The following links are provided as resources but they are external sites and responsible for their own content. We encourage parents/guardians be closely involved with their student's search for potential careers and training options. Inclusion in the following list is not an endorsement of all the content or advice. Please contact Mr. Bredbenner immediately if there are any concerns about the quality or content with any links below so the issue can be addressed.
Career Planning
What are you interested in doing after high school? Students are encouraged to seek out a career which combines their interests and their strengths. In order to find potential options that meet both criteria, it is recommended that all students take at least one Career Interest Survey. These connect personal interests and career characteristics to help you find a job that you are more likely to enjoy doing - but remember it is called work for a reason.
The US Dept. of Labor runs an incredible site for learning about careers and job prospects - O*Net Online. Within the site, a very useful resource is MyNextMove, which offers a free interest Survey. (You can even use the job profile pages to learn where you can get the training you need, which is effectively a college finder for many jobs!)
The Department of Labor's "Department of Labor Statistics" maintains the best source for jobs in the coming years through their Occupation Outlook Handbook. Ever wonder about the kinds and number of jobs available in the metro Washington, D.C. and how much they pay? There are 748 jobs listed in 23 major groups for the area's Occupational and Wage Estimates (as of May 2023).
The Jackson Vocational Interest Survey is based on 60 years of research and is the most robust and legitimate tool of its type available. It costs $23 and may take an hour or so, but it could help ensure that 4-6 years and $100,000+ invested in college is well spent.
Almost every job that interests high school students is part of an industry (group of jobs) that has many career possibilities. For example, it is fairly common for students to say they want to be a doctor or nurse, but dozens of other careers exist in the field of medicine. Sites like EduMed help explain these options and what it takes to pursue these jobs.
Another impressive site called The Forage has a dozens of good articles about sorting out what Careers could work for you and is built around the idea of free Job Simulation experiences ranging from 15 minutes to multiple hours.
College Planning
We strongly believe that students choosing college for their next step should be most concerned with finding a good fit for their interests and preferences. Choosing a school based solely on the fame or the convenience may not have the best outcome for you if it doesn't support what you want to do. In the end, the most important name on the diploma is the student's, not the school's.
How are you going to pay for it? For almost everyone, financial aid is needed in some form or another. If that's you, you will need to have your parents fill out the FAFSA during your senior year of high school. If you are younger, you and your parents can use the quick and "easy" FAFSA 4caster to estimate what your family will be expected to contribute towards college costs. The affiliated College Scorecard has great information about college costs, graduation rates and post-graduation earnings.
There may be no better single source of information about planning and paying for college than the student resources available through ECMC. All Forest Park seniors receive a paper copy of the Opportunities packet from School Counseling and all 9th graders in the gifted program are given one in English or Spanish at their DSP conference.
Appily is also a wealth of information. College and scholarship searches on this site require signing up, and there are free articles and advice that are well worth considering. The Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary especially recommended Mark Kantrowitz's article about the most common college savings mistakes. Other excellent places to look for learning about colleges and paying are out there, such as FastWeb.
There is an amazing amount of useful information available through The College Board website. Want help finding a college, career or scholarship? Use the filters and tools at Big Future. Want to know how an AP test score helps you at a particular college? Look at the school's page in Big Future and search for the school on the AP Credit Policy Search tool site. The College Board is also the place to register for the SAT, get practice tests for PSAT, SAT, and AP classes and much more. Many students are also choosing to take the ACT.
More and more students are going to NOVA (Northern Virginia Community College) for an Associate's Degree and then transferring to a four-year college in state to finish a Bachelor's Degree. This is a wonderful way to save money, but there are important requirements and procedures for the Guaranteed Admissions Agreements. There are so many students going from NOVA to George Mason University in popularly selected fields that the two schools have established the NOVA ADVANCE program to streamline the process and give students the benefits of both worlds.
For students who are interested in applying for a Service Academy, you'll need to start the process junior year to apply for a nomination early in Senior year through the office of your US Representative.
Students who want to be athletes in college should become familiar with the requirements of the NCAA Eligibility Center.
High School Planning
Students can access their transcript through StudentVue.
All students receive suggestions on course selections based on their goals as well as reminders of course sequences. Handouts on those topics are available in the modules for gifted students. Others are welcome to stop by 1004. For iT course sequences, see the latest information posted on the main iT Program page.
The Virginia Governor's Early College Scholar Program opens doors of opportunity and greater access to the Virtual Virginia online courses (including many AP classes). Talk to your counselor or see the Gifted teachers in room 1004 for more information.
If you found a broken link, have questions about these materials or suggestions for other resources to include here, please contact Mr. Bredbenner.Many students have benefited from taking classes through the VDOE's Virtual Virginia program, PWCS's own Virtual High School, and/or NVCC's offerings. Any student looking into these options must consult with his or her School Counselor to be sure they are making a fully informed decision.
For example, Mr. Smith, the Director of School Counseling, informed us that students should not take Personal Finance and Economics through Virtual Virginia over the summer because they will most likely not get to take a competency exam that satisfies the Workplace Readiness requirement for graduation. This is not a problem with other summer classes through Virtual Virginia or all the other ways to take the PF&E course, but could cause a big problem for students who find themselves still needing the Workplace Readiness in order to graduate.