Exterminating College Process Termites

Kate Peltz
Director of College Counseling
Concord Academy

My husband and I were in the midst of a home improvement project. Everything was going smoothly until we took out a large shrub, could better view a post on our porch, and discovered evidence of insect damage.  More than what I could see, what worried me was the places my imagination took me.  I had visions of swarming termites devouring my porch from the inside out. We did not see evidence of any active critters, but how could we be sure we were not facing a major issue?  My mind raced to dark places, causing me to feel both vulnerable and filled with questions.  How big was the scope of our problem?  Is there such a thing as "normal" wear and tear?  Did every very old home have some insect damage? I longed for an expert; I wanted guarantees.  Then it hit me. 

College Essay Advice Gone Wrong

Tyler Sant
Director of College Counseling
Holy Innocents' Episcopal School

Recently the New York Times published an article titled “How to Write a Good College Application Essay.”  The article would have been better titled “Confusing, Out-of-Context Tips for Writing a Disjointed and Inauthentic College Essay.” 

Slaying your Senior Summer: Taking Full Advantage of Your Summer Vacation

Carter Delloro
Associate Director of College Counseling
The Taft School

With roughly a month remaining in your summer vacation (your timing may vary, depending on where in the world you are), what are some of the things you can do as a rising senior and soon-to-be-college-applicant to make sure you’re making the most of your time?

The Property Brothers as a Metaphor for the College Visit

Peter Jennings
Director of College Counseling
Concord Academy

For most college counselors, the demands of school year limit TV time, but everyone needs a little escapism: mine, I’ll confess, is Property Brothers. Aided by the twin skills of negotiating real estate deals and orchestrating a renovation, Drew and Jonathan Scott help families find and furnish homes.

List-Making and Loving the Child You Have

Beth Slattery
Upper School Dean
Harvard Westlake School

When my son was in 7^th grade, he placed into the highest-level math group. This was a source of great pride for me…until he failed the first three tests. I distinctly remember battling in my head: do I have him move down to a more appropriate level or do I keep him where he is and hope it gets better? I wish I could say I immediately moved him down, but I did not. He stuck it out the whole year, ending with a mercy B- and having no better understanding of algebra than he had 9 months earlier.  Again, I was at a crossroads. This time, I chose the right path for my son. He repeated Algebra (meaning he was no longer in the highest-level math class) and regained his confidence in math.

Tips on Nailing the College Interview

Optimizing a Conference

How to take advantage of a college admissions and counseling conference

An important part of our professional work as college counselors is to attend and participate in regional and national conferences, and I relish these opportunities to hear about new admissions trends, discover better ways to do our work, and connect with old and new friends on both sides of the desk. Over the years, I have kept a list of tips on how to get the most out of a conference, and I hope these 10 ideas help you get the most out of the next conference you attend! Maybe our paths will cross at a conference in the near future.

Ten Tips for a Successful College Search (Part 1, Tips 1-5)

Advice for high school students

Ten Tips for a Successful College Search (Part 2, Tips 6-10)

Advice for high school students

Big Data 

With that said, this frustration around data is also one of the few reasons college counselors won't be replaced by robots in the next decade. So we've got that going for us . . . which is nice. With all that in mind, here are a few trends and highlights I've noticed from the most recent admissions cycle.

DISCLAIMERS 
I feel obligated to point out the obvious about ACCIS: we all work at private institutions with predominantly affluent students. As a result, I am focusing on some of the most selective colleges in the nation, but these colleges and trends are not indicative of higher education at large. Also despite wearing glasses, I am neither an economist nor a mathematician. These are simply personal theories and interpretations of data available to the public. 

THE MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEYS CIRCA 2012
In other words, the colleges that are, as the kids say these days, on fleek:

I AM YOUR COUNSELOR 

Last Thursday, I closed up my computer for the day at 5:15pm, headed home, and, upon arrival, refreshed my email on my phone, despite the fact that I had checked email just minutes prior. Then, I went outside to enjoy the beautiful spring weather, and when I returned home about 20 minutes later, I refreshed my email again. A lot of college news was hitting the streets Thursday afternoon but, no, I am not an applicant; I am your college counselor.

I try to take advantage of every moment I have with you, starting in junior year, to help empower you with good, accurate information on the qualitative elements of a college and the quantitative (and oftentimes confounding) elements of a college’s admissions standards. What I don’t want is for you to be surprised by the ultimate outcomes. I know that sometimes, despite my best efforts, while you might intellectually understand what I’m saying, your heart might tell you something different and, without sounding condescending, I totally understand.

A Coalition of One's Own

Bryan Rutledge
Director of College Counseling
Woodward Academy

The values and beliefs of the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success are commendable and appealing.  How, then, do those most able to meet the needs of students team up to serve the students who need the most? 

We in education are engaged in spirited debate to answer this question.  It’s good to shake things up every now and then.  Unless, of course, the parties rush to barricades where we question one another’s motives and are paralyzed by disagreement, cobbling a wobbly Tower of Babel.  The most under-resourced students deserve our best efforts.

Sports analogies are cliché but instructive.  When I taught tennis, I reminded students of basics such as keeping your eyes on the ball.  Likewise, let’s review the basics of assisting under-resourced students, some of their most pressing educational needs and what will answer them.  While there is nothing really new in the following list, please see it as a timely, even urgent invitation to reflection, collaboration, and action.

1. Research shows that primary and secondary students lose academic ground during summers when prior learning is not reinforced.  Many academic communities are fortunate to have the facilities, professors, teachers, and time to conduct a month-long summer course for under-resourced populations that reinforces the basics: pure math, laboratory science, and analytical writing.  Imagine what could be accomplished if these short courses were co-taught by master professors and schoolteachers.  Imagine complementing the academic lessons with classes co-taught by admission and college counselors: classes on financial aid, scholarship, application essays, resumes, standardized tests, and interviews. 
2. As with all major institutions, education has an essential political front to reach those who hold the levers and purses of power.  There are success stories.  For example, from California to Alabama leaders in state governments have been implementing strategies to reduce or even eliminate tuition for community college.  Colleges and universities profit by making room for transfer students who take this path. The White House, too, has weighed in with initiatives to reduce college costs and crippling loan debt.  Whether individually or collectively, we all can make our voices heard in these efforts.
3. Colleges and universities have the option of exercising flexibility in their use of standardized tests in admission; just ask the over 800 schools that have gone test optional.  Considering the barrier to admission that standardized tests can present to under-resourced groups, as well as the questionable validity of over-reliance on such tests, a thoughtful review of how they are used could increase access and success.
4. Part-time and online studies are vital to under-resourced students.  Such flexible learning enables those with families, time and transportation constraints, and jobs to advance themselves.
5. Promotional emails, brochures, and the like are essential to the enrollment strategies of all kinds of schools.  But promotional messages can be accompanied by service messages, showing not only how fabulous the school is, but how to meet the requirements for admission as well as find the means to afford education.
6. Business people are always concerned with “value-added takeaways,” and with good reason.  In harmony with their liberal arts missions, colleges and universities can integrate internships, individualized advice that keeps graduation on time, and vigorous career and professional school counseling.
7. For primary and secondary schools that lack computer and Internet resources, funds are required to answer these needs and put tools in the hands of those who can then get the job done, as Britain implored the U.S. during World War II.

Reflections on the new SAT

The last time College Board announced a new SAT, I was wrapping up my first year as an admissions counselor at the University of Maryland. When my supervisor asked for a volunteer to become a “resident expert” on standardized test changes, I said yes (just like I did to everything in my early years) and became our office’s “New SAT Expert.” On the dawn of the second new SAT of my career and on the “other side of the desk,” I am in flashback mode; thinking about the new SAT like a college admission officer rather than a college counselor. Below are some of the throwback thoughts that have bubbled up as the SAT change is upon us.

What is your Motto? College Admission and Identity

Brennan E. Barnard
Director of College Counseling
The Derryfield School

And Then, You Wait

Kate Boyle Ramsdell
Director of College Counseling, Noble and Greenough School
 
“First you have brown, all around you have brown… then there are seeds… and a wish for rain.” –Julie Fogliano, And Then It’s Spring 

When my older son was born, it wasn’t long before I was hooked on finding children’s books that I actually enjoyed reading aloud. I could only take so much of Hop on Pop and Moo, Ba, La La La. (Forgive me if those are family favorites!)

I stumbled across And Then It’s Spring during a mid-winter 2015 trip to a local bookstore. There were over 100 inches of snow on the ground in Boston. The book offered the promise of green. My seniors, the ones who hadn’t applied early or who hadn’t gotten in early, were waiting… and waiting… for their college news to drop. For most of them – for us – winter felt interminable. March and April weren’t yet tiny lights at the end of the long, blustery, college tunnel. 

I have thought and written about the college process for a long time now – almost half of my life, which is a bit hard to swallow. And a topic I always come back to is this: why is waiting so darn hard? I know adults tend blame adolescents and their seeming inability to wait on social media and the instant gratification of posting, snapping, and tweeting. But waiting for college news was hard in 1992, when I didn’t have Facebook, or Snapchat, or Twitter. It just was. My life – my future – was hanging out there somewhere, not in cyberspace, but in a file in the back room of an admission office. We didn’t even have the distraction of our phones to help us pass the time! 

Carol Wasden, Director of College Counseling, The Hockaday School

Picture this: It’s 10:30 p.m. when a high school senior, pooled in desk lamp light and nerves, presses submit on his college application. Deep breath, exhale. Pause. Now what?