CCO Prepares For College Season

Twice this fall Exeter’s roaring rampant lion will be stripped from Love gymnasium and replaced with snarling tigers, barking bulldogs and growling bears. On Sept. 26, the basketball court will be filled with reps from more than 75 colleges and universities, as well as legions of college-bound Exonians.The fairs, offered by the College Counseling Office next Wednesday and Oct. 3, are designed to give seniors a chance to figure out which schools might be a good fit, but many uppers are expected to drop in, too.“The college fair was especially beneficial for me because I entered the night with three to four schools in mind,” senior Kyle Alexander said. “I ended up visiting seven to eight tables and getting valuable information. Some of the schools I had never heard of and/or never thought about really interested me and are now a part of my college search.”For those students who did not go on independent college visits, because of scheduling or financial issues, the fair also provided a valuable opportunity to speak in-person with a college representative.“I truly appreciated the college fair because I haven’t attended any college info sessions. I cannot afford financially to visit colleges on their campuses, and the fair gave me the chance to still get answers to all the questions I had,” senior Linh Tran said. “Going to the fair gave me the opportunity to learn about a lot of colleges I didn’t know much about previously. I also had the chance to chat with representatives from the colleges one-on-one, which is so important when you’re making decisions about where you want to study.”However, due to the wealth of information currently available online and Exonians’ active attitude towards the college process, some students felt that over time the fairs have become obsolete.“The college fair did not serve much purpose,” senior Jordan Rohrlich said. “The only point was that it provided students with information they could get online really easily.”Others criticized the lack of representation by some of the most competitive schools.  “One thing I didn’t like about the fair was that not all the colleges I may have wanted to talk to showed up –  particularly UCLA and Ivy League schools. I think that representatives from some of the most prestigious Ivy League colleges didn’t show up gave a lot of people anxiety,” Natalie Ser, a senior, said.Every year, the College Counseling Office guides and supports the class of seniors who anxiously await the prospect of the interview, application and acceptance process which all must go through to continue their educational path.At the start of winter term, all uppers are assigned a counselor who advises them on all matters, including issues ranging from whether or not to include a second middle name on the common application, how to handle the uncertainty of being waitlisted and which AP exams they should take.Most students begin to fill out the Common Application, compile recommendation requests and visit prospective schools during the summer before senior year.“I took a weekend trip over the summer to make most of my college visits,” Alexander said. “I visited many Boston area schools and a few in Rhode Island and Connecticut. I hope to visit a few more NESCAC schools in the coming weekends as well.”However, for student-athletes looking to play sports at the collegiate level, the application process reaches an apex in the early days of September.“If you plan to play a sport you don’t get the luxury of waiting until April to go on admit weekend to decide whether or not you like it,” Jessica Michaels, a senior who hopes to be a crew coxswain at the collegiate level, said.Colleges interested in a student-athlete usually send the student official invitation for a visit to campus over a three-day period. The visits give athletes an advanced opportunity to gauge the school’s overall dynamic by interacting with the team, talking to the coaches, watching practices, going to classes and spending the night in a dorm.“The visits give athletes a pre-opportunity to visit the schools and meet the teams,” Michaels said. “It is a good chance for athletes to get a sense of their future and to envision where they would be on the campus.”Some teachers found that the sporadic absences due to college visits and interviews deterred the quality of classroom learning and broke up the course material.“It can be disruptive when students miss classes for college visits and interviews,” Giorgio Secondi, instructor of economics and history, said. “I’ve taught classes when nearly half the students were gone, which makes it hard to have a productive discussion.”The Academy limits the amount of overall visits a student can make during the school year if the visit involves missing Academy appointments.“The school is really good about it. They try to control it, obviously, so you don’t miss too many classes,” Michaels said. “You are allowed to take three official visits.”Teachers acknowledge excused absences from the Deans’ Office and students make up the work they missed.“I think the faculty really wants students to get into the best colleges they can,” Clinton Williams, a history instructor, said. “If they have an excused absence from the deans, the work is excused; they just have to turn in any work when they come back.”The CCO was unavailable for comment.