In general, the more popular and rigorous the college you are considering is, the more on the ball you have to be. After you’ve narrowed down the choices to the schools you and your child agree to apply to, I suggest you find each school’s website and thoroughly research their admissions requirements. Things to look out for are: minimum grade point average (GPA), minimum high school course prerequisites (for example, has your child taken enough high school math classes?), minimum scores on the ACT and/or SAT national tests, and application deadline.

Four-year, fulltime undergraduate university programs can require anything from three months to one year before as an application deadline. Junior colleges and community colleges usually require less notice and have lower admissions standards. Also, remember that following graduation of Horizon’s program, junior colleges are often affordable and family-friendly alternatives that allow the student to work, study, stabilize bonds with the family, and avoid the college-dorm partying scene and its temptations. Remember, flexibility on your part usually results in the most workable solutions for everyone involved. One strategy many parents are choosing is to have their child attend junior college to take care of the general undergraduate course requirements, and then transfer to a four-year university. This allows the student, the family, and the family pocketbook the best of all worlds.

Horizon Academy can assist you in the typical ways any other public high school can with college admission assistance. If you need your child to fill out college applications, you can send them to the school and we will allow him or her to fill them out and send them back to you for further processing. Our Academic Staff can offer editing suggestions on college admissions essays. We can send off official transcripts to colleges if you send us the necessary mailing addresses. Your student can sign up and take the ACT and the SAT (we offer each test twice a year), and we will forward on the test scores to you when you need them.

Sometimes it happens that plans for the future have to be made, but the student is a little confused as to what she or he wants to do with their life. In this case, we have self-administered career aptitude tests which your student can take for suggestions as to which academic degree or career training to pursue. We offer Career Days at Horizon Academy, and also allow recruiters for the Armed Forces to come to the school and make presentations.

Finally, I urge you all to relax, focus on the program, and be willing to let your child experience the aftereffects of their past choices. If their GPA isn’t what they’d like it to be, remind them that it was their choice to make it that way, and it is their choice to change their future to what they want it to be. If it is taking longer than they’d like to graduate high school, remind them again that it was their choice to create that situation, not yours. If money set aside for their college education has had to go elsewhere, let them get creative and energetic about finding sources for funding, including work-study arrangements and attending college part time. If they make it through the program, your child has proven that they know how to work hard and long for what they want, and don’t let them make you think otherwise!

Please do not hesitate to contact your Family Rep or the Academic Department if you have any questions. We are here to help.