Options for College provides comprehensive guidance through the college application process. The biggest testament to our approach is not only that students receive wonderful acceptance from "reach" colleges, but that they are much more self-aware and prepared when they arrive, ready to contribute and be a part of college life (please read student and parent testimonials).
For students who are sophomores and juniors, Options for College helps work with you to find opportunities that both expand your interests, and give you experiences and credentials that will be important to you as a college student and applicant. This comprehensive approach, which incorporates academic, admissions, and practical knowledge, occurs in three stages.
Stages of the Options for College Approach
Collection: In this stage, your family and you work with the counselor to discuss your accomplishments, your aspirations, and your hopes in order to form a clear idea of who you are, who you want to be, and what you have to contribute to a college community. Students take six or more classes, play a sport/instrument, participate in extracurriculars, and meet all family commitments, and yet often still are not confident that have done anything extraordinary. This stage is about being your own advocate, about realizing that you are unique and have something to contribute the no one else does. Practice interviews, collecting transcripts/scores, looking at summer activities, and creating resumes and activity sheets are typical activities in this stage, the focus of the first three sessions.
Selection: Once your counselor and you form a clear idea of who you are as an applicant, you then work together to select colleges and universities that will help you reach your academic/professional aspirations, that match your strengths, and give you a community in which you can best grow. The counselor will create comparison lists with you, complete with profiles of each school. Schools on the list tend to provide mostly challenging and exciting colleges that provide you with practical and personal opportunities; while these are sometimes called “reach” schools, really what they present is additional resources and a stronger community that not only match who you are, but who you want to be. You will also receive advice on how to best visit and interview with colleges. OFC students have applied to business colleges, art programs, music conservatories, and liberal arts colleges successfully. Selection is usually the focus of session four.
Application: By this stage, your counselor and you will already know what your strengths are, what experiences have been significant for you, and where you are interested in applying. This is the stage in which these ideas are put onto paper. You will work with your counselor through each step of the application process, writing personal, clear statements that adhere to the standard of the best application possible. It is a testament to the pride our students take in their written work that nearly all of our 2006 students agreed to share their materials in the sample writing book we compile each year, standing behind the strong statement they made about who they are. This stage may include getting an expert to help you compile your art portfolio, advice on from whom you should get recommendations, and/or a professional musician listening to your latest piece for your recital. This stage not only encompasses sessions 5-10, but also the phone and e-mail support you receive; typically, the counselor commitment to you ranges from about 100-150 hours, meaning whatever needs to be done is done thoroughly.
It is difficult to imagine, in the adult world, taking eight classes, practicing your favorite sport five days a week, holding down a job, and working in a community service project, yet so many students do all these things as a matter of course and do not necessarily feel that they are accomplishing great things. The Options for College approach helps students reflect on who they are and what they have accomplished, so that admissions officers can understand why they are valuable people in a college community.
Families and students in the end not only have a wonderful set of options for college, but also an understanding of how they earned them and how they might go about continuing to make contributions to the world around them in college. When a student takes a personal inventory of who they are, and writes a strong application that reflects on their experiences and personality, the student is more prepared for college, and a much more successful applicant. It is this idea that is at the heart of the success of the Options for College approach.
Contact us
Please call Options for College at 914-357-0781 to set up an appointment. You can also e-mail us at info@optionsforcollege.com, and visit us on the web at www.optionsforcollege.com.