November 4 - The weeks between back-to-school and winter break are a blur for most independent school college advising offices, but Seattle Academy punctuates the busy fall application season with a number of events that benefit students and families. This fall is no exception, with activity ranging from national admission conference attendance for Director of College Advising, Melanie Reed, to after-hours programming designed to inform families about the college process, to the organization of a few hundred individual applications for early or priority admission.
In September, Melanie attended the annual meeting of the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) in Baltimore, MD. A former member of the board of NACAC’s regional arm, PNACAC, Melanie gains new information and insights from the conference each year and uses the gathering as an opportunity to network with college admission friends from around the country. Of particular note this year was the opportunity to tour the White House with a select group of counselors from around the country.
October is known for its variety of evening and weekend programming, and this year was no exception as College Advising spoke to the parents of current juniors and seniors as they both anticipate and undergo their own college processes. One of the representative comments afterward included this from a senior parent: “I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful and entertaining parent presentation for the college application process. I loved it and learned a lot!” On October 16, College Advising hosted what it calls a “College Application Barometer Check,” providing seniors on their day off from school an application workspace staffed with college advisors to answer their questions and a pizza lunch. Roughly 40 seniors attended. On October 20, Melanie’s former boss, George Mills, Vice President for Enrollment at the University of Puget Sound, repeated his very popular talk on the construction and execution of college financial aid programs. On October 24, Seattle Academy partnered with other local independent schools and Rainier Scholars for the second annual Seattle Area Independent Schools Fair. Dedicated to juniors, seniors and their families, the fair drew 75 Seattle Academy juniors and seniors to talk with the over 130 invited colleges and universities.
In addition to the above, Seattle Academy welcomed a record number of visiting college representatives to campus this year. At a time when many colleges and universities are feeling economic pressures to change how they recruit students and travel nationally, Seattle Academy benefitted from 109 individual college meetings this fall, more than any other year. College representatives continue to contact Seattle Academy about meetings, so that number will only grow! In the midst of visiting colleges and one-on-one counseling meetings with students, College Advising helped students file hundreds of applications for early decision, early action, rolling, and priority application to colleges and universities around the country, the results of which will be available before winter break.
Look forward to forthcoming updates as Melanie tours Northeastern University, Providence College, and Wheaton College (MA) in November, Southern California colleges in January, and Scottish colleges in March, most of which on the colleges’ own invitation-only tours.
