College Coach Resource Page
Welcome to your one-stop-shop for volunteering with ScholarMatch!
Monthly Goals + Resources
Monthly Goals
- Milestone 1 — Welcome: Confirm if students have signed their program agreement with their parent or legal guardian.
- Milestone 2 – Building a College List
- Milestone 3 – Prepare for the SAT/ACT
- Milestone 4 – Build A Scholarship List
- Milestone 6 – Draft College Essays
Resources
- College Ready Milestones: Share these with students!
- College Application Tracker: As students create their college list, have them use this tracker to stay organized.
- List Building Resources: If you have any other tools, websites, and resources you want to use during this process, please feel free to incorporate them when advising students!
- Building Rapport with Your Student Guide: We suggest using this guide to foster productive conversations with your student, gain further insight into their college process, and understand the best ways to offer support and guidance.
- High Graduation Rate Schools (Also known as CollegePoint Schools): This list includes four-year colleges and universities in the United States with the highest graduation rates, 70% or higher. They represent a diverse range of geographies and institution types and include safety, match, and reach for students.
Announcements
Read the latest Coach newsletter! If you’re interested in reading the student newsletters, click the link below:
- DCSF/Kayne Destination College Student Newsletter
- CollegePoint Student Newsletter
FAFSA & Financial Aid Goals
Do you have questions about financial aid? We recommend reaching out to our Varsity Coaches and visiting our college toolkit to review resources available for Financial Aid. We recommend that you support your students in gathering the necessary documents required to submit their applications. Our recommended deadline for students to submit their financial aid applications is December 15th.
COVID-19 Counselor Toolkit
This kit contains information regarding resources, opportunities, information, and updates to better assist and inform students and their families.
Haven’t Been Matched Yet? Read this: Our Matching Update
This document will be updated monthly throughout at least August 2020, and provide a sense of how far along we are in processing our new class of 2021 students. We hope this provides some context around this year’s matching timeline.
Community & Support Platforms
Upcoming Events
Immigrants Rising Webinars
- Immigrant Rising Part 2: Thursday October 29, 2020 3-4PM PST. Register here
Application Overview Webinar
Monday November 9rd from 4-5 PM PDT our team will be leading a webinar to review the components of the CSU and UC applications. We’ll highlight tools to support you and your students through each application and discuss strategies to prevent common errors. Register here
Office Hours: November
We are hosting optional virtual office hours for volunteers to connect with SM staff and one another! They will be held on:
These office hours are drop in style, so feel free to join to ask a quick question or join us for the entire hour. These office hours are not recorded, but the goal is to offer another place for coaches to check in with us, build community, and get some questions answered!
College Toolkit
The College Toolkit is our resource bank/archive documents, guides, and links on topics as wide ranging as how to build a balance college list, how to submit the FAFSA, scholarship lists, and more.
If you have resources you think should be added to the toolkit, we’d love to consider them!
Quick Links
Data Tracking & Reporting Needs: For students in C/O 2021 you will only need to submit Coach Reports. Read through this document for more details.
Milestones: Students are required to submit their College Ready Milestones, along with occasional other check-ins. Review the new milestones here.
Student Support Playbook: Review the playbook before your first conversation with students!
College Ready Milestones
You’re encouraged to look through our Milestones page for an overview of the year’s work ahead!
Please note that the majority of these dates represent only a suggested deadline to help keep you and your students on track – we recognize that each student has different needs and works through the process at a different pace.
Student Communication and Engagement
Helpful Student Communication Guides
Have you been matched with a student who isn’t responding? Has your scholar gone radio silent after you began working together? Is your student rescheduling all your meetings? We know from precedent that this unfortunately happens with a small number of our students each year, so we’ve created a few guides to help you out and clarify our expectations.
