Counseling Helps Students Find Comfort in College Applications
Senior Chris Choung works on her college applications with the help of counselor Ryan Itchon. Many of the questions asked at the workshops relate to the Common Application, which requires students to not only input not only all of the colleges they are applying to, but also their academic achievements, extracurricular activities, personal information and school or teacher information.
In order to provide college application assistance to mostly seniors, the counseling department began on Sept. 4 hosting college application workshops in Room 1002 during office hours on select Wednesdays. The counseling department will continue to host these workshops until Nov. 20 in hopes of answering questions, creating an encouraging environment and relieving seniors’ stress.
“I think we knew that our students were going to have a lot of questions about the application itself, especially it being our first year, and a lot of our students may not have had older siblings, or people that they can turn to,” counselor Nicole Epres said. “So we wanted to make these workshops more accessible for these students on campus.”
Students are able to use the time in any way they wish, ranging from working on personal statements to asking school-specific questions. The counseling department encourages learners to bring their Chromebooks or laptops during this time to pull up their accounts, so counselors can specifically direct students. In addition, counselors are open to students discussing their future plans for college, major options or scholarship opportunities.
“I asked for more clarification on how to send transcripts, specifically if it mattered when I had to send them. I also asked about if it mattered how many SAT scores I sent in,” senior Haley Truong said. “It helped, because I was pretty confused on the whole process, but Mr. Itchon showed me how, where and when to send [my transcript] in.”
While students are welcome to email counselors questions, learners should attend these workshops for such help.
“Personally, I like to talk in person because even if you only have one question, you get that answer, and then you might spark other questions and we can get them taken care of as soon as possible,” college and career coordinator Nicole Rengifo said. “If somebody can’t wait until the next meeting, they can always email, but in-person it’s just more fun for the students to talk about what their plans are, so I think being in-person is more advantageous for going through the process.”
The next workshop will be on Oct. 23 during office hours.
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