The Pathway to College Process
This comprehensive process guides and prepares the student through the A-J core requirements. Your student will have the foundation of skills, tools, and knowledge to navigate their college pathway, support with their final decision-making, and pre-planning for the transition from high school to college.
The A-J core requirements of the program are as follows:
A. Develop their personal platform - The pathway to college begins with an in-depth interview and completion of assessments by the student to help them explore their values, goals, strengths and learning styles. This sets the foundation for helping them create the direction they want to go.
B. Define college criteria - This personal platform is then utilized by the student to define the criteria that is most important to them to use in choosing their initial list of colleges, explore major areas of interest and take ownership of the process early on.
C. Create initial college “longlist” – Their self-developed criteria is then used to learn to research colleges and begin their initial list while also working with their parents to find out their parameters such as budget or location. This shows them how they can begin to connect their choices in high school to the colleges they want to attend.
D. Develop extracurricular resume - Their personal platform and criteria is utilized to explore new areas of interest, maximize current strengths and build on those to create choices for extra-curriuclar activities and develop a resume to keep track of and showcase their accomplishments.
E. Design an organization system - Working with the student to create a system for organizing their criteria, gathering and researching information while also coaching them on how to strengthen those skills and recognize what works best for them and how this can help them both in high school and in college.
F. Maximize meetings with high school counselor - Guiding them to prepare questions for their high school counselor around specific areas such as test dates, test preparation, course selection, course load, as it relates to college preparation. This also serves to increase their distinctiveness and visibility with the counselor through demonstrating their organization, preparation and interest.
G. Prepare for college visits - Utilizing their college criteria to develop questions for the college tour, outlining the intention and outcome they want to achieve and identifying who to meet with while they are on campus. This also includes educating the student on ways to do a "virtual" tour to get information. This helps them to create a "finalized" list of colleges to apply to.
H. Preparation for essay - Coaching the student on essay preparation, including how to utilize their personal platform, their resume and their experience to brainstorm ideas and topics so that they feel less pressured and can write a compelling essay in their own voice that helps to round out their overall application.
I. Application preparation and guidance - Guiding the student through the application process, including gathering all the information, developing timelines, prioritizing deadlines and coaching throughout the process.
J. College Decision and Transition - Working with the student and the parents to choose the college that is best. Helping the student with a plan for college readiness to maximize their transition from high school to college.
