CCO Hosts College Counseling Weekend

From Friday, Feb. 13 to Saturday, Feb. 14, the Academy’s College Counseling Office (CCO) hosted its annual College Admissions Weekend for parents and guardians of the class of 2016. With approximately 300 parents on campus, CCO planned and hosted a variety of events for parents and families in order to inform and involve more of them in the college admissions process.

While the weekend began with a Gap Year and Summer Programs Fair open to all students Friday afternoon, most of the weekend was geared towards the parents.

On Friday night, parents had the opportunity to view a documentary entitled “In 500 Words or Less,” which illustrates the college process through the eyes of four high school seniors and their parents.

“It was a learning process clearly designed to help us also learn that its a very complex and competitive process.”

In addition, parents heard from outside experts, such as Robert McGann, director of admissions at the University of New Hampshire, who was a member of the Financial Aid Panel and Terry Cowdrey ’78, former vice president & dean of admission at Colby College, who delivered the keynote address.

Early Saturday morning, CCO faculty and parents began their day with the College Resource Meeting, starting promptly at 7:30 a.m. At the meeting, members of the CCO provided an overview of the college process.

Next, parents attended opening remarks from Elizabeth Dolan, the director of college counseling, and then participated in mock admissions exercises with visiting college deans and directors who highlighted the nuances of selective college admissions.

Finally, parents and guardians finished the weekend with group meetings with their child’s respective college counselor. CCO personalized these meetings to the specific Exeter college process, discussing the layout of students’ standardized testing schedule and student and parent counseling curricula.

The weekend’s events were well received by most who attended. Courtney Brinkerhoff-Rau, mother of upper William Rau, attended all of the events.

She found the film “In 500 Words or Less” very insightful and particularly enjoyed the Keynote Address by Cowdrey on Friday night. She felt well informed after Cowdrey’s speech.

“Her honesty and insight made me feel like we were getting the ‘inside scoop’ on what can feel like a daunting process,” Rau said. “Ms. Cowdrey gave me a better understanding of how it all works.”

The mock admissions exercises also provided parents with extensive insight into the complex process of college selection. In the exercises, parents were asked to evaluate and then accept, waitlist or decline three applicants, one of which was an Exeter student with a fairly typical profile.

Going through the same decision-making process as colleges helped a number of parents understand the results of college decisions, specifically reasons as to why their son or daughter may not be chosen. 

Jill Lane, mother of upper Hanan Lane, was another parent who participated in the exercise.

“It was a learning process clearly designed to help us also learn that its a very complex and competitive process,” she said.

“It was a very interesting and lively conversation as people tried to make sense of where the priorities were.”

Although all events ran as planned, not all parents who had wanted to come made it to CCO’s college admissions weekend due to hazardous driving conditions caused by the impending blizzard.

Upper Kyra Dawkins’ mother did not want to risk traveling during a blizzard. Although Dawkins was glad that her mother was safe at home, she was disappointed that she could not make it. Dawkins felt she got less out of the weekend because of the absence of her mother, especially during the Gap Year and Summer Programs Fair.

“As I expose myself to all these programs, if I don’t have my parents input, I can’t really say that I can pursue [any of] them because I don’t have the finance and things like that,” she said.

“But reaching out to my parents is kind of an extra step that I need to take if I really want to do something.” 

Other parents and guardians already had previous knowledge on the process and felt it would be repetitive to attend this year’s event. The weekend, for some parents, felt like a more general introduction geared towards parents new to the process rather than a weekend designed for parents of all levels of knowledge.

Upper Michelle Bosché, whose older brother and sister have already gone through the college process, said that she and her parents didn’t believe the time and the cost of flying from Montana would be worth it.

Unlike Bosché’s parents, Jim MacKay, father of upper Adam MacKay, attended the event despite his son being his third child to go through the college application process. Jim and his wife, Kerri MacKay, both said that they found the weekend helpful since each of their children have taken a different path for college.

“[Each] kid so far has been down a different path towards college,” Jim MacKay said.

“A lot of what [Cowdrey] talked about encompassed all of the different paths a kid may go through. One of our kids was into student leadership and went through that process. Another one of our kids was an athlete and went through the athletic process for college admissions.”

While the weekend was certainly informative, some students, such as upper Reginald Lamaute, thought some of the information could have been more specific to the students.

Seeking to improve the weekend, Lamaute suggested, “I think that an improved process would involve a little bit of personalization; for instance, presenting information directly relevant to the students rather than information that they already know.”

Dominique Lamaute, Reginald Lamaute’s mother, agreed, adding that the weekend could have been improved if parents and their students had the option to attend more of the workshops together.

Upper Katya Scocimara noted the lack of student involvement during the weekend as well, describing that the weekend, to her, served more as an opportunity to spend time with her mother than one to learn about the college process.

Others wished that the college admissions weekend was earlier due to applications deadlines.

While Dawkins appreciated the Gap Year and Summer Programs fair, she realized at the fair that many of the programs had application deadlines due very soon and if she tried to apply, she would have to write the application and collect teacher recommendations in a short period of time.

According to Dolan, the CCO will evaluate the programming of the event in search of improvement for the next year. In the meantime, the process will continue for uppers as college counselors continue to meet with students individually.

The next big step, however, is a “Resource Meeting,” which will educate students about how to use different resources and tools to build a college list.

Despite the few kinks in the weekend, the event overall was a success. Most parents left campus feeling more informed on how to approach the college application process for their child. In this important stage of their children’s lives, many parents appreciated the Academy’s invitation to the weekend full of guidance.

“Overall, it was a fantastic and informative weekend. I can't imagine parents from many other schools get that incredible opportunity,” Brinkerhoff-Rau said. “As our family starts this next educational adventure, it is reassuring to know that our son is in the best of hands.”