To CCO:
By CATHERINE WU ‘24
It is a common perception that Exeter is “the ticket to an Ivy.” Whether it’s the Academy’s selection of college-level courses taught by instructors distinguished with master’s and/or doctorates degrees, the billion-dollar endowment and funding graciously bestowed upon its students, or the intricate web of successful alumni spanning the globe, Phillips Exeter Academy has been the recipe for its students’ success since its founding in 1781. The Academy prides itself in its historical ability to educate its students beyond the standard high school curriculum and ensure Exonians’ matriculation into top universities worldwide. In light of seniors’ college application season, I’d like to share some of my thoughts regarding potential aspects of Exeter’s College Counseling Office (CCO) that may better aid and reduce stress for students’ application process.
Increased Availability of CCO Counselors
The most distinct area for improvement would be the availability of CCO counselors to meet with senior students. I have spoken with several seniors recently who all noted the limited availability of counselors for meetings or the long email-response times. With early decision application deadlines approaching, October is indeed a stressful and college-heavy period for many seniors. Yet some seniors have mentioned counselors only working for limited days in the week or during inconvenient hours due to students’ academic classes and extracurricular appointments. Scheduling one-on-one meetings have been difficult for many seniors, with each counselor having 30 or some students to work with. In addition, some have noted email exchanges, specifically how their respective counselors may take several days to respond. One particular instance, that is likely shared by many, entails a senior emailing their counselor to meet for a quick question, only to receive the counselor’s reply nearly a week later with the response that the counselor’s next open availability was in two weeks’ time. Especially with early application deadlines approaching, a mere couple of days may have a great impact on senior students and the unavailability of their counselors may contribute to additional stress during this period. With these instances in mind, possibly expanding counselors’ work hours– during the week and/or weekend– or increasing communication via email may reduce seniors’ stress load during college application season.
Further Communication During Student-Athletes’ Recruitment Process
Student-athletes constitute a significant portion of each graduating class, and their college-application process looks quite different from other students in terms of timing. From my understanding, most sports’ college coaches begin reaching out to potential recruits during students’ lower year or the summer into upper year. Yet, with a sports team’s coach unable to accommodate every athlete’s specific inquiry letters and evaluations, many student-athletes handle the entire process of communication with coaches and researching college sports teams on their own. And for those with ongoing college visits before the start of the fall term, communication with counselors for unreleased scheduling information required for Out of Town permissions has been challenging as well. However, closer one-on-one communication specifically between counselors and student-athletes during the school year and over the summer may greatly ease this lengthy process.
Separating Uppers and Seniors Attending College Fairs
Holding separate times for upper students and senior students to meet with college representatives during college fairs would be more beneficial overall. At this year’s college fairs, some seniors may have been deterred from attending the fair due to the overcrowdedness in Grainger Auditorium, or have had to wait for upper students to finish asking more “general” questions before their own application-specific ones. While it is understandable that upper students want to take advantage of this college fair to learn more about prospective colleges for their own application process next year, I believe senior students should have a certain priority, as their college application process is more imminent than the upper students’. Thus, perhaps altering the times of the fair (e.g. 1st half reserved for seniors, 2nd half reserved for uppers) or holding the fairs on different dates for uppers and seniors might better help students individually.
Offering Guidance on Course Selections for New Students
I believe the CCO can ease students’ college preparation through better guidance to course selections and diploma requirements. A student’s course selections are essential for colleges to gain a fuller picture of each student’s academic interests. Factors including but not limited to years learning a foreign language, sequence of science courses, the extent of history electives, and more, all play a role in colleges’ understanding of a student. As such, guidance for new students and/or families in choosing courses before the start of the school year would be greatly helpful. Noteworthy areas such as the accelerated math lanes, differences of electing for biology or physics during prep year, choosing certain courses that may be more suitable to elect for during pass/fail, electing for 200s vs 3/400s introductory courses (biology, physics, computer science, etc.), taking US History instead during lower or senior year, applying for research opportunities (e.g. INT559 SPARC or BIO670 Biology Research), and further, would benefit many incoming students.
Exposing Underclassmen to the College Process Earlier
Lastly, earlier exposure to the basic college application process during prep or lower years might better prepare students. Many Exonians come into the Academy– a widely renowned “college preparatory school”– with the intention of studying college-level courses and getting prepared for college. Yet as preps, we obtain virtually no information from the CCO regarding college preparation throughout the school year. Even as a lower, I recall attending one assembly regarding AP courses and being given twenty minutes to fill out one Naviance form during my spring term health class. A lack of guidance provided to underclassmen may lead to students constantly attending CCO’s drop-in hours with highly specific inquiries for counselors or even finding private college counselors outside of Exeter to assist in their preparation. As such, I acknowledge the intention of protecting underclassmen from the stresses involved in the college process, yet I still believe earlier exposure to students and parents would lead to more preparedness. For the CCO, perhaps offering optional resources such as detailed assemblies or Q&A sessions with counselors throughout the year would reduce younger students’ frets. And keeping these resources non-mandatory would accommodate students who may want to start thinking about the college process later. Specifically for uppers, some students believe having assigned counselors beginning the winter term seems rather late. By their upper fall, many upper students have already taken standardized tests, begun to research specific schools following college fairs and conversations with seniors, or even started college campus visits with family. Thus, it seems reasonable to suggest assigning the upper questionnaire and college counselor earlier in the upper year to better guide students with their initial exposure to colleges. Thus, I believe that having an open option for underclassmen to learn about the college process would be better for students’ preparations in the long run.
Overall, though Exeter is renowned for its students’ remarkable college matriculation, there are still potential areas of improvement for the CCO to help students' preparation and alleviate stresses during the application process. These areas include having increased availability of CCO counselors during college application season, improving communication for student-athletes during their recruitment process, separating uppers and seniors at college fairs, offering guidance to new students on course selections, and potentially offering resources to underclassmen to the college process earlier in their years at Exeter.
