It’s that time again!  As the leaves begin to fall and the weather turns colder, a large number of our seniors venture out to college visits, usually accompanied by one or more parents and perhaps a slightly reluctant younger sibling. We are pleased to offer a temporary stoppage in “business as usual” for our seniors to allow them to travel, work on applications, perfect a college essay, or just get caught up on their academic work.  After a busy first six weeks at school, they benefit from this break.

 

One of the main reasons we try to consolidate as much as possible into one week of college visits and application prep is an obvious logistical one.  If we encourage most of the travel and other business in one week, there are fewer interruptions and distractions throughout the fall. I have worked at two other schools where there was not an organized week and, believe me, this effect is real and highly challenging for teachers who feel like they are never dealing with a full class and constantly working to help students make up work.  This dedicated time really helps the students wrap their minds around the tasks at hand or be as present as possible when they are visiting schools; obviously, this is a major transition in their lives and we want them to be focused self-reflective.

 

The College Office has also helped relieve pressure on the academic year by offering “pre-season boot camps” before school even begins in August.  They offer some advice and guidance as students complete the nuts and bolts of their common application and fill the basic information for the Naviance system that manages all their data.  Another feature of the pre-season is a helpful, informative and entertaining college essay writing workshop led by an outside expert (this year it was Ethan Sawyer, known as “The College Essay Guy”).  Perhaps nothing looms so large in the minds of college applicants as this essay – a short piece of writing that accompanies most college applications – so we want to give everyone the chance to think about their various options, meet frequently with their college counselor, and develop a solid piece of original work that reflects something important about them.

 

With more students than ever submitting some form of early application—whether Early Decision, Early Action or rolling admission—the college application timeline has pushed itself further into the early fall of senior year.  Indeed, the majority of our students hit “send” at least once by mid-November and await the decisions that will come back in late December or early January.  Thus, it is more important than ever that we allow our seniors time and space to visit prospective colleges and get their materials in order.