Seabury Academy-College Counseling

College Counseling

At Bishop Seabury Academy, we expect all of our graduates to be prepared to face the rigors of a college education. The purpose of this website is to provide a resource for Seabury students and their parents as they seek out their next educational experience at a college or university. College planning takes a considerable amount of time and effort, and using this site is just one facet of the college planning process. A student’s parents, teachers, coaches, relatives, and friends must play supportive roles in this important decision making endeavor. Students must also take the initiative in researching appropriate college choices, seeking opportunities to enhance their chances for admission to the schools of their choice, and asking for assistance when necessary. Ultimately, a student is accepted to college on his or her own individual merits, and I, as College Counselor, am here to ensure that those merits are presented in the best possible light.

The college application process is often very complex, but it does not have to be overwhelming. I am here to make the process a little less mystifying; please let me know what I can do to help!

                                                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                Matt Patterson
                                                                                                                                mattpatterson@seaburyacademy.org

Financial Aid

What do you do after the applications are in? For the students, that should mean focusing attention on class work – and enjoying winter break. For me, that means calling up admissions offices and making sure that everything is in order, and giving the final pitch in support of the applicant and our school. For parents, that means working on securing financial aid – not exactly the most thrilling aspect of the process, but a particularly crucial one.

No doubt many of you experienced sticker shock when your son or daughter started researching colleges. Yes, private colleges in particular can be very, very costly. On the plus side, financial aid administrators know that a top-of-the-line education comes with a complementary price tag, and so they make every effort to ensure that families can afford to send their children to college. I have seen families who are gratefully surprised at the generosity of financial aid packages, but I have also seen families that are sorely disappointed by the lack of financial aid. The financial bottom line can go either way, and you really do not know until the schools send you a financial aid package. In general, all families should apply for financial aid – many middle-class families are surprised at the amount of aid for which they qualify.

THE FAFSA: Essentially, the most important website for financial aid is www.fafsa.ed.gov This site houses the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and the best way to fill it out is online. Your online application will be processed much more quickly than a paper application. This site has a checklist of all the materials you will need and a pre-application worksheet that you can fill out. I highly recommend that you acquaint yourself with this website at your earliest opportunity. Financial aid is very time sensitive; the good money – grants and subsidized loans – goes quickly. Applications will not be accepted until January 1 of the year that your son or daughter will be starting college. To complete the FAFSA, you will need tax information for the preceding year (the year in which your son or daughter starts 12th grade). If you choose any one year to get your taxes done early, make it this year! Please make sure that the application you submit is for the year your son or daughter will begin college.

A note of warning: DO NOT use fafsa.com. This website is not affiliated with the official FAFSA program that is run by the Department of Education; it is a private, for-profit organization that will charge you money for its services.

THE CSS PROFILE: Many of you – those with children applying to private colleges and universities – will have to complete a different form, the CSS Profile. The CSS is easier than the FAFSA because it allows you to use estimates; you don’t actually need to have your official tax information available. You do want to be as accurate as possible, though, because you will have to revise the Profile once you do have your taxes done. To get more information on the CSS Profile and to determine whether the colleges your child is applying to accept the Profile, visit the website below:
CSS PROFILE

As always, if you have questions about financial aid or about any other aspect of the college application process, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope that the coming holiday provides some necessary relief from this process, and I hope also that good news awaits our students in the months to come.

Essay Tips

The college essay is a strange assignment for a lot of students. Your English teachers have been telling you for years: no first person. And then comes the college essay, and suddenly you are confronted with the reality of putting that oh-so intimidating letter out there, capitalized at the top of the page: I.

Frightening, isn’t it?—Putting your life story out there on the page for all to see. Just try typing the capital letter “I” and looking at it for a minute on your computer screen. Doesn’t the blinking of the cursor look more ominous now than ever before?

I’ve read all kinds of college essays: the ones that make me want to laugh, the ones that make me want to cry, the ones that make me want to crumple up the piece of paper it’s printed on and throw it in the wastebasket. Nevertheless, it becomes apparent to all of those like me who read a high volume of college essays that there is no one single way to write a memorable essay. Sometimes it’s the funny ones that leave an impression, and sometimes it’s the tear-jerkers. Sometimes it’s nice to read an essay that just seems earnest and sincere. Sometimes the student who struggles to write essays in class hands in a perfect product, and sometimes the student with the 700 on the verbal section of the SAT hands in a piece destined for the wastebasket.

Essays are an especially important part of every college application. The essays you submit, along with recommendations from your counselor and teachers, are vital because, in contrast with the cold objectivity of GPA and SAT scores, these essays are warm-blooded and subjective. They give the reader information that a set of numbers does not, and they enable you to develop a real human presence with someone you most likely have never met. Your goal in applying to college is to be the kind of person who comes alive to those reading your application, and the essay is often your best shot at accomplishing that.

Essays also provide proof that you can write well—a skill that, as the new SAT and ACT formats demonstrate, is greatly prized among applicants. With that in mind, it is essential that you have others read your essays before you send them off. The feedback others give you will help you not only to fix grammatical errors but also to make sure that your essay is dynamic and interesting.

A college essay is a personal essay, not an expository essay, but it still requires intelligence and skill. The following guidelines will help you to give the right impression.

Ultimately, your essay needs to tell us something about you. Use of first person (“I”) is not only allowed, it is necessary. Leave the reader with a memorable image of you, so that when your name comes up in a committee discussion, you will be more than just a couple of numbers on a page, and the committee members will think of you as being active in a specific time and place—whether that is at the library contemplating lofty ideas, on the stage under the glow of the spotlight, or on the field about to score a goal (or even about to lose your shot at doing so).

It may help to think of your essay as an argument. In fact, any essay is an argument of sorts. In a college essay, you use personal experience as evidence to back up your argument, and you should develop these points in specific detail to make them convincing. If nothing else, your essay is making the implied argument: “You should accept me to your school because ….”

You may want to use rhetorical tools typically associated with fiction. For instance, dialogue, point of view, narrative, setting, and character development techniques may be part of your essay. Avoid abstractions and clichés. Be specific and use imagery to put the reader into the moment.

Your essay needs structure and should start with an introduction. A good introduction will have a hook—something that pulls your readers in and makes them want to read more. You might try to begin with dialogue or with a unique description of an object or setting. Sometimes quotations provide a good hook. The unexpected often compels us to keep reading, but don’t try shock just for the sake of shock—your readers will feel that they have been tricked

Many supplementary essay topics ask: Why do you want to go to our school? While you can give some “generic” responses (“I believe in the importance of liberal arts education because …”; “College will be my opportunity to thrive …”), you should sprinkle this kind of essay with specific details about the school (“When I visited the campus …”; “In speaking with Ms. Smith in the Admissions Office …”; “I was particularly impressed by what I read about your International Studies program …”).

Your essay does not have to be on a serious topic. What you write about is less important than how you write about it. If written about well enough, the mundane details of everyday life, such as taking the bus to school or working at the grocery store on the weekend, can be just as interesting as some great accomplishment.

Remember also that you are human, not superhuman; no one expects you to be perfect—not even college admissions officers—and trying to sound as though you are perfect often backfires. It is OK to admit that you have made some mistakes, as long as you have done your best to learn from them; writing an essay about a mistake you have made may even help you to learn from it. Your greatest accomplishments are often covered by short answer questions or a resume; the essay should explain what makes you a real, live, three-dimensional human being, complete with faults and foibles. Admissions people know that, as a teenager, you are still in the process of actualizing whatever potential you have. More than anything else, they want to see that potential.

Finally, consider your audience. College admissions officers may read dozens of essays in a single day. Ideally, yours should stand out as being particularly interesting, poignant, and well written—the unique product of a unique individual. In the end, you want the people who read it to remember something about you when your name comes up for discussion.

Here are some college essay topics, taken from the Common Application (www.commonapp.org). The Common Application is accepted by over 200 colleges and universities around the country, and the topics it offers are similar to many of those given by colleges that do not accept the Common Application. Common Application schools, as well as most other schools, ask that you limit your essay to 500 words.

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

Describe a character in fiction, an historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

The Common Application also offers “topic of your choice.” Essentially, you can write about anything, though it is generally wise to avoid controversial topics. Truly creative types may want to look over the essay topics offered by the University of Chicago, which is famous for its offbeat questions; even if you do not apply to Chicago, you might be inspired by these topics.

Good luck as you start (or revise) your essays, and remember to get others involved in a productive way—have mom, dad, siblings, classmates, and especially teachers make comments on your drafts. You might want to throw an “essay party” with your friends. Order a few pizzas and read your essays out loud to each other. This process does not have to be painful!

Interview Questions and Tips

These are actual questions asked of past students of mine. Before an interview, you should be prepared to answer questions like these.

Tell us about an ethical dilemma you have faced and how you dealt with it.
What makes you think that you would benefit from attending this school? (Variants: What attracted you to our college? Why do you want to go to this college? Be specific in talking about the qualities of the school in question, not about college in general.)
What is your best quality?
What is your worst quality?
Who is your favorite teacher and why?
What are your favorite classes and why?
What do you do outside of school? (Don’t just say “reading,” for instance. Talk about a few books or periodicals and why you bother to devote your time to them.)
Describe yourself as your friends see you. (Variant: If your friends could describe you in two adjectives, what would they say?)
What makes you stand out in our applicant pool?
Describe yourself in five words.

And, last but not least, the ever ambiguous:

Who are you?

The essential dictum is this: Know thyself. Be prepared to discuss your strengths as well as areas for improvement. When discussing your weaknesses, explain how you plan to improve yourself in coming years. Be honest. Prove that you are the greatest expert there is on the topic of you.

Another way to prepare for the interview is to think about the temporary memory cache on a computer. Your computer can pull needed data that it has stored in its temporary cache a lot more quickly and efficiently than it does when searching the whole computer for that data. You want to make sure that you have your knowledge of self stored in a part of your brain that is easily accessible.

You might also bring a resume to the interview—if you have one that looks good! If you want to really impress a college admissions officer, you can type up the answers to the above questions, proofread them(!), and have them at the ready in the event that you don’t get a chance to cover everything at your interview. Consider the following scenario:

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS OFFICER: Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about yourself?
YOU: Actually, I have a few things in mind that we didn’t get a chance to cover, but I know that we are out of time. Could I give you a copy of my resume and this interview sheet?
CAO: Indeed. Quite impressive!

Some schools put a twist on standard interviewing techniques:

At one school, the applicant conducted the interview himself and asked questions of the college representative.
At another school, the applicant filled out a questionnaire and was asked questions based on his responses.

In short, be ready for anything!

Click here for the Bishop Seabury Academy College Handbook

Internet Resources

www.collegeboard.com – register for tests, use My Organizer feature
www.actstudent.org – register for tests, planning features
www.fafsa.ed.gov – the site for the federal application for financial aid
www.finaid.org – the best site for financial aid information
www.fastweb.com – good scholarship search engine
www.princetonreview.com – test prep, Counselor-O-Matic
www.petersons.com – useful in college search, good stats on colleges
www.fairtest.org/optinit.htm– list of SAT optional schools
www.ctcl.com – Colleges That Change Lives (highly recommended for the college search)
www.commonapp.org – home of the Common Application
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/education/columns/classstruggles – free therapy