COLLEGE-BOUND SENIORS OFFER ADVICE.

Byline: Cynthia Teed Daily News Staff Writer

Some of the best and brightest of Santa Clarita's Class of '99 are already mentally packing their bags for parts eagerly anticipated and, for the most part, unknown - their colleges of choice.

The head counselors at Canyon, Saugus, Hart and Valencia high schools all have success stories to tell about outstanding college-bound seniors making plans to attend top schools near and far away from home.

And the counselors agree financial constraints will affect the final decisions the students make - explaining the trend in the William S. Hart Union High School District for about 30 percent of the graduating seniors to attend four-year institutions while about 59 percent opt for community colleges.

Most counselors said Tuesday it's really too early to predict where the students will eventually enroll, but trends do have a tendency to continue and they expect the class of '99 to reflect the characteristics of last year's graduates.

Hart High School's head counselor, Colleen Flaherty, said she and her counterparts at other campuses keep close tabs on the graduating seniors; definitely not an easy task, they agree, when acceptance letters can bring joy to those who receive them and despair to those who don't. Yet, all the counselors said they liked and admired the students and enjoyed sharing in the students' success stories while working with them up close and personal.

Every time a graduating senior comes into her office with more good college acceptance news, Flaherty rejoices, then takes out a map pin in the shape of a flag and triumphantly places it on a wall map in the counselors' office.

The map, long a counselors' tradition, pinpoints the location of the college or university the Hart-graduating senior plans to attend next fall.

And some of the colleges and institutions her students are heading for are nothing if not impressive. For instance. . .

Trevor Upham will attend Princeton in New Jersey to study pre-med while Renee Reyna will trek off to Palo Alto to Stanford University to pursue her interests in law and political science.

Both teen-agers stress the importance of applying to the college of choice before Nov. 1 of the senior year.

``Most students wait to apply toward the end of November, '' Reyna said.

Both seniors thought that by applying earlier, they had a better chance to beat the crowd and to be evaluated more thoroughly by the college admissions committees.

Upham advised college-bound underclassmen to get to know their teachers and form professional relationships with them. He said teachers can write more effective letters of recommendation for students if they know the students' strengths.

Upham and Reyna visited the university campuses, did practice math problems to improve their SAT scores and decided early in their high school years to try for admission to prestigious schools.

And both students were willing to go the extra mile that the elite schools require.

``The people in the top percent of their classes in high school aren't really brilliant, but they're the people who take advantage of the opportunity the high school offers. And sometimes they get a lucky break,'' said Upham, as Reyna nodded in agreement.

Students and Flaherty emphasize the necessity of getting involved with high school academics, learning to get along with the faculty and counselors and to take advantage of sports programs and a few extracurricular activities. They advise students against collecting a laundry list of activities for college applications, but to instead show commitment to a few outside interests in their quest for acceptance to a first class college - with or without the ivy.

Flaherty has been keeping track of seniors and their plans for more than 20 years and the college acceptance game is nothing new to her.

``Most of the students come by and tell us of their plans,'' Flaherty said Monday. ``We generally have a pretty good indication of what the students are planning.''

And counselors get information about the students' college acceptances through a survey distributed during government and civics classes by Gary Wexler, the district's director of curriculum.

Wexler said he keeps statistics each year on the district's graduating students to help identify trends.

The required senior government and civics classes give Wexler the captive audience he says he needs for distributing an in-depth survey because the classes reach all seniors, not just the college bound.

Last year, Wexler found that of the 1,948 students receiving high school diplomas or equivalencies - the highest number ever in the district's 53-year history - 90 percent indicated they would attend either two- or four- year colleges or universities or trade or technical schools. Fifty-nine percent planned to attend a community college.

Many students choose the community college route - College of the Canyons being the most popular - because the price is right, the class size is small, the faculty is excellent and many of the programs are innovative, Flaherty said.

In addition, COC offers an articulation program with universities offering students guaranteed admission into four-year institutions if certain requirements are met during the first two years at the community college level.

According to Flaherty, most students at Hart who chose a four-year school usually go to a California State University or to public institutions in Arizona or Oregon.

And for the non-college bound student, Flaherty says there are several options.

``I encourage those students who have not made up their minds which college to attend, to look at jobs - either by investigating vocational programs, innovative programs offered by COC or by interviewing employees working at companies the students admire,'' Flaherty said.

Asking employees how they got their start doing a certain type of job can help clarify many points for undecided students, she said.

Flaherty also advises students to check out the career center at COC.

CLASS OF 1998

Most Santa Clarita Valley high school graduates were college bound last year. The following reflects the results of follow-up studies by the William S. Hart Union High School District for the area's four high schools and two alternative campuses.

Community college 59.3%

Cal State 8.6%

Four year private 8.0%

University of California  7.4%

Public out of state 4.4%

Work full-time 3.5%

Armed forces 2.9%

Vocational/technical programs 2.6%

Undecided 3.4%

SOURCE: William S. Hart Union High School District

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Chart

PHOTO (Color) From left in front, Hart High School seniors Meagan Cholakian, Janeeta Iwanicki and Renee Reyna will be going to college as well as Ryan Parmenter and Trevor Upham.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News

CHART: CLASS OF 1998 (see text)