Juniors kicked off their college admissions process with a special case studies event on Jan. 30. The mandatory after school gathering was hosted by the college counseling office and featured four special guests: university admissions officers from Fordham, Howard, Penn State, and Texas Christian. These specific schools were specifically chosen because the officers that came in are believed to be impactful and educational speakers.
“You can be a great admissions officer and not be a great public speaker, so we are careful with who we pick for these events. We also try to get a mix of schools and people so we don’t just have all of the same types of speakers,” explained Director of College Counseling Mrs. Anna Wright.
This night gave students and parents an opportunity to hear from these officers who make important decisions that could affect their futures one day. Hearing their opinions of the fake applicants provides insight into what students should or should not be doing when it is time to apply to colleges.
While students congregated in their groups to discuss which of the three students they wanted to accept, waitlist, or reject, the four panelists walked around to get a sense of how students were going about this process.
“I think it was good that they had us up and moving. Having the speakers interact with us a little more would be something I would say to improve because we asked them questions but we didn’t get to really speak to them one-on-one,” shared junior Stephen Cecil.
Although the officers came around, they were under a time constraint because of the numerous groups and not so many of them. This was one thing that students agreed could improve for future events and groups.
“One thing that I would say could be added to the program is having as many college representatives there equal to the amount of groups our grade splits up into during the event because then we would have a decent amount of time to talk to the admissions officer in a smaller group and actually kind of get to know them,” said junior London Allen.
In response to this creative idea, Mrs. Wright shares why it is not completely possible or beneficial.
“Another way that some schools do case studies is that they have admissions officers be more one-on-one with a group of student but they stay with those students the whole time. But by having a panel, you are able to rotate around. Also, this is by far our most successful event and its by far our most expensive program of the year but to invite more people would mean that we would have to cut other events out,” explains Mrs. Wright.
In spite of this piece of advice for upcoming meetings, students reacted well to this panel and believed it to be helpful. The college counseling department reflected on why they hold this specific event for juniors and their parents early in the application process.
“We can talk about applications all day long and if it was just about that then we could just sit down and start doing it. We want students to see how these decisions are made and how complex it all is. Also, when do you ever get to see someone else’s full application? You don’t,” declared Mrs. Wright.
The department decided to also involve parents in this specific meeting because they believed that this was a special event that deserved attention and attendance by all. This is credited to the first person perspectives of admissions officers at universities that their students may apply to in the coming fall.
“The parents have as many questions as the kids do. I think the admissions process is so different from when they applied. If the parents understand what’s going on then hopefully we can reduce some stress in the student’s households,” explained Mrs. Wright.
The next college counseling event for juniors will be a boot camp on March 19.
