Passion

Passion. I have been up and down and around and around this discussion with colleagues, students, parents, and others for over two decades now. While some out there abhor the use of the word “passion” when talking to high school students, I see it as an instrumental component of a particularly helpful model for seeing the purpose of the high school years. I hope to explain this in the following post. 

To start off with, I think that “passion” gets a bad name, at least in part, through the university application process. On one hand, there are universities that ask students to expound upon their passions in essays and the like, the implication being that each student should have one, and, more problematically, suggesting that there is something wrong with them if they do not. On the other, students sometimes articulate their current interests as “passions” so as to try to convince admissions officers (or themselves) that they are a good fit for a particular field of study because they already are possessed of a passion for the topic, no matter how advanced, removed from the life of a high school student, or esoteric it might be. I concede that it bothers me just as much when I read an essay prompt put out for an application that assumes passion is the norm for high school students as it does when I read a student essay about some student’s lifelong “passion” to study some arcane or specialized subject that reflects more insecurity than confidence or commitment to the subject. These are admittedly challenging facets of this concept. 

Of course my experience may differ from the broader perspective, but my twenty-plus years of working with students on their post-graduation plans has left me suspicious of the contention of passions being typical of high school students. Consequently, I have explored this idea over the past 10 years or so at three different schools, on three different continents. At each high school where I have worked, I have engaged students with an annual survey, one question of which inquired about this concept of passion. The survey is always conducted at the conclusion of the university application process, ostensibly therefore minimizing some of the posturing that students sometimes pursue. When asked if they have a passion as they graduate high school, roughly 90% of the students I have worked with have shared that they do not! Annually these numbers fluctuate some, but in this span, the highest percentage of seniors who claim to have a passion has been 14% with the lowest being 8%, typically landing around 10%. These samples have been collected from a boarding school in Ohio (USA), a day school in Taiwan, and a day school in Senegal, and there is little deviation from these findings despite the tremendous variance in schools and student population. Furthermore, to me, it feels about right! 

Let me just add that when examining those students who claim to have a passion, the numbers are disproportionately reflective of areas that the students have been able to engage with through their studies and extracurricularly. (I make this statement in counterpoint to those various, occasional claims of student passion in esoteric, specialized fields with which the student has had no opportunity for formal or informal exploration.)  In particular, students intending to major in the arts (fine arts, photography, dance, theater, film) are disproportionately represented. Beyond that, as a colleague who has examined these results with me has cited, the other main category of passions reflected are pure/core subjects, including math, science, literature (as opposed to their more specialized cousins, which we might assume would appear, of engineering, computer science, physics, medicine, journalism, etc). This speaks to a common point of concern of a student claiming to be passionate about a subject that he or she has never actually studied -- and cannot typically study -- in high school. It begs the question of how they might know and leads us back to that point of wondering what pressures we (or our culture/society) puts on our kids to feel that they need to have a passion in order to engage with this university search process. 

What is passion? 

In engaging in discussion with a colleague about this, it was asserted that perhaps some confusion for students comes from their misunderstanding what passion actually is. This certainly may be the case. For our purposes, we define passion simply as a “monopolizing pursuit.” The key to understanding this term is to realize that this definition is incredibly subjective and individualized. Put differently, what passion means for me might look different to you. Generally speaking, though, passions are activities or concepts that we are drawn to and are motivated to pursue. Often people talk about the experience of pursuing their passion, which is a “flow” state where they lose track of time. Still, though, this is a nebulous concept, especially with high school students, and passion looks different to different individuals.

The reality is that very few students actually have or find a passion. In fact, I know plenty of adults who do not have a passion either. Although the purpose of this piece is the plight of high school students, these realities lead many out there to demonize the word “passion” and the pursuit thereof. However, one point that I think this group overlooks is a secondary point: passions can be cultivated. For every kid I know who fell in love with something the first time they encountered it, I know someone (often adults) who came by his or her passion through constant return to something interesting; over time, these interests developed into expertise, greater interest, and, yes, even passion. 

Pursuit of Passion Model

All of this leads inevitably to the model that I have found to be helpful in guiding high school students. Much to the chagrin of some opponents of passion out there, I do recommend that students pursue their passion. However, in my way of thinking, this proposes two different paths.

Path #1: You have a passion. If you have a passion, then you need to do that thing. Find ways to continue to do it, not at the expense of other components of a healthy life (e.g. exercise, sleep, school, friends, and continued exploration, etc) but in your free time. Find new and novel ways to engage it. Use your free time and summers and vacations. Talk to people about your passion. Find your people! Find ways to read about your passion. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to do this well; stay within your means and be creative in how you pursue your passion. Continue on this way and one of two things will happen: one, your passion will continue to grow and sustain you, or, two, you realize that this thing is not your passion. In this latter case, you should then revert to…

Path #2: You don’t have a passion. If you don’t have a passion, then you need to actively search for one. This involves some exploration and some commitment. In regards to exploration, you need to try new things. Join clubs, sports teams, activities, etc. Try new classes. Consume a variety of different media, including books, articles, movies, YouTube videos, websites, etc. Keep looking to find things that pique your interest. And in regards to commitment, keep on doing some things that you find interesting but that you wouldn’t necessarily call your passion. Keep developing competence and even expertise in these areas. By combining exploration and commitment, one of two things can happen: one, you find a passion (in which case, see Path #1), or, two, you keep searching and growing.

So, in this model, students are encouraged to pursue their passion OR to find their passion. The difference may be semantic, but this has been well-received by students and parents alike. It has been helpful to collect the data about who actually finds their passion in order to share and to remind everyone that this is all a part of the growth process. In particular, I think that it helps students to stick with some things they enjoy. Furthermore, asking additional questions about, for example, which pathways they have explored (#1 and/or #2 above) as well as some overall feedback about how the student feels this model has helped them grow, have proven to be particularly helpful.

What does this look like in the application?

I hesitate to share this out of fear that it might be misconstrued and mis-applied, but the reality is that this model does assist with the university application process. To be clear, though, it helps because it facilitates good, healthy, appropriate human growth first and foremost, regardless of which “path” a student finds him or herself upon. One additional benefit is that this model allows students to see and then articulate their own journey in a thoughtful and deliberate way that makes a lot of sense to admissions offices. For example, in many cases, a student on Path #1 with a passion -- who has had this passion for some stretch of time -- will naturally reflect this passion in the application process: through the resume, activities, coursework, and often awards or recognition. This type of applicant is commonly seen as being “pointy.” On the other hand, students who have genuinely engaged with Path #2 and who have searched for a passion will similarly reflect their trajectory on their applications by sharing the many ways in which they have explored the world around them. This type of applicant is commonly called “well-rounded.” 

Truthfully, both types of applicants -- pointy and well-rounded -- are valued in the admissions process. While I must admit that not all universities are the same in how they read candidates, it is my professional experience that there are only a handful of institutions that are really looking for pointy students with passions instead of well-rounded students without passions. In the end, this pathway ought to be seen as a criteria for a university search: if you have a passion, then you should be prioritizing how you can continue to pursue that passion in college; if you don’t have a passion, then you should not be looking at institutions that champion pointy applicants and instead you should be looking for places that can help to continue your search. 

In the end, while discussing this model with a handful of university admissions officers, I was left with a couple takeaways with which I want to conclude. First, the point of the model is not to find a passion but to encourage individual growth and exploration of the world. With the exception of some majors at some institutions that have a limit on the number of seats in the program, universities are not necessarily looking for a particular passion when they find it in a student; they are aware that these things may change. Instead, though, they value pointy applicants for the fact they reflect the capacity for passion, that a student knows how to capitalize on their strengths and attributes. According to at least a handful of college reps, this is important. Second, though, my colleagues from universities have shared that they appreciate this model because it helps to steer students away from a particular archetype: the student who has never experienced the world around them. Particularly in competitive applicant pools, there are plenty of students with good grades but without a developed sense of self. It might be the thing I appreciate most about this model: while none of us can ever have a fully developed sense of self, we can always learn more about ourselves, the world around us, and our place in it, and this model assists us with this. 

Standardized Testing Recommendations in a Changing Landscape

I am routinely asked by students, parents, teachers, and administrators how to make sense of standardized testing. The world is changing around us, and the pandemic has cast a shadow of doubt over the enterprise of testing. With so many institutions having moved to a test optional evaluation model and with the announcement this week from College Board about their doing away with SAT Subject Tests, the landscape certainly has changed, and so I hoped to provide some clarity in regards to the advice I am providing at present.

Keep in mind that my priorities in shaping these recommendations include: 1. minimizing the number of sittings, while 2. maximizing the potential for high scores and 3. keeping as many options open as possible. Ultimately, each student needs to determine a standardized testing plan as part of their college search process, ideally in consultation with a counselor or advisor who can help craft a plan that works best for the individual.

Although previous recommendations (and those from elsewhere) continue to endorse a recommendation that students test when it is ideal based on their prep and coursework even if they do not know definitively if they will need testing, I am encouraging a bit more work in advance. For example, it has been often recommended that students sit for their first SAT and ACT in close proximity to each other without test prep in the sophomore (grade 10) year to verify which test is better to focus energies upon, with so many institutions now on a test optional policy, I recommend that students do a bit more work on their college list. Put some time in, hash out a list, even if it is large (20-30 long), and take a look at what those schools are requiring in regards to testing. Based on recent work with several students, to do this work for a list of 30 schools takes less than an hour and is a small price to pay for the clarity that it can provide. Of course, just because your schools do not require testing does not mean you automatically should not test, but it gives you more information to work with. And, it should be gauged how likely the student is to modify their list of schools, of course. In the end, though, this research should result in more students choosing not to test and instead to focus their efforts on far more effective uses of time, including their academic work and hobbies.

If you choose to pursue testing, consider the following points:

• SAT & ACT. We recommend that students take the SAT and ACT in the junior year, without test prep, to determine which of the two tests is the best fit and to get a baseline score. Previously, we have recommended students to sit for the SAT/ACT only if they know they will apply to college or university in the United States or think that they might, but it is increasingly the case that the SAT/ACT can provide an alternative pathway to admission to non-US universities. Ultimately, we recommend that all students sit for the SAT/ACT during the junior year. (Also, it is helpful for students to have taken the SAT/ACT in the fall of the junior year to inform the beginning of their process second semester.) Additionally, if you can find a way to sit for legitimate mock tests, then it is entirely possible to avoid sitting for the actual tests: explore this option with your counselor and local prep agencies (but keep in mind that fee-charging agencies may have a vested interest in encouraging students toward one test or the other).

• SAT Subject Tests. Given that the College Board has announced the phasing out of the Subject Tests, we do not recommend sitting for these tests. For international students, there still may be a lag of adoption of this policy by some universities, but still we recommend waiting to see if the test is required before sitting, and we do not recommend that students take these tests just to see how they do.

• SAT Score Choice. Score Choice is a system through the College Board where students can choose to send only their best scores instead of allowing an institution to which they are applying to see all of their scores. Please read this additional piece on Score Choice.

• TOEFL, Duolingo, or IELTS. We recommend that students take these tests only if their applications require them and as late as possible or if they have not been in an English-speaking high school for all four years (grades 9-12) of high school or if they have received ELL/ESL support during high school.

• Test Prep. We recommend that all students prepare ("prep") for all standardized testing. There are many types of test prep before you should feel compelled to pay someone to tutor or provide test prep. Talk to your counselor before you spend money!

Additionally, we recommend that students put together a plan! Every student's plans are motivated by different factors and considerations, so be sure not to do too much comparing with others and instead focus on having good reasons for your decisions.

Of course, as the landscape continues to shift, so too will these recommendations. Stay tuned!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: February 2021

It is hard to believe that January is almost behind us! That said, please enjoy the February Cheatsheet!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the February 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: January 2021

Happy New Year! We hope the new year is filled with more positives than 2020 brought us! And we hope that the College Counseling Cheatsheet might help you with that!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the January 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Counselor Brag Sheet

As we work with students on the college/university application process, many of us in the counseling sector ask students to complete a worksheet or questionnaire of some sort that gets them to dig at their past and their experiences as a way to see their future. This worksheet is often called “the brag sheet,” reflecting the desire to get students to identify those parts of their attributes, experiences, ambitions, attitude, etc that can help to inform the concept of “fit” with a university and certainly that the student will want to highlight in the application. For me, the experience with this activity is often the most formative component of the process, getting students to reflect and to see where they are at the moment, among other things, as being in flux, growing, and developing toward something bigger and greater. There is a trajectory to be found and examined and evaluated. 

In light of this, some of the recent work I have been doing has led me to realize that there is no reason why this potentially transformative experience should be limited just to our students! In fact, what I’ve recently been reflecting on is that some of the questions we ask of our students are precisely the questions that we as counseling professionals should be asking ourselves.

As such, here are an assortment of questions that might be helpful!

• What sorts of students are particularly well-suited to receive your counseling programming? Are there any attributes that particularly align with what you offer students? Do you know why this is the case?

• For what sorts of students does your programming miss the mark? Why? And what could you do to access more students?

• What do you see to be your strengths as a counselor? When are you at your very best? (I’ve often spoken of this as your “base case,” those specific, concrete situations when you are at your very best as a counselor. Is it one-on-one with a student working on identifying a list of universities to research? Is it presenting to parents? Is it writing letters of recommendation?) How can you capitalize on your strengths more often in your day-to-day? 

• What are the areas of your counseling practice where you could stand to grow and learn the most? Is it content? Is it a skillset? Is it a category of student or situation? What plans or commitments can you put in place to grow in this area? 

• What are the strengths of your school? What sorts of students are particularly well-served by it? How about the opposite: for what sorts of students is your school not ideally suited? Are there things that you can push or advocate for in order to be more inclusive as an institution?

• What are your university biases as a counselor? Do you naturally envision or recommend certain institutions or types of places to students? How can you combat your bias?

• Can you identify trusted professionals in your field from whom you can solicit ideas and feedback about your programming? Think about specific individuals and not crowdsourcing or hivemind opportunities like listservs or Facebook groups. To whom can you solicit professional feedback about what you do? 

College Counselor Cheatsheet: December 2020

It has been a crazy autumn here at my end, and I have heard of things being much more unstable and unsettled elsewhere. I sincerely hope that you can find some time to rest and relax over whatever sort of holiday break you have left. For now, I hope that this month’s cheatsheet can help you out some!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the December 2020 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

A Helpful Review Process?

Several conversations as of late have circled around the idea of annual reviews, and, as such, I wanted to share a particular annual review system that I have used for many years and that I have found to be invaluable. In some places where I have worked, there was an expectation that every member of the department would receive an annual review. Some of those places provided some structure, and others did not. Additionally, there are certainly places that did not provide an expectation for an annual review. Regardless of the school context and expectations, I have found this particular system to work exceptionally well. 

This system of review, whether formal or informal, has been helpful in several capacities within schools. For example, there seems to be resonance within areas that do not have easily identified metrics of “success” and in areas where those metrics are not readily agreed upon. For this example, I will use college counseling, which often falls into one of these two categories, but I have seen variations of this model successfully used within other areas, including advancement, administration, admissions, as well as with classroom teachers. 

The quick summary is for the process to solicit annual goals from each team member at the outset of the year, to provide routine nudges and reminders to keep the goals at the forefront of the work, and then to provide the opportunity for reflection on the growth as a result of pursuing these goals. The process can be modified in many ways to suit the local context and culture, but the overall outcomes provide many advantages. 

The annual process can be broken down into three stages: the identification of goals, the pursuit of goals, and reflection. Within each section, though there are a host of opportunities for refinement and modification based upon office or school culture and context. 

Within the college counseling domain, I found that beginning the school year by having team members come to opening meetings with some well-developed ideas for annual goals worked well; we would try to concretize them early in the school year. Then we would routinely revisit the goals throughout the year to track progress and seek refinement or modification. Finally, at the end of the year, the final annual review was based on the process and success of pursuing these annual goals as well as providing some direction for goals for the following year. The cyclical nature of the process works well with educational enterprises that are dependent upon a similar annual cycle. 

Here are some thoughts and suggestions for considering how to construct a review process that works for you!

Identification of Goals

• Timing. It makes good sense to get goals out on the table and identified as early in the year as possible. 

• SMART. There are many articles and resources out there on SMART goals, but, for this process, ensuring that all goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound makes for the process to take on greater effectiveness.

• Collaborate & Guide. I found that it was helpful to solicit each team member’s input on his or her goals as it provides for greater buy-in and perspective. Most beneficial was to facilitate the reflective process for the team by asking them to come to the opening of the school year with their own 3-5 goals. Then, during a one-on-one meeting early in the year, we would discuss their goals, providing some critical, constructive feedback before establishing their final goals. In this way, if there were a particular area or two of direction that I, as supervisor, might want to interject, these conversations were ideal for seeking to guide them toward effective SMART goals to address my aspirations for them. 

• Sharing. One additional measure that was often helpful was for team members to share out some or all of their goals with the rest of the team. In this way, the messaging was clear that we are all responsible for helping each other with our goals. It creates dialogue and ways to assist and collaborate. I fondly recall one particular year when learning about financial aid for international students was a goal of mine; in sharing this outwardly, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of emails from my team sharing articles, resources, webinars, conferences, etc as they encountered them. It expanded my reach dramatically and significantly improved my commitment to and pursuit of this goal. That said, some goals are not necessarily helpful to share! As such, I have found it helpful to require that everyone share at least one goal, which helps to guide the construction of them.

Pursuit of Goals

• Schedule Review Meetings. Given how busy everyone can get, it might make sense to sit down at the beginning of the year and schedule meetings to review goals with each team member throughout the whole year. This way they are on the calendar!

• Regular Standing Meetings. One element that seemed to heighten the effectiveness of the goals amongst the entire team was the idea of regularly discussing pursuit of goals at regular meetings. In one context, during a weekly check-in meeting, we would go around and only share our progress in pursuit of our annual goals. This heightened others’ awareness of and therefore support of each of our goals. 

• Mid-Cycle Review & Reflection. In one school context, we were required to provide a mid-year review update, and this proved to be a helpful additional step in the process. What we did was to have each team member reflect on their progress toward each of their goals with a short narrative reflection, highlighting how they might adjust their efforts moving forward. We also asked individuals to assess whether their goals were still relevant; for example, due to some internal shifts, one colleague’s goal one year was rendered irrelevant. Additionally, we would also ask each team member to evaluate each goal as completed, in progress, or needs attention. Finally, in one particular context, team members were given a questionnaire to guide their reflection, something that might work elsewhere.

Reflection

• Process Reflection. One helpful component of the reflection asked of team members is to ask them to look back on their process and to articulate what worked well and what did not, ultimately for their own benefit. 

• Outcome Reflection. Similarly, differentiating process from outcome has proven helpful. Asking team members here to look at where they are now in relation to what they had hoped for can help move things along. 

• Looking Forward. Asking team members to look at what they will do with the result of these goals is a helpful part of the process. 

• Supervisor Letter. I found that writing a letter of summary at the end of the year -- even when not required by the institution -- frames the review process well. In this letter, I found that responding to the team member’s reflections on their process, outcome, and forward thrust provided a wonderful structure. I also would take the time to suggest some areas for summer reflection in pursuit of new goals for the following year. 

• Summer Reading. In the traditional school model, I enjoyed making a summer reading suggestion building on one of their goals. This also helped typically to shape the team member’s goals for the following year. 

In the end, this is merely a model. And, as it has been said, “all models are wrong, but some are useful.” In this way, in having had many conversations with different school leaders about review processes, often unofficial review processes independent of the formal or required HR-directed review processes, I have found that this model can be modified to meet many needs. I hope you can find some utility in it!

College Counselor Cheatsheet: November 2020

November is upon us! It is hard to imagine how differently things felt last year in a pre-COVID world! Still, here we are! The kids are plugging away, and I have been finding some comfort in a familiar routine amidst all of the newness and craziness. That said, maybe this post can help. Please take a look at the monthly Cheatsheet below!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the November 2020 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

College Counselor Cheatsheet: October 2020

There has been amazing time compression in COVID times. I felt that September began barely a few days ago, but, alas, it is gone! We are into October and fully into application season. Hopefully you will find the Cheatsheet to be helpful as you navigate all of the new challenges with this school year. I wish you well regardless!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the October 2020 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Communication in COVID: 3 Email Templates

There seems to be evolving a “pre-COVID” and a “post-COVID” lens through which to see so many things in our world. A case in point for me is email. Back in the pre-COVID days, I wrote a post on how to write an email. Targeted mostly for students who have not cultivated a thorough understanding of email etiquette (though some adults would benefit), the post got some traction. While I would not dispute any of the points there, the post-COVID perspective within me wants to simplify. With our lives having turned so pervasively online over the last six months, reading a lengthy email or interfacing with my work world exclusively through the medium of email is painful. I received 206 emails yesterday, for example, and most of them were needing a meeting or a lengthy response better delivered in person (or through Zoom).

As such, I think that there may be a better way around this most of the time. I don’t know that we’ll ever get away from all emails containing lengthy bits of information (not just considering newsletters), but I think we would all benefit from focusing on the primary principle in emails being that messages are succinct and scannable. 

After reflecting on a week’s worth of emails (and not just yesterday’s overwhelm), here are three primary email templates that I think we all should focus on (especially students within their communications):

1. Let’s schedule a meeting because the information I am giving you or need from you will take more than 2 minutes to explain and/or understand. Also, here is how to schedule a meeting with me (e.g. Calendly), and here is a specific date, time, and location where we both look to be free.

2. Here is the information you need or requested, or here is something that I am requesting; in either case, I think that what I am requesting will take less than two minutes to provide through email (so I am not requesting a meeting).

3. Thanks/appreciation. 

I am told that I’m “old school” in that I prefer emails to have greetings and closings as well as proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling, but even if they don’t contain these things, the efficiency of the above notes would help a lot. 

Pretty straightforward! I’d love to hear others’ thoughts! 

College Counseling Cheatsheet: September 2020

Most of us are heading back to school this month, if we have not done so already. It is an interesting time, for sure, and we all must be prepared for some unexpected challenges. The Cheatsheet has been edited to reflect some ideas in response to this.

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the September 2020 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Ten-Day "Inner Values" Exercise

I encountered this exercise recently in a book called Words Can Change Your Brain by Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman. They call it the “Ten-Day Experiment,” and I recently applied it in working with a student who was expressing concern about a lack of self-knowledge: she did not know what major she wanted, what she liked in schools, what courses she wanted to take as a senior, and so on. The anxiety here was compounding. So we tried the following, adopted from the Newberg & Waldman book: for ten days, I asked her to wake up and, before getting going with her day (checking email, social media, having breakfast, etc), to sit in quiet contemplation. After relaxing her body, she was to ask herself one question: What is my deepest, innermost value? She was to journal about this, jotting down notes and ideas as she explored this question every morning for ten days. Then, on the eleventh — and Newberg and Waldman have a slightly different set of questions — she was to reflect on this with a metacognitive air: What did she think of this exercise? What did she actually do when putting this time in? Did she find herself thinking about the exercise later in the day? How did she understand and identify the word “value”? What did she learn about herself?

In the end, the student reported feeling calmer and emerged with a slightly greater sense of self. She shared that her deepest value was caring for others. Beginning here, we were able to discuss how this has manifested itself in her life, the ways in which she has shown it and the effect of its absence. Additionally, it led us into interesting conversations about what sorts of enterprises (not specifically careers) that she might want to involve herself with throughout her life to access this value more effectively. The exercise was successful in my perception because it provided her with some sense of agency and control. It also led her to a greater sense of self-awareness.

Something to try with the right student!

3 Essential Resources for the Savvy Applicant

With great thanks to our friends Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy at Big J Consulting, I wanted to share the annual work that they produce and then generously publicly share on a handful of critical points of consideration for students, international or domestic, applying to US colleges and universities, with or without financial aid:

• Early Decision and Regular Decision Acceptance Rates

• Domestic Undergraduate Need-based and Merit Aid

• Financial Aid for Non-Resident Alien Undergraduates

Regardless of your category, I’m sure you can find some interesting data here. Take a look! And thanks, Jennie and Jeff!

Difficult Conversations

Throughout this past spring and into the summer, as I have worked with college counselors the world over in various capacities, I have regularly encountered college counselors who shared that due to the COVID-19 impact on their students, they are more regularly encountering students opening up and sharing their stress, their sadness, and their mental health challenges, often much to their surprise, chagrin, and discomfort, especially among those without any training in how to address these encounters. So many have expressed concern about how they best can handle these situations. 

The best advice I have encountered for those who want to be supportive is the VAR method from Active Minds. Please do read more at their website, but here is the gist of it: validate, appreciate, refer.

Definitely do your research and read more, but the formula is pretty simple and hopefully provides some structure for those encountering students who are having “more than a bad day” (see the video below) and not knowing how to handle it.

• V is for Validate their Concerns, making it okay for them to be feeling off (e.g. “That sounds tough.”)

• A is for Affirmation - Appreciate their courage for sharing their trouble with you (e.g. “Thanks for sharing. I’m here for you.”)

• R is for Refer, sending them in the right direction to seek additional resources (e.g. “I just started doing a mediation app at lunch hour. Would you like to join?” or “It seems you might benefit from talking to someone about this. Can I introduce you to our counselor?”)

A quick and easy skill, for sure, but one that can be super helpful in today’s age. You don’t have to have all the answers or solutions!

College Counselor Cheatsheet: August 2020

The impact of COVID unfortunately caused a lapse in the monthly provision of the College Counseling Cheatsheet; however, thanks to some positive encouragement from some dedicated subscribers, I am back on top of things.

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here’s the file for August 2020. Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See below for instructions on how to proceed!

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Here’s how to make this work…

1. Download the CSV file for this month to your computer. (I will make a monthly file so I can update and respond to current events and post it here toward the end of the previous month, ideally.)

2. Open your Google Calendar and create a new Calendar by clicking the + next to “Other Calendars." (There are parallel processes to import a CSV file into other calendars, such as iCal and Outlook; I’m choosing just to focus on Google here, though!)

3. Select “Create New Calendar” from the options provided.

4. On the subsequent page, name the calendar, provide a description, adjust for your time zone, and select “create calendar.” [There will be monthly uploads for the cheatsheet, so once you create this calendar once, you will not have to do it again as you can just import the downloads monthly to this calendar, which is a better idea than uploading them directly into your calendar, as we’ll show you later. Also, the items are all scheduled for 7-7:30am, but you can move them later.]

5. Now navigate back to your Google Calendar, and you will see your “Cheatsheet” calendar in the right-hand navigation bar. If you scroll-over it, you will see three dots to the right of it, which, when selected, will reveal a menu. Select “Settings and sharing.”

6. The next page you see will have “Cheatsheet” selected, but you need to move up to the “Import & export” option and select “Import.” Then choose the CSV file you previously downloaded and then be sure to select the proper “Cheatsheet” calendar in the “Add to calendar” section. This is important! Choose the correct calendar into which you want this file’s contents imported! Then, when you have the correct settings, select “Import.”

7. You should see a pop-up window appear with the total number of imported activities. Now, when you navigate back to your Google Calendar, you will see the items for the current month appear on your calendar. (Sometimes you may have to wait a few minutes for the imported items to appear; be patient.) When they do appear and you select an item, you will see a title and a description to explain that day’s task, and you may also see a link. Now, each item is scheduled for 7-:7:30am because that is most likely when I will attend to that task. I am a huge proponent of timeboxing, and so I will break my day up into tasks that need to get done around my scheduled appointments, so if 7-7:30am does not work, I will move the item to a time later in the day. (Just drag-and-drop it to free time!) Another tip here is that if you right-click on any item, you will see a window appear, and at the top of that window, you will see three dots. If you select the three dots, you can copy this item to your main calendar. This works well if you use scheduling software, as this process will make sure you are blocked off to do this work. And you can also drag the item to different times throughout your day to suit your needs and to accommodate your schedule. Put differently, if it isn’t blocked off on your calendar, then it won’t get done!

I also scheduled each item 7-7:30am because that is before my work day begins. Personally, on a weekly basis, typically on Sunday evenings, I’ll take a few minutes to look ahead at my schedule for the week and block off times to do the essential work of the coming week. For these cheatsheet items, all I have to do it add them to my calendar and then move them to where I want them in my days!

Of course, I created these items based on my own school’s schedule and practices, so you can always move items to different days to suit you and your purposes. For example, some of you might outsource your School Profile, so the dates I provide might be too early or too late for your needs. In this case, simply move this task to an appropriate day or time!

In the end, I hope these are helpful to others! However, as I mentioned before, I welcome feedback, especially in regards to things that don’t work, things that might be improved upon, and ideas that I haven’t included. Let me know your thoughts!

10 Essential Practices for Finding Success at University

In discussing with students and parents the transition our recent graduates are making to university life in the coming months -- regardless of the context during the pandemic -- I find myself running through the same pieces of advice. There are some tried-and-true guidelines for successfully navigating the transition to university. Take a look!

1. Get to know your professors. Most of the teachers at the high schools where I have worked put in great efforts to get to know their students and to establish relationships with them. That may not necessarily be the case in college! I don’t want to cast a negative light on university professors, but it is worth considering that they see you not as a kid but at a burgeoning adult, and, as such, they have adult-like expectations of you. The result is that you need to put in the time and effort to get to know them. This will make your efforts and experiences more meaningful in the long-run. Introduce yourself. Make it a goal for them to know you by name, first and last. Schedule appointments to review challenging material. Attend office hours. Make the connection! 

2. Find the careers office. In the first month of being in school, make a pointed effort to visit or make an appointment with the careers office. Different universities offer different services, and your goal is to learn what yours offers! They can help with a wide variety of support services from writing and reviewing resumes and cover letters to interview preparation, and they also can offer career guidance and even facilitate job and internship opportunities. You are expending a lot of resources on this institution, so be sure you are making the most of it!

3. Try something new. Broadly speaking, get involved! Most universities will have an activities fair of some sort at the beginning of the year to allow students to learn about the different opportunities to become involved in the school community from clubs to sports to affinity groups to academic organizations and so on. You have a new opportunity to try something new here. Take advantage and explore! 

4. Continue on with something you did in high school. Don’t lose grip of things that you did in high school that brought you pleasure or opportunities to interact with others. Whether that was band, Model UN, an academic group, or a study club, think about how you might continue on with some things.

5. Find your people. This piece can be hard as you reconcile a sense of yourself and who you want to be with the people you encounter. Keep trying to find people who challenge and support you. Go to events. Go to meetings. Attend performances. Get involved. This will not happen overnight, and it will not happen without your efforts. 

6. Do the work. A lot of students who encounter difficulties in their academics report back simply that they did not do the work assigned to them. So, simply, do it! Do it all! You are paying for this. Get your money’s worth! Become familiar with the reserve section of the library where professors put additional materials for your benefit, but be sure to do the mandatory readings and work on time. If you struggled with this in high school or are anxious about this, find the teaching and learning center at your school to get some help starting off on the right foot!

7. Take care of yourself - mind, body, and soul! Many students who struggle do so because they do not take care of themselves. Aside from the academic work, be sure you are getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, and getting some exercise. Moving from high school with required PE and sports can be challenging when you no longer have compulsory activity. The same is true with moving to the freedom and independence of not having a parent to tell you to go to bed at night or putting a balanced diet on the plate in front of you. Be thoughtful and caring of yourself. Also, be aware that this also extends to your spiritual and mental welfare. Find the local church or synagogue or mosque. Figure out what mental health supports are available.

8. Be positive… It is important that you move into this next chapter of your life with an open and positive mind. You will encounter new people, new perspectives, new experiences, and you need to open and welcoming to them. 

9. … And be forgiving! At the same time, give yourself permission to make mistakes. This is how we learn. It will not always be easy, and you will not always do the right things, but you cannot beat yourself up over them. Be kind to yourself but learn the lessons!

10. Be safe. Finally, be safe. Take care of yourself and others. Consider the risks you take when you make decisions, and do not sacrifice or compromise on your own safety.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on any of these! If you are looking for some additional perspectives, consider this broader, life-oriented post. In the end, make the most of and enjoy your college experience. These tips will help you do just that!

Guiding International Students During Uncertain Times

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of serving as a panelist on a webinar put on the The College Board entitled “Guiding International Students During Uncertain Times” about the ways in which international students in the upcoming class of 2021 will engage with the university application process differently than previous years due to the COVID-19 situation. I hope you enjoy!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: February

You can find this month’s College Counseling Cheatsheet here. Each day, when uploaded into your calendar, you can get a 30-minute activity that is designed to improve your college counseling practice.

We welcome insights and feedback from users, so please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have any ideas or suggestions or if there are any dates or reminders we are missing!

If you’re new here and wondering how to take advantage, read this post to get the cheatsheet uploaded into your calendar.

See you next month!

Admissions Decisions

One of the components of the college application process that we tend to neglect to address too much in advance of applications is the assortment of possible results that colleges might share. None of this really informs application strategy or process, so we prefer to wait until applications are submitted and even until results start rolling in to share the possibilities. That said, what follows is a primer of sorts for application results. Keep in mind that colleges and universities the world over are left to their individual whims to determine what, how, and when to release results. As such, while this list may seem exhaustive, there are probably plenty of types of results that we are not including. Still, here are the most common ones!

• (Unconditional) Admit. This is the traditional “accept” response, which means that you have been offered a place in the freshman class. Although this variety of result does not traditionally include any mention of conditions for the student to meet, most universities will expect that the student continue on performing academically in a manner consistent with that shown through their application, even if this is not explicitly stated. (Read: No senior slump!)

• Conditional Admit. This means that the student is being offered a spit in the freshman class so long as they meet certain conditions that the acceptance outlines. Most commonly, this includes specific IB exam scores. If the student does not meet those conditions, then the offer of admission turns to a deny.

• Deny. This means that the student’s request for admission is declined and that they are not being offered a space in the school. In the vast majority of cases, this means that the student may not apply again until the next application cycle.

• Defer. When a student has applied through an early round -- such as binding Early Decision or non-binding Early Action or some other non-Regular deadline application -- the term “defer” means that they are postponing making a decision until the regular decision pool. However, it is not uncommon for a regular decision application to receive a “defer” decision; in this second case, this means that the admissions office is not yet ready to render a decision on the application and that they will wait for more information or even for the admissions process to play out with other students before they make the decision on whether to admit or deny.

• Waitlist. This one is a bit trickier. When a college is not able to offer an offer of admission to a student but feels that they would love to have the student if the space is available later, then they will employ a waitlist. This means that the student has been essentially denied but there might be the chance of a late admissions; in this way, the student needs to decide whether to accept the spot on the waitlist or to, essentially, be denied. If they accept the spot on the waitlist, then they must deposit at another school since some waitlist offers do not come until late in the summer. If a college fills entirely, they will typically email and release all students on their waitlist. Be sure to communicate closely with your counselor if this one plays out for you.

• January (Midyear) Admit or Deferred Admit. Sometimes colleges may not have space in the freshman class for the fall entry period, so they will instead offer space in a later semester. In essence, this gives the student the first semester off. Also, sometimes universities will render offers of admission for later years; in some such cases, these offers were requested -- as in the case of a student who wants to take a gap year who asks for deferred admission -- but in other cases, the university makes the decision unilaterally.

• Alternative Campus (Admit). Sometimes universities are not able to offer admission to a particular campus and instead will offer admission to a satellite campus, either permanently or temporarily. It is increasingly common for universities with international branches to offer admission to a student to spend the first semester or year at a secondary campus before coming to the main campus.

• Alternative Major (Admit). Sometimes students are not admitted for their top major and instead are offered admission if they agree to pursue a different program or major. Sometimes this contingency is built into the application process whereby the university asks for a ranking of top majors, but sometimes the university will reach out in special circumstances to offer admission to a secondary major for which they deem the student to be a good fit.

• Preferred or Guaranteed Transfer. This one perhaps has the most variation, although it is rare overall. Some schools will tell a student that while they are not admitted for the first year, they would be given special consideration or even guaranteed admission if they applied as a transfer student after attending freshman year elsewhere. Usually there is a specific GPA that must be met. Sometimes there are specific courses that must be taken. Also, sometimes the university will specify a specific institution that the student must attend, like a community college.

Again, there is technically an infinite number of potential outcomes from universities, but these are the most common ones. Also, to be clear, the reasons for universities making these decisions are not included here. Sometimes we can figure out why certain decisions are made, but most of the time we do not know. Nevertheless, be sure to share all results with your counselor!

Affording College

Affording a university education, especially in certain parts of the world like the US, is difficult, to say the least. We regularly dole out the following guidance to families during their final two years of high school, but some of this advice needed to have been embraced far earlier. To be clear, we feel that these are options that every student should consider, especially when they are considering taking out large loans. We are not certified financial planners or otherwise authorized to give you advice on how to take care of your money, but these points all come from experience in working with families throughout the years. 

1. Save. This may seem trite, but there have been some bad rumors out there about how you may as well not save if you are not uber-wealthy. This is not the case. (I have read that it does not make sense to reroute a parent’s retirement contributions into savings as colleges do not take that into consideration in their calculations.) Do what you can to tuck away money for college! Consider a 529 or some other savings product. Every little bit helps. 

2. Be Open-minded. When families are sensitive to college costs, one of the first things that we counselors have to do is make sure that the students and parents are not overly focused on one single institution. Keep your options open and be open to many possibilities. This only makes it easier in the long run!

3. Be Clear About Your Priorities. If you are indeed cost sensitive, then be sure to communicate that to your counselor. And, parents, be sure to communicate this with your children. This is very much related to the previous comment, but by being clear that your top priority is affordability, we can all work together to find appropriate fits. 

4. Figure Out Your Budget. It is certainly worth the time for parents to sit down and to figure out what they believe that they can afford and then to go through the process of figuring out what colleges think that you can afford. In the US, go to any college website and use their net price calculator to see what that might look like. It is really important for families to understand the difference between what they think that they can pay and what universities will expect of them. Waiting until senior year for this is generally too late.

5. Choose cheaper colleges. Again, this may seem obvious, but within most countries, there is an array of different costs for attending university. Within the US, while some private colleges have surpassed the US$80,000 per year price tag, there are others safely under US$30,000. Additionally, it is worth exploring those places where you might be granted in-state, resident, or citizen discounts. Does your passport country provide a cheaper rate for citizens? (For example, did you know France passport holders pay domestic tuition in the province of Quebec in Canada?) Be sure to explore all avenues!

6. Apply for Financial Aid. Be sure to read all you can on university websites about need-based financial aid applications. In the US, most schools require the FAFSA and/or the CSS profile. Be sure to complete these documents if they apply to you. In these cases, you cannot be awarded aid if you do not apply.

7. Enroll in Recruitment Programs. There are a number of programs out there that work to connect students with interested universities. Two notable programs are Questbridge and Meto, which students should research and consider. These programs work to introduce students to appropriate fit institutions. Aside from these two, be sure to vet any with your counselor before signing up, especially if they ask for money, which is generally an indicator that you should avoid the program. 

8. Explore Institutional Grants & Scholarships. Scour those websites. There are plenty of universities that have application-based scholarships that maybe are not advertised as well as they might be. Of course, they might require additional essays or letters of recommendation, but, again, you cannot get the money if you do not apply. 

9. Search for Independent Scholarships. We recommend using the website Fastweb, but there are other tools and resources out there that students have successfully used. Most scholarships out there are in the US$500 to US$2000 range, but every little bit will help… and there are some much larger, competition-based awards out there. This takes time and effort, but they add up and are worth it!

10. Get a part-time job during school. It is not an uncommon thing for students to work while studying. Factor this potential in while developing your list. One colleague of mine always discourages cost-sensitive students from applying to rural universities because of the relatively larger potential for part-time employment in urban environments. Also, if you qualify for financial aid, some of your aid package may come in the form of a work-study on campus. 

11. Exchange Service for Tuition. Of course in the US there is the GI Bill that can help students with tuition in exchange for military service, but there are other options out there including through the Peace Corps and Americorps. There are also employers post-university who often offer loan assistance programs. And there are models for service exchange for medical school. 

12. Start at Community College. Beginning at a two-year US community college or similar pathway in other countries (e.g. college in Canada) provides a cheaper beginning to the college experience and reduces costs. In this way, students can pay a far-reduced tuition for two years before transferring to a 4-year institution for the final two years (ideally).

13. Defer Enrollment and Save Money. One additional opportunity is the often-misunderstood Gap Year. Simply put, take a year or two to get a job and to save money as an individual. In the US, this might allow the student the opportunity to establish tax independence, but, at the very least, it allows more time to save and even to figure out what pathway makes the most sense. 

In the end, families that are cost-aware are forced to confront questions that all students should. Remember that college, as with all education, is not a race to be won but rather an experience to be optimized. Be sure to consider each of the above options!