College Counseling News

By Bart Gummere, Upper School Head

December can appear to be a simple time for seniors in the college admission process. By now, almost all students have finished their first trimester classes, completed their application essay, and taken their last standardized test.

As we meet with our seniors this month, though, we help them navigate one of the most complicated and challenging portions of the process. Our aim is to help each senior finalize their application list. After such a lengthy time of researching and visiting colleges, it can be difficult for each senior to narrow the list down and commit to a final group. It is usually impractical or even impossible for any student to apply to all the institutions he/she likes.  Students are coached, as they have been from the start, to evaluate their set of colleges and confirm they’d be happy to attend each one.  It is important to consider admissibility, but paramount to imagine living and studying at each place for the next four years. Our job as college counselors is to advance and support thinking in both areas.

In the end, we want all our students to feel empowered by the options they create, and ultimately to graduate excited for the next stop in their educational journey.