Welcome Back Seniors - First Blog Post of the Year!

Hello Class of 2015! As you sort through the endless assignment lists on the first day of school, get ready to add a few more things to your "to-do" lists. Mrs. Prugh will be sending weekly emails with time sensitive information related to the college process. We do not see you in College Counseling groups this year so email, Twitter, and Life After Visi are the ways we will communicate.

Here is what you need to know for the week of September 2.

College Visits. So far, we have scheduled 85 colleges that will be coming to Visitation during September and October. More colleges are being added every day! In order to attend a college visit, you will need to receive a pass from one of the college counselors or Mrs. Duke. The pass needs to be signed at least one day in advance by the teacher of the class you will be missing. They need to know where you are so that you will not be marked absent. If the teacher excuses you, you may attend the college visit. To see which colleges are visiting, check under the "College Visits" section of Family Connection, listen to the Bulletin announcements or check the schedule in the College Counseling Office. We already have colleges that are visiting this week (Dartmouth is visiting on Thursday) so you can start coming by to get passes! All visits are held in the College Counseling Conference room on the second floor of Fennessy, unless we let you know otherwise. Please plan ahead!

You each created a login to Family Connection last spring. As a reminder, The Family Connection link is:

https://succeed.naviance.com/family-connection/auth/login/?hsid=visi

On Friday, September 12, we will be holding our Essay Workshop during block period. You are excused from your regular classes in order to attend- attendance is mandatory. Our speaker will be Ryan Hargraves, who works in the Office of Undergraduate Admission at the University of Virginia and he will be speaking to you about how to brainstorm and write your college essays. 

On Saturday, September 13, we will be hosting our first follow-up Essay Workshop from 9 am to 1 pm. The college counselors in addition to members of the English department will be here at Visitation to offer help with your college essays. We can edit what you have already written or help you think about possible topics or you can use the time to start a draft.This event requires an RSVP and we will forward an invitation later this week.

Our calendars are outside of our doors so feel free to come by and sign up for an appointment when you are ready. 

More details about the application process are on the way - PLEASE check your email. 

We are excited to work with you all throughout the process this year!

Ms. Carter, Ms. Duke, Ms. Maglio and Ms. Prugh

Published by: TSM

College Choices for the Class of 2014

Congratulations to the Class of 2014! It has been a pleasure to know you. The college choices for the class of 2014 (as of June 4, 2014) are:

American University

Auburn University

Belmont University

Benedictine College

Boston College (5)

Boston University (3)

Brandeis University

Bucknell University (3)

The Catholic University of America (3)

Clemson University (5)

Colby College

University of Colorado at Boulder

Cornell University

Creighton University

Dartmouth College

Davidson College

Drexel University

Duquesne University

East Carolina University

Elon University (2)

Emory University

Fordham University (4)

Georgetown University (4)

University of Georgia (2)

Harvard College

High Point University (2)

College of the Holy Cross (2)

James Madison University (3)

John Carroll University

Louisiana State University

Loyola Marymount University

Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University New Orleans

Marist College

University of Mary Washington

University of Maryland College Park (3)

Miami University (2)

University of Michigan (3)

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (2)

Northeastern University (2)

University of Notre Dame (3)

Pennsylvania State University, University Park (7)

University of Pennsylvania

Princeton University

Providence College (2)

Rollins College

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

St. Joseph's University (2)

San Diego State University (2)

Santa Clara University 

University of South Carolina (2)

University of Southern California 

Southern Methodist University (2)

Stanford University

Towson University

Tulane University

Villanova University (2)

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (6)

University of Virginia (5)

Wake Forest University (2)

College of William and Mary (7)

Xavier University 

Published by: TSM

The Year in Review

Recently Mrs. Carter and I presented to Visitation's Board of Trustees. We present college data related to the Class of 2015 and also present some of the most "newsworthy items" in the most recent college admissions cycle. Here is a snippet of the section of our board related to "national news." We will post the matriculation list for the Class of 2014 next week!

Noteworthy National News in College Admissions

·         The fall of 2013 brought major changes to the Common Application and, as has been widely reported in the media, there were numerous functionality issues with the launch of this new version. On a national level, colleges, students, and school counselors experienced frustration with numerous technical glitches involved in the completion and submission of forms.

·      The College Board announced the first major changes to the SAT since 2005. The changes come after the SAT has faced major challenges, including skepticism from colleges about the test’s usefulness and competition from the rival ACT test. This new version, which will be launched in the spring of 2016, will be a test that more accurately tracks what students learn in school by eliminating obscure vocabulary words, eliminating the penalty for guessing, making the essay optional, allowing students complete the exam on paper or electronically.

·         In September of 2012, it was announced that for the first time in history, more students took the ACT than the SAT, which is a trend that continued in 2013. Many of the new SAT changes mirror the ACT, such as the elimination of the guessing penalty and the optional writing section. There have also been a growing number of colleges (now close to 800) that have eliminated the SAT and the ACT as admission requirements, citing a 2008 University of California study which characterized the SAT as a “relatively poor predictor of student performance.” Critics have stated that the new SAT changes are the College Board’s way to compete with the ACT by making it a more similar test and to stay relevant in the college admissions process.

·         In April, The Supreme Court upheld a Michigan constitutional amendment that bans affirmative action in admissions to the state’s public universities. The 6-to-2 ruling effectively endorsed similar measures in seven other states. It may also encourage more states to enact measures banning the use of race in admissions or to consider race-neutral alternatives to ensure diversity. States that forbid affirmative action in higher education, like Florida and California, as well as Michigan, have seen a significant drop in the enrollment of black and Hispanic students in their most selective colleges and universities.

·         A national study revealed that since 2007, interest in STEM majors and careers has increased, particularly in engineering and biology. Growth in engineering was greatest, at 57.1 percent, followed by biology, at 28.2 percent. Upticks were smaller for other STEM fields: 11.1 percent in the physical sciences, 12.6 percent in mathematics, and stagnation in computer science. The number of anticipated majors in biology and engineering increased among both men and women. Growth in the number of students planning to major in engineering is also seen in rising enrollments in colleges of engineering, which have grown 29 percent. The 6.7-percentage-point increase in engineering and biology majors was nearly offset by a 5.9-percentage-point decline in business and education majors. In other words, the growth did not come at the expense of the humanities and social sciences. (Sax and Jacobs, presented at The American Educational Research Association’s Annual Meeting).

·         Reacting to a series of highly publicized assaults on college campuses, the White House released guidelines in April that increase the pressure on universities to more aggressively combat sexual assaults on campus. The recommendations urge colleges, among other measures, to adopt anti-assault policies that have been considered successful at other universities and to better ensure that the reports of such crimes remain confidential. The guidelines are contained in a report by a White House task force that President Obama formed earlier this year and the administration is likely to ask Congress to pass measures that would enforce the recommendations and levy penalties for failing to do so. 

FPublished by TSM