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Create your own college bound notebook and keep your student organized!
Free worksheets for awards, a college application submission checklist, and more!
COLLEGE BOUND NOTEBOOK
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The high school years are not easy, for the student or the parents! Some days you find yourself drowning in paperwork. Since my husband works with college admissions, he came up with a clever idea to keep us organized. His idea was a college bound notebook. It contains all the important items you'll need when it comes to college applications.
One of the best parts of the college bound notebook is that it keeps track of things that are important, but can be easily forgotten. By tracking things from Freshman year on, you're able to have all the info you need in one handy place. As my son starts his way through college applications, it's been a game changer. Today I'm sharing some of the worksheets that we keep in the college bound notebook to help you out too!
***I've made it super easy for you to get your hands on this fantastic printer! Simply hover on the photo below, click, and you'll go directly to the order page!***
These free printables help give you a good start with a personalized high school binder. I printed all these pages off on our son's sporty purple HP Deskjet 3722 All-in-One Printer/Copier/Scanner. Easy Peasy!
Basics of the College Bound Notebook:
The best part about this binder is that it is fully customizable. Maybe you need more volunteer hour sheets? You can print as many as you need! I love that you start tracking your Freshman year. It's amazing the things you forget!
I've included some basic printables to get you started. Click on the one you would like to be taken to the free printable.
- Application Progress Tracker (check mark off when transcripts are sent, test scores are submitted, etc)
- Award Tracker (keep track of the dates received, and info about specific awards)
- College Pro's and Con's worksheet
- Volunteer Hours worksheet
To Assemble the College Bound Notebook:
I would suggest using clear binder sleeves to hold your printables and other pieces of paper. It just makes like so much easier not worrying about a hole punch! You can set up your dividers to your preference. For our binder we have the following categories:
- Awards - in addition to the tracker, we put copies of the awards in a clear binder sleeve
- Volunteering - an easy spot to see all those hours
- College Options - this is a great place for your pro's and con's sheets as well as the college pamphlets.
- Testing - keep a copy the scores of tests like the SAT and ACT
- Essays - keep copies of essays written
- Financial Aid - copies of your FAFSA info, important forms you need for the FAFSA, etc
- Scholarships - info on scholarships you might be interested in applying for
Again, it's all totally customizable. We just found it was so much easier to set up the binder and have everything in one spot than wonder where that award from Freshman year was! I'm sure as our year goes on, I'll think of more things and add to our list of printables.
The HP Deskjet 3722 All-in-One Printer/Copier/Scanner made printing out these trackers a breeze! The printer allows me to print from my smart phone, tablet, laptop or my desktop! Talk about options! I have mine set up to our network, and with several of us using different operating systems, it makes printing so much easier.
I picked Sporty Purple because that happens to be their high school colors. How great is that? Walmart offers this as an exclusive color, along with Poppy Pink and Dragonfly Blue. Remember, these new colors are ONLY available at Walmart!
For being so small, it packs a big punch! It is the world's smallest all in one printer! It is designed to fit - and look good- virtually anywhere. Since it's so petite, I have it situated in our kitchen on the bar area. We all know the kitchen is the control center of high school work!
Be sure to check out the HP Deskjet 3722 All-in-One Printer/Copier/Scanner for yourself! Walmart stores will be doing live demo's to show you how much this powerful machine can do! The locations and times for the demos can be found HERE.
My printer wasn't actually in the printer aisle but was located on an end-cap in the electronics department. Damien, a super helpful employee at my local store helped me find it when I didn't see it in the dedicated printer area. He's my new best friend!
Remember, these super fun colors are only available at Walmart! Set up is a breeze, as it contains everything you need from the power cord to the ink cartridges!
Like this idea? HP has even more great ideas for you! Find them on their social media channels:
- Youtube
Stacey Werner - client says
Applying for college would have been so much easier if I had started a notebook like this my freshman year! Such a great idea.
MrsMajHoff says
Thanks Stacey!