Welcome to the Counselor Zone

At your fingertips, High School Counselors/Personnel, College Admission Counselors, library and community agency staff have access to a centralized source of information concerning college planning, paying for school, and career planning information for students and their parents, as well as information concerning ISAC's programs, processes, and resources.

Counselor Message Board

The Counselor Message Board is updated each week. New messages for the week are identified by the symbol. Items under the More section, located toward the bottom of the page, provide links to information on topics that were recently listed on this Message Board.

 ISAC will offer "How to Conduct a Financial Aid Presentation – in Spanish" - one of our most popular professional development opportunities for counselors, mentors, and college access professionals - on Friday, September 19, 2008. Details, including how to register, are provided in an August 26th e-Message. Information regarding other professional development opportunities being offered over the next few months can be found in an August 19th e-Message.

 Due to the Labor Day holiday, ISAC offices will be closed on Monday, September 1st, reopening on Tuesday, September 2nd. Access collegezone.com anytime, or send an e-mail message to a School Services Representative for questions or inquiries.

An August 11, 2008 Dear Colleague Letter
(DCL ANN-08-10) announces that a recorded version of the U.S. Department of Education's June 2008 Internet briefing on recent changes made to the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs is available online. The briefing provides an overview of the student loan provisions of the recently enacted Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 (ECASLA), as well as information on the requirements and provisions of the new TEACH Grant Program (which became effective on July 1, 2008).

ISAC gathers information during 2008-09, including sixth-semester data from high schools, that is used in making 2009-10 student awards for the State Scholar, Merit Recognition Scholarship (MRS), and Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship programs [collectively referred to as the High School Scholarship Programs (HSSP)]. School-generated sixth semester rosters must be submitted to ISAC on or before September 12, 2008 to prevent ISAC from generating a roster at a later date.

More

State Legislative Update

U.S. Department of Education's Federal Aid First

List of ISAC's Participating Lenders

State & Federal Aid Estimator

Federal Student Aid's FAFSA4caster

FAFSA Completion Information