College Advisory Program
Mellesia Nelson

 

Planning for the Future: The College Admission Process

The 2010-2011 academic year is coming to a close, too quickly it seems. On May 1st our seniors made their final decision for college, and the college admissions process ended for them. This means that it will begin for others.

Our juniors are busy studying for Advanced Placement exams, keeping their grades high, researching colleges while taking the ACT and SAT. It can become overwhelming but the hard work will pay off, as they too will be making their final college decision at this time next year. To best prepare our juniors for what is to come, I conducted an essay and resume workshop with all juniors to take a bit of the anxiety out of the unknown. Our juniors were assigned the task of writing their own personal essays for college as well as putting together a resume. They are currently receiving feedback on their first draft. In the past years of conducting this workshop I have been told by the students that it has helped them tremendously to understand what is expected of them when the actual application process begins. According to a recent US News and World Report article the student's personal essay has become a primary factor in admissions in the past few years, which is why The Sagemont School does not wait until senior year for students to experience this.

As our seniors look towards their new journey and our juniors practice what is to come, our 9th and 10th grade students cannot be forgotten. On Friday, May 13th, I will be visiting the 10th grade student English classes to introduce them to Naviance. This program allows our 10th grade student to not only research colleges of interest, but it provides them with a scattergram that shows the criteria for admissions for students who have graduated from Sagemont. Naviance is a very useful tool for beginning the college research process. Each student will have their own username and password, so that they can certainly share this information with parents.

Although the majority of the school year has passed, we must continue to plan for the future. Ninth and tenth grade parents especially, I invite you to come in and meet with me, so we can begin planning the next few years of high school for your child. Before you know it the college decision day will be here for them too.