12 | Winter 2018 In College Counseling we think a lot about fit. A student may be an exceptional academic, an accomplished athlete, or a dedicated contributor to the world, but what school will make them happy, engage their mind, and launch them successfully into their lives beyond high school? Fit is more than the university with the recognizable name; finding the right fit for a student involves triangulating financial, academic, and cultural concerns. So if a school is exceptional but it isn’t financially feasible, then it isn’t the best fit. We have also been thinking a lot about the best College Counseling fit for our community. There have been several versions over the last few years and a few counselors have transitioned in and out. These transitions may have left families with the question. “What is the best College Counseling fit for Greensboro Day School?” So, just as we’re finding the right fit for your students as they enter college, we’re finding the perfect fit for our community. In 2017, Tammy Alt transitioned from Upper School Dean to the Director of College Counseling and has utilized her background in higher education and student support to develop a comprehensive 9-12 College Counseling curriculum. This past summer, we welcomed RJ Hooker as Assistant Director of College Counseling, who has spent years in public school college counseling and writing centers. We also welcomed Barbara Maynard, our new administrative assistant in College Counseling, who has 8 years of experience in admissions and 14 years in total at GDS. We have developed a dynamic team that works to efficiently support students at every level. This year we unveiled our summer boot camp which was met with great success. We will be continuing this program next year with some enhancements based on our students’ comments from this past summer and what we know to be best practices in college counseling. Leveraging Mr. Hooker’s writing expertise, we have also begun writing workshops and weekly review during lunch to ensure strong admission essays. Enhanced technology and better communication with our college partners have enabled us to host a record-setting 91 college representative visits from a very diverse selection of schools. We hosted schools from all over the world, including UNC Chapel Hill, Oberlin, SCAD, St Andrews, Columbia University, and Yale. Most of our college admissions representative visits were wrapped up by late November, and many will be visiting again in the spring. Of course, the perfect college fit is found through more than just our programming. We begin getting to know our students in ninth grade by visiting the Freshman Seminar classes to talk about resumes COLLEGE By Tammy Alt and RJ Hooker CAMPUS NEWS and Naviance, our college search and application platform. Additionally, we regularly attend student advisory on Mondays and Wednesdays, student events, athletic matches and games, and theatre performances in an effort to informally know students new to the Upper School. We deepen these relationships when we officially become a student’s College Counselor in tenth grade. Every student appointment is individualized. As a result, we know our students well, and we ask a lot of them through their writing, their depth of thought, and their partnership in strategizing about the college process. We don’t ask for a level of commitment from our students that we don’t engage in ourselves. For example, due to the difficulty that many of our families faced following Hurricane Michael (of course it occurred right as the deadline for Chapel Hill approached), we held special hours for our seniors off campus so they had the opportunity to complete their applications.