Since colleges look at all 4 years of high school, it is important that a student starts "planning" for college the moment that they begin their freshman year. While a student cannot apply for college or most scholarships until senior year, they can begin planning right away! Colleges look at grades, attendance, disiplinary records, extracurriculars, leadership roles, and test scores when reviewing a student's application. Make sure to look at our checklists for each grade level:

Freshman / Sophomore

Junior

Senior

At Gateway STEM, students have many opportunities to get involved in athletics, clubs, and organizations. Students that are involved are more competitve for admissions applications and scholarship opportunities. Besides just being involved in an organization, students should strive to hold leadership opportunities at school and within their community.

Other places that students can find opportunities to get involved and/or find leadership experiences are through community organizations, employment, or college exploratory programs. It helps to have a wide range of experiences to discuss in admission / scholarship essays.

Students can also find summer opportunities through Blue4Summer.

The A+ Scholarship Program provides scholarship funds to eligible graduates who attend a participating public community college or vocational/technical school, or certain private two-year vocational/technical schools in the state of Missouri.

Students do not need to hold an "A+" average to receive the A+ Scholarship, but must meet the following requirements:

• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
• Attend a designated A+ high school for 2 years prior to graduation.
• Graduate from an A+ designated high school with an overall unweighted grade point average of 2.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
• Have at least a 95% attendance record overall for grades 9-12.
• Perform at least 50 hours of unpaid tutoring or mentoring, of which up to 25% may include job shadowing prior to graduation. 
• Maintain a record of good citizenship and avoid the unlawful use of drugs and/or alcohol while in grades 9-12.
• Have achieved a score of proficient or advanced on the Algebra I end of course exam or a higher level DESE approved end-of-course exam in the field of mathematics.

Even if a student is not planning on attending a 4 year institutions, some universities will give scholarship dollars to students for completing the above requirements. For more information or to sign up a student should see thier counselor. More information can be found HERE.

There are many tips/tricks on the internet if you search "scholarship essays," but a winning scholarship essay is personal, heartfelt, and not written in one sitting. For a list of Common Application essay prompts and hints, check out Princeton Review's Blog for a list of things that readers are looking for. Remember you can write just a few of really good essays, and as long as they meet the requirements of the prompt, you can use one essay for many different applications or scholarships.

Yes! If a student is a borderline acceptance/denial applicant, a college can request more information about the student including a personal statements from counselors/teachers that speak upon the student's behavior, attendance, and citizenship within the school.

Since attendance is taken very seriously at the collegiate level, Gateway STEM requires that a student to have at least 93% attendance to attend a college and/or career field trip.

Email mikayla.cowen@slps.org and I will get back to you with the answer!