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KNIGHTtime News
GUIDING YOUR COLLEGE PROCESS
By Bea Hodavdekar
Arguably, one of the most challenging aspects of the college counseling process is the organizational piece—there are
the letters of recommendation, curating the college list, creating application accounts across multiple platforms (Common Application,
UC Application, and the Coalition Application), keeping track of college visits, keeping track of supplemental essays, communicating with colleges, and the list goes on.
It’s overwhelming for everyone involved: students, parents, and college counselors! In response to this challenge, we are introducing College Admission Seminar (CAS), a comprehensive college counseling course designed to provide greater organization, clarity, and improved communication between students, parents, and college counselors.
Over the past year, we have been taking stock of the Menlo School college counseling program and looking for ways to improve the experience for students and parents alike. In the past, there has been a program o ered in the fall of senior year called Pathways to College (PTC) that has sought to o er similar content as CAS. The di erence
COLLEGE
COUNSELING
Re-Introduces College Admission Seminar
between PTC and CAS (aside from the name) is the timing. PTC was held in the fall of senior year and one of the things that we found was that many students were close to being done with the college process by the time we held the class. We decided, then, that CAS should be held in the spring semester of junior year to give students a head-start on the college counseling process. We believe
this move will help with both the organizational challenge as well as alleviate some of the stress students feel as a result of the organizational challenge presented by the college counseling process.
In February, juniors began taking CAS during student life blocks. Over the course of CAS, we will cover the following topics:
l Developing the college list based on objective/subjective factors
l Standardized testing
l Letters of Recommendation l Application platforms
l Essays
l Financial Aid
l Interviews
l Naviance
“THE BIGGEST SIGNAL WE ARE TRYING TO SEND TO THE COMMUNITY IS THAT WE CARE ABOUT STUDENTS, AND WE WANT THEM TO HAVE AS STRESS-FREE AND CALM PROCESS AS POSSIBLE. “
By May, students should have a
solid understanding of Naviance,
the di erent application platforms, and should be working towards
a draft of their personal essay. On June 13-14, we will host our annual essay writing workshop, featuring admission o cers from di erent universities, who will provide professional feedback to students
for their personal statements. We will send out more information about the workshop later this spring.
The biggest signal we are trying to send to the community is that we care about students, and we want them to have as stress-free and calm process as possible. By instituting these changes, we hope we will bring about a positive change to the college process at Menlo.
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