Anne Richardson
The Top Ten List of What I Learned as a Parent About Searching for the Right College
So it’s finally over. The decisions are in, the choice is made, and the bumper sticker is on the car – and what a ride it has been! Fourteen months ago, I bought a GPS (whom we named Rhonda – “Help me, Rhonda!”), got in the car and set off for a tour of Maryland, [...]
Read MoreA Circle of (College Financial Aid) Hell?
Round about the end of January, I went around muttering about the tenth circle of hell, the one that Dante left out of his Inferno, the one reserved for those parents and students who need to fill out college financial aid forms. “I’m in financial aid hell,” I wailed in a desperate email to a [...]
Read MoreVisiting Our Sister School: Kents Hill travels to England
At Kents Hill School (Maine) we have a longstanding sister school relationship with Kent College Pembury in Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, England. KCP is an all-girls, boarding and day school, elementary through seniors. Each year, KCP sends 2-3 girls to Kents Hill in the winter trimester, and we send 2-3 girls over to [...]
Read MoreBeing Rejected
Being rejected is hard. However the rejection is couched, whether in flowery language, or via George Clooney characters, or with brave reassurances about the competition, the climate, etc., we are ultimately being told that we are not wanted, not needed or not good enough. It’s been happening a lot lately. With our struggling economy millions [...]
Read MoreMrs. Richardson, do I get points for trying Marmite?
I have been thinking a lot, lately, about the value of trying new things. In my capacity as Director of the International and ESL programs at Kents Hill, I am constantly amazed at the myriad encounters that my ESL and international students have with new things, each and every day. They are bombarded by new [...]
Read MoreCollege Counselor and Anxious Mom All Rolled into One
It’s confession time. Not only am I a college counselor, but I am also the mother of a senior. And this week our daughter wrote to her college counselor and complained about her mother. Yes, I confess … in my worst moments, I have said and done some of the very same things that I [...]
Read MoreMaking Lemonade
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 [...]
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