I'm still here! And Thanks SUNY!

Ack! It has been awhile since my last post - my apologies! May seems like a month when things would be winding down for me but, au contraire, this is actually one of my most busy times because of AP exams!

I'll try to post some information about those in the days and weeks ahead, but first I want to say thank you to SUNY for hosting the SUNY Forum on Friday at the Fashion Institute of Technology. As a newly appointed member of the SUNY Advisory Board, I was excited to participate in this annual event (and am still kind of getting over the fact that I was asked to serve on the board). The day gave us the opportunity to hear from the President of FIT, the Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees, as well as other SUNY staff. I really liked the panel of SUNY graduates who were from the city who were able to give their perspective about how going upstate was the right fit for them. We also had a session on experiential learning and STEM careers. A great resource that I learned about is www.nycareerzone.org - a website that helps students learn more about various careers and the paths toward reaching different occupational goals.

Thanks SUNY!

Image of SUNY Oneonta (where two of the panelists attended)

Come to College Night!

Every year, the PTA generously hosts a College Night in the spring for families grades 9-11 to attend to learn more about the college process. In my dream world, we'd have standing room only in the auditorium tomorrow (Thursday, April 19)! The event will start with a PTA meeting at 6:00 pm and runs until about 8:30 if you stay for the whole thing.

My biggest fear is that students or parents/guardians decide not to attend because they think that the colleges in attendance are not schools that their student wants to attend. Big mistake! First off, you can't be sure in spring of the 9th, 10th, or 11th grade year what schools will or won't be on the 'list.' But, more importantly, the evening is designed to address general college issues, so that even if you don't end up applying to one of the participating schools, you WILL want information about the topics being presented.

The evening will begin with a panel discussion in the auditorium, with real Financial Aid and Admissions professionals answering audience submitted questions. Then we will break up into classroom based workshop sessions. Each session will be repeated so you can see two different topics of your choice. Then there will be a short mini fair to end the evening and it is here that you'll have the chance to learn school specific information from the representatives.

I hope to see you there!

Image - Hobart and William Smith (will be at College Night, naturally), picture from their website this past week!

The World May Never Know

The coming week and a half will be when the majority of admission decisions are released nationwide - leaving seniors across the country celebrating, sobbing, or in purgatory between the two. In advance of most of these decisions being released, I encourage seniors to remember that 10 or 15 years from now this time will be one of many emotionally volatile times in your life. Yes, college admission is important. Yes, it can impact the direction of your life. But no, it won't define you.

I've posted before about how gifts can initially look like challenges and challenges can initially look like gifts. But in this post I'd like to comment on the temptation you may feel to question how or why things happened as they did. The answer is: you'll never know. Was it your SATs? Was it that math grade? Was it that someone else had cured cancer and you hadn't? The truth is, the answer could be yes. But worrying about that now won't help you in the slightest. Don't fixate on the reason. Don't hypothesize about why your friend got in and you didn't. (Or, even less advisable, why your enemy got in and you didn't). The fact is you have NO way to know. As a former admission officer I can tell you that while you try to be judicious with every decision, it is impossible over the course of 3 or 4 months to keep the exact same opinions. And professional judgement always tips the scales on one day in a way it might not the following week. Don't stress over it.  Embrace the schools where you were admitted--the schools which are, in fact, dying to have you enroll.

The rest that sent you a skinny envelope? You can re-apply for graduate school and do it all over again ;)

Let the Madness Begin!

(And I don't mean Junior meetings - I mean basketball!) You can take the girl out of Indiana (ranked as a #4 seed, aahhhh!), but you can't take the Indiana out of the girl. My favorite time of year is here again where my love of amateur sports is combined with my love of colleges - it is time for March Madness!

This year is a bit unique for me, in recent memory, because there are soooo many more 'little guy' teams that made the cut.  This is exciting to me from a college counseling prospective because regardless while you could argue if it is fair or not, the exposure that comes from being a part of the tournament really can help students and families discover schools that they may ordinarily have overlooked. See the full Men's bracket here and Women's bracket here.

Some of my perennial faves? Davidson - pleassseee consider schools in the south, they can be awesome! Creighton - yes, it is in Nebraska. But it is ranked the #1 Regional University in the Midwest (yes I hate rankings, but I do like them if it helps a student/family open their mind to new options). Plus, it is Jesuit so it is automatically close to my heart as someone who has previously worked for a Jesuit school. And while we're in the Midwest, don't overlook Kansas - it is far less rural than it sounds and offers some really top offerings in journalism and communications without being prohibitively difficult to get into (I'm looking at you Northwestern and Syracuse).

So the next time you tune in to a game, fire up the Naviance as well and learn more about the schools themselves. PS - just for fun - if you are into the competition of it all, consider joining a charity bracket like the one being run by the One Percent Foundation - their mission is to encourage all people to donate 1% of their income to charity. Check it out!

Class of 2012 by the Numbers

I've recently transitioned form working mainly with seniors to working mainly with juniors. This is a significant thing for a lot of reasons, but this year in particular it is unique because the junior class came to ElRo the same year that I did. I can't believe two and a half years has gone so quick! But, I thought this would be an appropriate time to share some preliminary numbers about the Class of 2012 and their college application process.

# of seniors currently on register at ElRo: 135
# of applications filed: 1154
Average # applications per student: 8.5
# of teacher recommendations written: 286
# of acceptances, so far: 442
Average SAT score, 2400 scale: 1812
Average SAT score, 1600 scale: 1201*
Average Composite ACT score: 26

*This is our first year where the average SAT score ended up above 1200 on the 1600 scale. 

I plan to post a full summary, along with the list of schools where students were admitted, in May.

Image

Action Needed by Juniors!

On February 13, students from the class of 2013 were given their Naviance registration information - something significant in the path toward college applications but something also significant because it unlocks the chance for a student to sign up for their Junior College Meeting.

What do students need to do to get their meeting set up?

First, complete the Junior Survey (listed on Naviance, on the left of the About Me tab, see below). Please note, the survey will timeout if the page is not refreshed, so save often if you are not able to complete it in one sitting. This survey is required before you get a junior meeting because it is the foundation of your college file and can sometimes be used in your guidance letter of recommendation. This survey is for STUDENTS ONLY. Parents were mailed a paper survey where they can contribute to the student's file.

After you submit your survey, go to the Naviance home page and click on the bottom right hand side where there is a link about making your Junior College Meeting (see below). This will take you to a Google survey where you will tell me your preference for your Junior meeting. Remember, you may not miss class for your meeting, so you'll need to give me all the periods during the week when you are not in class (this includes lunch periods). This form should be completed by the student (it is linked with their ElRo email) with the input of parents/guardians.

Once the Junior survey on Naviance and Google based meeting request form is submitted you should hear from me within a few days with the day and time of your meeting. Meetings are given out on a first come/first serve basis so I strongly recommend taking advantage of this February break to get these items in.

Welcome to the World of Naviance!

As of Monday, all Juniors have been given their Naviance registration codes. This means the class of 2013 can be the latest group of students to become deeply addicted to the world of scattergrams, scholarship searches, and college planning. When I first got Naviance the summer before I started here at ElRo, I spent HOURS exploring the site.

See the last post for basic information about the steps that Juniors need to take. If you are a junior, don't be surprised if I start hounding you when we are back from break if you haven't set up your account and taken your survey.

For now, a few words of caution for new Naviance users.

- Data is tricky. What I mean by that is when you look at something like a scattergram don't follow the temptation to assume that where your red circle falls is a definite indication of if you will or won't get in to that particular school. Just because someone 'lower' than you got in, doesn't mean that you will. Same as just because someone 'higher' than you got denied, it doesn't mean that you will too. The data can also be misleading because as amazing as Naviance is, it isn't smart enough to combine and take the highest of the ACT/SAT to display on one graph. So, sometimes, a student will come up looking rather mediocre on the SAT grid when in actuality that little green dot has a very high ACT score hiding in the wings. (You can toggle between the ACT and SAT graphs by using the drop down menu on the page)

- Your 'red circle' on the scattergram is based on your GPA (which is from your transcript and includes grades from 9th and 10th grade - 11th grade grades will be added when they are posted in June - we are annualized!) and your current testing. If you've taken the ACT or SAT and I've been sent scores by the company, those will be reflected. If you haven't taken those tests yet (which is most of you) your circle is going to be based on your highest PSAT scores.

- Don't just explore the colleges you know. Half of the fun of a great program like Naviance is you can quickly get information about a slew of campuses that you may never have heard of before. I'd never heard of Tufts before I went there. Give new places a chance.

- Do confirm that the information listed in your profile is accurate. You can update your email address if there is one you use more frequently. You can also enter your parent/guardian information, fix errors in your address/birthday/etc.

- Your parents/guardians will get access to Naviance at the junior meeting. If they can't wait and need it now, first enter their information and email address into the 'about me' profile page. Then email me and ask me to activate their account. Remember, STUDENTS need ownership of this process, so while parents can view Naviance for their child, they cannot edit information (or see the Junior Survey).

- Don't forget to take a break to do things like eat, shower, and sleep. The website isn't going anywhere ;)

Not a junior? Email me and I can give you the guest log in for our Naviance site. It isn't quite the same since you can't see your specific information, but I hope it can take the edge off until spring of your Junior year.

Image

Junior Kick Off!

I've been waiting for this week for awhile now - the start of the college process for students that came to ElRo the same year that I did! Well Class of 2013, the time is now! On Monday, we had the official kickoff to the college process with our College Office assembly. Students heard a very broad overview of the process in an assembly and were also given a paper copy of the College Office Handbook to hopefully take home, read, and share with parents/guardians. As an aside, each student will only get one hard copy of the handbook, so guard it well and don't lose it! Just in case, a digital copy of the College Office Handbook can be found here

Next Monday, Seniors will visit Advisory classes to present on how to use Naviance and then Juniors will register for their Naviance accounts. (Registration codes will be emailed to students on Monday and every student is expected to sign up by mid-week).

Once registered with Naviance, Juniors should complete their Junior Naviance Survey and then fill out the Junior Meeting Request online form in order to be assigned their Junior meeting with me. I know that is a lot of steps-- so, let's summarize:

1) Get trained on Naviance on Monday
2) Log in to ElRo email, get registration code, and sign in to Naviance for the first time
3) Fill out Junior Survey on Naviance
4) Using link posted on Naviance, fill out Junior Meeting Request
5) Keep an eye on your inbox to find out when your Junior meeting will be!

Image

Thanks University of Miami!

Thank you to the University of Miami for hosting me and 30+ other counselors on a counselor fly-in program so we could see the campus first hand. We have had an action packed day where we have had a chance to hear from various staff, students, and even President Donna Shalala - and one theme is clear - Miami occupies a niche that is very hard to find. As a private school, with an acceptance rate below 40%, with a student body of 10,000 students, near a city - it is a combination that is very, very, hard to find. Even more impressive is the significant diversity on campus - with around 50% of students identifying as students of color and 20% of students are international. If that isn't a global campus with a diverse perspective, I don't know what is.

In addition, it is one of few selective schools that still offers merit based scholarships and it is also one of few selective private schools that does not ask for the CSS profile. Multiple university staff poked fun at their counter intuitive tendency of offering a staggering amount of options to a relatively small group of students. In other words, for the number of clubs, services, majors, minors, and on-campus events amenities they offer students they should have a student body and revenue stream three or four times their size. But instead, they prioritize an individual student centered approach - willing to spend more money if it means making more students happy.

I was particularly impressed with the presentation by Dr. Patricia Whitely, VP for Student Affairs. She had such a clear passion for working with students and taking a human approach to discipline. Speaking of being impressed, we were lucky enough to have dinner with President Shalala. The photo above is a nod to a story that was shared that embodies her approach to serving the campus. A performance artist installed hammocks on campus and was upset when students were 'sitting' on the art. After hearing this, and after the art installation was over, President Shalala now has hammocks hung up during finals week every semester. On an additional side note, next time you have dinner with her at her gorgeous home, make a special request to have the cake-pops for dessert. They were amazing ;)

Image