PEA Hosts College Counseling Weekend

This past weekend, Exeter’s College Counseling Office invited parents of the class of 2017 to visit campus to learn more about the college admissions process, specifically for Exeter students. Parents heard a keynote address by Frank Bruni, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, engaged in a mock admissions deliberation and met in small groups with the college counselors.Director of College Counseling Betsy Dolan said that the purpose of the weekend was to educate and update parents on the landscape of college admissions and to show parents how to best support their children throughout the college search.“We also talked to them about our curriculum, our role in their student’s process and our role in helping students transition from adolescence to young adulthood,” she said.

“The fact that they could get so many admissions officers to come and talk about this is something that we should be very proud of.”

The weekend kicked off on Friday, Feb. 12 with a summer program and gap year fair with representatives from more than 20 programs present.Additionally, Director of Financial Aid at Lafayette College Ashley Bianchi led a financial aid presentation on both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.On Friday evening, following an introduction by Dolan, Bruni gave his keynote address. Bruni, an experienced writer in a variety of sections for the New York Times, has reached many parents and students going through the college process through his writing.Bruni urged parents to become more “elastic” in their definition of success. He said that a parent’s expectations for their child should not be tethered to the country’s most elite colleges. “Be a little bit more yielding in your definition of… your kid having come to a good outcome,” he said.Saturday’s program opened with a college resource meeting to teach parents about Naviance, the academy’s preferred vehicle for finding information on schools. Naviance is available to every student searching for suitable schools and allows them to find colleges that fit their criteria, while using data to determine their chances of acceptance based on GPA and test scores.Next, parents observed a mock admissions committee composed of visiting college admissions members. After being shown profiles of fictional students, the committee determined if they would accept the student or not. For many parents, this was the highlight of the weekend.Chudi Obiofuma, father of upper CJ Obiofuma, said that the mock admissions presentation was “quite an eye-opener.”“People used to think that it’s just the SAT [that matters in college admissions], but it’s a lot more than that,” he said.Coretta Bennett, mother of upper Marvin Bennett, agreed that the presentation emphasized the importance of a well-rounded application. “It made us realize that there are other qualified candidates and compelling reasons outside of academics [that affect admissions results],” she said.Obiofuma continued to commend the College Counseling Office for all of its hard work. “I give a lot of kudos to the Office of College Counseling,” he said, “They’re doing a lot of advocacy for the students, and the fact that they could get so many admissions officers to come and talk about this is something that we should be very proud of,” he said.Bennett said that the weekend helped her see how to best support her child during the admissions process and work with the College Counseling Office in a productive manner. “[The weekend] reemphasized that we should be working closely with the College Counseling Office and becoming a solidified team, as opposed to doing things on our own,” she said, “It also gave the opportunity to step back and think from the students’ perspectives.”

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