Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of monthly columns, About Going to College, focusing on the “To Do’s” that should be on every junior/senior student’s and family’s college admission calendar.
As a high school senior or junior, you and your parents are probably thinking about what you are going to do after graduation. Is going to college your intended path?
Attending college or university is NOT a goal in itself — but it is one path among many that can lead to future personal and professional success. Do you understand the exciting WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) options that could offer you a chance to study at a wide range of excellent universities in other states? Do burning academic interests and excellent grades encourage you to apply to a top East or West Coast university? What do you know about Midwest or Southern colleges? Smaller liberal arts colleges? Engineering schools? ‘Near-Ivies’? Should you strengthen local ties and save family finances by attending the University of Hawaii in Hilo or Manoa? Or boost your school record by starting at a community college? Here? In Colorado? California?
Coming up with a list of six to 12 potential colleges may seem daunting. As one of your first major life decisions, so much seems to be riding on your choice of colleges, and your application process. But studies consistently show that your future success depends on what you make of your college experiences, not on the “name brand” on the college gate. Be sure you research every institution on your final college list, so you know you can thrive and be happy at any of them that offer you admission.
Think about your learning style, the best learning environment for you, and check which institutions can give you the kinds of advising and supports that will make you comfortable becoming an excellent student there. You want to graduate from college as a strong, successful young adult who has gained real-life experience as well as knowledge; has developed skills; knows and understands your own values but has stretched your perception and respect for and understanding of others; has self-respect, motivation, and personal dignity — and has made wonderful, life-long friends.
For the student, the college search and application process starts with a truly honest self-appraisal: your strengths, needs, interests, weaknesses, personal passions and fears. Then, the family needs to have a candid heart-to-heart talk about family resources, needs and goals, as well as how comfortable you feel away from home — on a neighbor island or the mainland’s East Coast? The student’s “desirability” is also a significant resource of course, and it is affected by your grades, curricular choices/options, standardized test scores, and supported by the leadership experiences and the community responsibilities that you have undertaken.
And please know that being from Hawaii is a desirable characteristic at many mainland schools. Most private institutions on the mainland try to achieve a sense of national, cultural, racial, and religious variety, creating the kind of diversity that serves as an educational resource – a learning experience that is open to all their students. Your background and experience matter. You will contribute new perspectives to your fellow-students, and they will share theirs with you. As a member of a diverse living/learning residential community, get ready to stretch your mind and participate as a member of the college’s “library” of knowledge, giving and getting information and understanding. Such opportunity.
This is the first of a series of monthly articles About Going to College, focusing on the “To Do’s” that should be on every junior/senior student’s and family’s college admission calendar. We’ll talk about the college search and application process, and tell you some of the best print and online resources to use for researching colleges.
College Goals is a team of four college admission professionals with expertise in every facet of the college search and application process, and decades of experience. We’ve been based here in Waimea for the past 14 years, where Joyce Reed, former Assoc. Dean of the College at Brown University and College Goals’ founder, lives. David Prutow, former Director of College Counseling at high-performing private and public East Coast secondary schools, lives in Waikoloa and focuses on supporting Hawaii-based students and on guiding athletes through the admission process. We also have colleagues based in Palo Alto, California, and Jackson, Wyoming. Info: website www.collegegoals.com.
Important dates:
Sept. 10 ACT Test: Register by Aug. 5 (late registration available http://www.actstudent.org/regist/index.html)
Oct. 1 SAT Test: Register by Sept. 1 (late registration available http://sat.collegeboard.org/register)
Websites:
Western Undergraduate Exchange: www.wiche.edu/wue
Colleges That Change Lives: http://ctcl.org/
Book:
“Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be” by Frank Bruni