Over the summer, articles from prominent national publications have flown across my desk on almost a weekly basis, each in one way or another decrying the state of college admissions, financial aid, college affordability, college testing and more. It can be gut-wrenching, but in the spirit of being handed lemons, it’s also an opportunity to try some new ideas. And so, after the initial panic attacks, our office has spent the summer making some changes and anticipating some new trends to come. And now we are gearing up for another exciting, volatile year in college counseling…

One new change is that we have become an ACT site  Our ACT numbers have climbed dramatically, and it has become clear in the last year that our numbers justify us applying to become a site and offering the ACT in September. While not threatening yet to overtake the SAT on our campus, the ACT has certainly become more popular and a more comfortable choice for some of our test-takers. Being a school which has a widely diverse population, including students with learning differences and ESL/international students from 15+ countries, we need to offer as many options as possible.

Testing is certainly one of the more ulcer-inducing parts of the college process, and the introduction of Score Choice this fall seems to be causing more confusion not less. While it may be designed to ease student stress, it has increased counselor stress, as we now negotiate through myriad choices of who requires what. The pressure is on to become instant experts on which school requires what combination of scores from which administrations – anyone else think that this will add hours to our jobs? In addition, it seems that more and more schools are going “test optional,” but again, each school has its own interpretation of exactly what “test optional” means.  Does more choice really ease stress?

Another trend that we are anticipating this fall is for the flood of Early Decision/Early Action (EA/ED) applications to turn into a veritable tsunami. Emails from students and parents over the summer indicate the colleges and universities are strongly encouraging this trend, and I worry about what this will do to the regular pool of applicants, a pool largely comprised of students whose decisions will depend on financial aid awards. Many schools now have well over 50% of their senior class applying early, and the risks of losing the “right fit” thought process was highlighted by the following exchange with one of my seniors this summer.

Student:  Hi Mrs. Rich.  Yes, I am going ED.

Me:  Great!  Where?

Student:  Don’t know yet … but I’m going ED.

I see the need for careful counseling and lots of financial aid hand-holding in the months to come – it’s clear what parent programs are going to be popular this fall!

Finally, with colleges tightening their own budgets, the word has been the colleges are cutting back on high school visits. However, these visits are vital opportunities for our students to visit with college reps and learn about colleges they otherwise might not encounter. So we created a partnership with another private school and sent a letter to all our college reps pointing out the feasibility of visiting both of us, and some local public schools, and guaranteeing them that we would meet with them should they visit. We have also gone ahead and organized a mini-college fair at our school this fall, taking advantage of the many colleges that pass by us as they head from Portland to Bangor.  We’ve had a great response, and we have created some good local connections by inviting local public schools to come to the fair as well.

You can’t be in this business if you don’t make lemonade. Bring on the glasses!

About Anne Richardson:

Anne Richardson joined Kents Hill School in July of 1998, and currently serves as the  Director of College Counseling and the Director of the International and ESL Programs. In addition to working as the Director of College Counseling, she was also the Academic Dean for 6 years and the Director of Communications for 5 years.  Anne is also active in the New England Association of College Admissions Counseling (NEACAC), serving on the faculty and as chair (2006) of the Summer Institute from 2002-6, as Vice-President in 2007-8, and is currently serving as President-Elect of the association. Anne teaches ESL and serves as the faculty advisor to Kents Hill’s Amnesty International program.

Prior to 1998 she was Dean of Middle School Students at Hamden Hall Country Day School in Hamden, Ct. In addition to teaching English there, she also served as Director of Community Service and Director of the Summer School. Ms. Richardson earned her A.B. in English from Oberlin College and her M.A. in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University.

Photo credit: fab4chiky