ASSET Test or the COMPASS Test before registration in Math or English classes. These tests are presented free of charge by their admissions staff and you can take them at any time. As a convenience to you, a representative from Metropolitan Community College comes to Bellevue East several times each year to present this test to anyone who wishes to take it. You can have the results form this test reported to any school of your choice, if Metro is not where you want to attend. Just coordinate that with their admissions representative and they will transfer the results to the schools you choose.
Some Universities and Colleges also require Math, English, and other placement testing before admitted students can register for their classes. For example, UNO and UNL both have placement tests that you will be required to take, so be expecting mail about those once you are accepted for admissions. As a convenience, the UNL admissions office does offer their Math Placement Test at our campus once each year. Otherwise, they have you take those tests during New Student Orientation. UNO has a testing office that will send you a registration card to help you register for one of their testing sessions during your senior year.
This page was created by Jim Sheridan, 293-4167, jamessheridan@hotmail.com.
The BEHS Web Manager is Derek Babb, 293-4150, babbbehs@gmail.com .
Last revision of this page was 5/30/2008.
Note: Not responsible for information found by linking beyond this page.