5 Reasons to Consider Academic Coaching

You’ve probably seen coaches on the football field and in the gym. They help people reach their peak physical condition and create strategies for victory. But did you know there’s another type of coach, the kind that doesn’t focus on footwork or cardio? 

Academic coaches train high school, college and graduate students for academic success. Whether a student is suffering from executive functioning difficulties, test anxiety, or project management challenges, academic coaching can empower students with the tools, techniques, and habits necessary for growth. 

There are numerous benefits to academic coaching, and today we’re sharing the top 5 reasons to consider an academic coach for your child.

1. Learn HOW to succeed, step-by-step

One of the biggest benefits of academic coaching is learning HOW to do the organizational work that is the foundation for success in high school and college. Most students know they are supposed to study, or supposed to work on essays in advance, or supposed to keep their homework organized, but they've never been taught HOW to do these things. Instead, they’ve simply been told: “do your homework” or “turn in that assignment by Friday.” 

Academic coaches help students develop systems to organize their schedules, manage specific projects, and develop essential study skills. By breaking down big concepts like organization and time management into actionable, step-by-step processes, students can feel more empowered and know exactly HOW to achieve success. Bonus: the habits and systems students create now will continue to benefit them in college and in their careers!

2. Stop a crisis before it starts

Are your child’s grades starting to fall? Are they having difficulty managing their schedule or completing their work? Do they seem overwhelmed? If so, an academic coach might be just what your student needs. After all, timing is everything. Academic coaching can prevent a bad quarter from turning into a bad year AND stop self-defeat in its tracks. If a student begins working with an academic coach early, they’ll have the time and space to try different techniques. Instead of desperately trying to get their ‘head above water,’ they’ll be focused on discovering what works for them–and stopping the crisis before it starts.

3. Uncover the real roadblock

I procrastinate too much. I just can’t get started on.... These are common challenges we hear students express when they first seek out academic coaching. Many believe they struggle with time management or motivation, and while these factors may play a part in a student’s challenges, they aren’t always the real roadblocks. An academic coach supports students in identifying underlying behaviors and thought-processes that are leading to academic challenges. Once students understand that their procrastination is actually anxiety or their time management challenge is really just an overloaded schedule, they can begin taking the steps to address the root of the problem.

4. Get the personalization you need

Academic coaching is NOT a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s a personalized experience that allows coaches to get to know the student and their particular needs. Coaches work closely with families (and sometimes even a student’s subject tutor or academic support professional) to determine the strategies that will work best for a student. And if something isn’t working, the coach will make adjustments!

Even more importantly, academic coaching sessions are tailored to each student, whether they are learning a new way to take notes or planning their finals schedule. Here at DC College Counseling, we offer periodic meetings or consistent, monthly coaching sessions to fit exactly what students need.

5. Eliminate stress at home

Did you do your homework? Go study! I told you to finish that last night. 

Let’s face it, academic struggles are stressful, not just for students but for parents too.

Many parents aren’t quite sure HOW to ‘get through’ to their child, and we know that the constant reminders (and nagging!) can be frustrating for everyone.

That’s where an academic coach comes in. They encourage students to take ownership of their schedules and provide the tools and reminders to support them along the way. Many families have found that academic coaching eases tensions at home and creates a more positive, unified approach to overcoming challenges.

Interested in learning more about academic coaching?

Shannon has extensive academic coaching experience with high school, college, and graduate students. She loves helping students find the right combination of tools and techniques to gain confidence and reach their potential.

DC College Counseling offers academic coaching with flexible options for as- needed sessions or monthly packages. If you would like to book a meet-and-greet with Shannon to explore options, please click here. 

To see what an academic coaching sessions with Shannon entail, as well as specifics about or package options, you can read more here.

Creating Your Four-Year Plan

As we’ve mentioned here before, a strategy session for an 8th grade student can be an incredibly valuable way to set yourself up for success in this process. Some advice that we always give these students is to start creating a four-year plan. Yes, that’s right - make a plan for all four years of high school, now! 

This can seem really overwhelming for a lot of students and families. Several weeks ago, we had a parent reach out to ask if we had a template that families could use to create this type of plan. Our first thought was, why didn’t we think of that?? (We LOVE getting great suggestions from students and parents, so if there are materials or tips that would be useful to you in a future blog post, let us know!)

So here it is - our DC College Counseling Four Year Plan Template!

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Wondering why it is necessary to come up with a four-year plan? For families with middle school students, it can be difficult to see the big picture, but the truth is that for better or worse, the curriculum students take in middle school will set them up for high school, college, and beyond.

Students who are successful in Algebra I in middle school, for instance, will be primed to jump into high school geometry as freshmen and more advanced math courses in subsequent years. This is especially important for students interested in math or engineering, who will be expected to take calculus before entering college.

Making a four year plan is the best way for you to see where you will be when you graduate high school and start college, and it helps you be prepared early for the admissions process. 

This slide from Shannon’s recent presentation on Academic Planning for Middle School Students at the College of William & Mary shows how a very advanced student in middle school will be able to take highly advanced math courses as a high school junior or senior.

If you’re convinced that you need a four year plan, you might be wondering: where do I start?

First, look at the requirements and typical progression for courses in your high school. Depending on whether you are at a public or private school, you may have very different options and expectations for courses.

If you have a dream college or program in mind already, take a look at the college’s requirements too - many schools will want students to have three to four years of all their core subjects, including a language.

And if you are debating transferring from a public to a private school or vice versa, comparing the curricula is a great way to assess rigor and how each school will prepare you for college. 

Once you have a sense of the courses available and typical progression, you get to the fun part: what do you love to do? Are you passionate about science? English? History? Choose your passion, and let it guide the courses and extracurriculars that you participate in throughout high school.

Now is the time to start thinking of yourself as an “expert” - how can you explore and deepen your knowledge throughout your time in school? Our template provides reflection questions that you can use to think more deeply about your interests and how you can explore them fully as a high school student. 

We hope that this resource helps you break down the next four years and think clearly about your passions and goals.

Questions about how to make a plan? Book a Grades 8-10 Strategy Session now, or let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear your ideas for future posts and other content that you and your family would find helpful. 

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LOOKING FOR MORE INFORMATION FOR K-12 STUDENTS? CHECK OUT THESE POSTS!

In-Person College Visits During COVID-19

Whether we’re meeting with Class of 2021 seniors who are making their final decisions, Class of 2022 juniors who are hoping to squeeze in some visits before finalizing their lists in June, or Class of 2023 sophomores who don’t know where to start with their college search during such a strange time, everyone’s asking the same question:

When WILL SCHOOLS OPEN FOR IN-PERSON VISITS AGAIN?

We don’t have a crystal ball, so the answer for many colleges and universities is that we simply don’t know. But there are a number of institutions that have reopened for prospective students already - yes, you could theoretically tour one of these schools this weekend if you felt like it!

That said, the offerings vary greatly from school to school - and many won’t be the typical campus tours of years past. Keep reading to learn more about what’s being offered right now and how to make the best out of each opportunity!

1. Traditional Campus Tours

Some schools are offering relatively traditional visit opportunities. In general, these tours are offered through one of two approaches.

The first, at schools like Tulane, American, the University of Alabama and Loyola University Maryland, are small-group tours. These are very similar to pre-COVID tours, except that the schools typically require advance registration and the use of face coverings. Some schools doing small-group tours will also limit the number of guests that the student can bring, and others may limit the scope of the tour (Tulane will only take tour groups through outdoor areas of campus, for example). 

The second option is an individual tour and meeting with an admissions representative. Smaller schools, like the University of New England, will allow students to register for a visit that consists of a one-on-one meeting with an admissions counselor as well as a private tour for the student and family. These events typically also require face coverings, limit the number of guests, and may take extra precautions such as requiring visitors to fill out COVID-19 symptom questionnaires. 

Pro Tips:

• If you do your research and find out that the school you want to see is offering tours, try to book sooner rather than later! You will get the best sense of the campus while school is in session, so you can see what the day-to-day really looks like. On many campuses, you will see a very different school after May begins, and this is even more true during an already unusual time! 

• Even if you are able to snag a tour reservation, take your own “unofficial” tour to see even more of the campus (mostly, the parts that the tour doesn’t show off!). See the section below on informal tours for more tips. 

• Finally, take notes! Just like virtual tours, in-person tours will blur together after a while, and you want to make sure that you write down your thoughts and feelings about the school during and soon after your visit. And make sure that you send an email afterward to thank your regional admissions representative for the experience. Clients who want more help on the thank-you email should reach out to us and we can provide a template!

2. Hybrid Campus Tours

Other schools offer opportunities for students to come to campus in some form, but with elements of self-guided or virtual tours to supplement a safe visit.

The University of Richmond, for example, offers both a self-guided walking tour and a self-guided driving tour of campus. They provide students with a map, written descriptions of the buildings on campus, and driving directions, in addition to audio about each building that you can play from your car! This is a great option for local students to take a day trip and see the campus. 

And while you’re driving, head on down to Virginia Tech - they also offer a driving tour map and audio to help you get to know the campus safely. GW, right in our backyard, has a self-guided walking tour brochure that you can pair with audio from their student-run podcast tour as you walk around campus. William & Mary has a walking tour brochure as well that will allow students to read along - keep in mind that masks are required at all times while on campus! 

Pro Tips:

• Maximize your walking or driving tour by arranging an outdoor lunch or coffee with a friend who attends that school. Don’t know anyone personally? Ask your school counselor if there are any alumni there who would be comfortable meeting with you. Make sure you check out the local area as well, and track down a Starbucks, community park, beach, or whatever is important for you to have nearby. 

• You’ll notice that all of the examples in this section are local to DC-area residents. If you are unable to travel to see the school of your dreams, you can still develop an understanding of the type of school you are looking for from our many excellent Virginia schools. For example, you know how Georgetown is a green campus near the city, while GW is in the city? Same goes for University of Richmond (green and suburban) vs. VCU (extremely urban), even though both schools are in Richmond. Once you have an understanding of the differences, you might be able to form an educated opinion on whether Columbia or NYU is more your speed - even if you can’t make it to New York! 

3. Informal Walk Through Campus

Other schools, like Johns Hopkins or UVA, are not offering tours at all. There are a few ways you can combat this if you really want to get a better sense of a school by visiting in person. One is to show up on campus for an informal walk or drive. This is an especially good solution for nearby schools that do not require a lot of travel. 

Again, this is also a great time to reach out to friends or other contacts at the school to see if they’ll meet you for a socially-distanced conversation about their experience. 

Pro Tips:

• Make sure to check university regulations to confirm that you will not be breaking any rules by visiting campus and walking around or driving through. Some schools are not open to visitors at this time, and you can reach out to the Public Safety department to inquire.

• While you won’t likely have access to dorms or academic buildings on an informal walk, pay attention to everything you see outside - do students hang out on the quad? Is there a popular dining hall or coffee shop? Do you see flyers or posters hanging up around campus for events that interest or excite you? Remember that even if you are not able to step foot on campus itself, you can still look online to find an off-campus spot that’s popular with students. For example, grab bagels at Bodo’s!

• Finally, don’t be afraid to wander “off the beaten path” to find the less desirable parts of campus - if the gym is outdated or the math building is really far away (and you’re a math major!), you want to find out sooner rather than later.

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Whether you choose to visit in person or virtually, take careful notes and do a gut check by envisioning yourself on campus. Not sure where to begin with your visits? Current clients should reach out to us for more tips, or leave a question in the comments and we’ll answer it in a future post!

Note: DC College Counseling does not encourage or advise students to visit campuses in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each family needs to make the decision for themselves about whether or not this is safe based on current conditions, vaccination status, and individual comfort level. If you are not planning to visit schools in person just yet, take a look at our blog post about virtual visits to make the most out of your virtual experience!

Breaking Down School Counselor & Independent Counselor Differences (and Misconceptions!)

We <3 School Counselors

Did you know that this is national school counseling week? Here at DC College Counseling, we love school counselors and try to collaborate with them as much as we can! We also enjoy providing consulting services for counseling staff at private and public schools. 

We get this question all the time - what will you do for my daughter that her school counselor won’t? Or, from some of our clients, why doesn’t my son’s school counselor do what you do?

The answer is that being a school counselor is a very different job from being an independent consultant, with very different responsibilities. Luckily, both can work together to make sure families have maximum support during the admissions and application process!

In fact, we believe that the best outcomes are more likely to occur for any student when that student’s parents, school counselor, and independent counselor(s) approach the process together as a unified “Team Student” front - along with any other supplemental service providers such as therapists, tutors, or academic coaches!

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My Daughter’s School Counselor is Lazy

I hear this a lot and cringe every time. While there are of course bad apples in every profession, most school counselors aren’t lazy at all - they are just busy! In Fairfax County, for example, the average school counselor is responsible for over two hundred students. TWO HUNDRED! And that’s actually considered to be a great ratio - nationally, there’s an average ratio of five hundred students per counselor.

And they do a lot more than just college counseling - often, that’s just a very small part of their job. Public school counselors are typically responsible for ensuring students’ academic, personal, and social growth, and are usually assigned to students with a wide variety of needs, sometimes across multiple grade levels.

Due to the scope of their roles, most public school counselors report spending only 20% of their time on college admissions and the application process. This makes sense when you consider that less than half of high schools in the US have dedicated college counselors!

The landscape is very different at private schools (and particularly independent schools) where school counselors have much smaller caseloads that usually consist of between 30 and 40 students. These school communities often do have a dedicated college counseling team that is fully separate from the “personal counseling” team. With fewer competing job duties and many fewer students, there’s no question that private school counselors are able to provide much more one-on-one assistance for their students than their public school counterparts.

Still, it’s a misconception that private school counselors can do everything. They can’t!

Did you know that Colleen spent eight years working as an independent school college counselor after working in college admissions? Here she is with her co-counselor Whitney on Twin Day during their former school’s spirit week!

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Sometimes our public school families are surprised to learn that a majority of our students actually attend private schools. However, it’s not a coincidence that so many of these private school families come to us for the first time with their second child, after realizing the first time around that they needed more help than their school counselor could reasonably provide! In total, our staff will spend an average of 70 work hours per student - on top of the school counselor’s work!

The reason we have time to do this is that we only engage with a maximum of 20 students per counselor; moreover, our students are also supported by our amazing team of essay coaches and administrative staff. We are able to allocate resources ourselves to be fully focused on the process for each individual student, whereas school counselors answer to school boards, trustees, and other individuals with a stake in the college counseling process. Lastly, we don’t spend our time writing recommendation letters or sending transcripts, so we’re able to spend more of our day in a student-facing capacity.

How will the admissions process look with each type of counselor?

In addition to our standard services, we also provide what we like to call “professional nagging” - following up with students to ensure that they are completing everything to the best of their ability well before the deadline. 

This is one of the main reasons why we are so popular with families with second children - first-time parents often do not realize that this process is much more complex than it initially appears. Even the most amazing, experienced school counselors are not able to take on the role of managing and facilitating every aspect of the process for students and families. 

They just don’t have the time to do this type of personalized project management, which is why working with both a school counselor and independent consultant might be the best choice for families that need help each step of the way. It can also be a great option for families with students who are not likely to self-advocate and seek out help from a busy school counselor. No one is able to hide when working with our team. When students don’t respond to us, we seek them out! On the other hand, most school counselors have students lining up who are need immediate help - it’s not realistic to expect them to bypass students with immediate needs to track down unresponsive ones.

There are a few major takeaways here:

• A student’s school counselor plays an essential role in the college admissions process. An independent counselor can by no means replace a school counselor’s value in this process, from the letter of recommendation to advocacy calls and everything in between.

• An independent counselor’s role is not essential to the process, but can certainly make it much easier on everyone involved. However, a dedicated and knowledgeable parent with a lot of free time to commit to college admissions-related tasks can substantially lessen the value add of an independent counselor.

• It’s very important for families to manage their expectations of school counselors. They simply cannot provide the same level of support that a paid independent consultant can, and it’s not right to suggest that they are bad at their jobs because family expectations are off base.

• While school counselors and independent counselors have different roles, they can work together to provide students with the dedicated support they need to put their best foot forward in the admissions process!

Don’t forget to say thank you to your school counselor this week!

There is (apparently not) "that of God" in the Sidwell College Counseling Office

I’m sure that approximately zero percent of my readers just got that reference, but I couldn’t help myself! I graduated from a different Quaker independent school (elementary) before heading off to Choate, so maybe that’s why I find the recent antics at Sidwell to be so troubling. I’m not Quaker, by the way, nor are most of the kids who attend Quaker schools. But I very much respect and identify with their belief system, which runs 100% contrary to the behavior exhibited up on Wisconsin Avenue.

If you are not familiar with the story, you can get up to speed here: https://www.today.com/parents/college-counselor-warns-parents-stop-sabotaging-other-kids-t151612

I’ve actually been following the Sidwell story for quite a while and there’s much more to it than what has been reported in the mainstream media. Long story short, there’s a lot of unhappy parents that believe that the college counseling office is “not doing a good job” and it seems that a select few have become outspoken about it. I’m writing about it because I think that there’s a bigger-picture lesson that parents considering an independent school education can take from the situation. I warn you that this is going to be a long post!

There are amazing independent school college counseling offices in the DC area and there are also really poor ones. However, I really believe that the problem here comes down to expectations. If parental expectations about their college counselor’s role are not in line with reality, families can have the best independent school college counselor on the planet and they will not be satisfied with that person’s performance.

I have a unique perspective on this because I spent a total of eight years working in two independent school college counseling offices. I directed one of those offices for six years, and started my business while there (it grew rapidly and I had to step down so I could concentrate on it full time). For a while, though, I had a foot in each role. It was not until that time that I was really able to understand why a parent at a top independent school would hire an independent counselor. In fact, I will admit to being a little offended myself whenever I’d previously found out that one of my students’ parents had contracted with an independent counselor. This didn’t happen often at all because independent counseling wasn’t as widespread then, but I can think of 2-3 occasions. I am embarrassed to admit now that I took it sort of personally and thought that maybe they didn’t have confidence in me.

This was not the case at all. I was totally wrong.

The reason that independent school parents hire independent school college counselors is because the function of the job is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. As an independent counselor, I can do anything I want for a student as long as it’s within ethical/moral guidelines. I’m also compensated accordingly.

I can work alongside Jennifer, McClain, Alan or Elizabeth, collaborating together to spend twelve hours helping a student craft an amazing essay that we think about for years to come because it is just that great. I can ask Rebeccah to hound a teenage boy and finally start texting him repeatedly because he refuses to do his 15-minute HW assignment between meetings and we NEED HIM TO FINISH! Or I can have her run to Staples to pick up a leather portfolio and fancy paper for a student who needs to leave for her audition in less than 24 hours and is unprepared.

I can help an enterprising teenager fill out paperwork from the State Corporation Commission to incorporate her very legitimate business (which should have been incorporated anyway a long time ago), giving her the ability to take it up a notch in her activities section by reporting that she owns an LLC. I can pick out outfits for interviews and sign kids up to get the Skimm for an easy way to be informed on current events (I can also send someone home to change when she shows up in yoga pants on the way to a college fair… eeek!).

I can help with rush resumes and head shots, a ton of summer camp/program applications - I can even moonlight as a miniature babysitting agency by passing out phone numbers via private message to members of the Vienna Moms facebook group after a few girls tell me they wants to babysit more hours to enhance their activity list but don’t know how to make that happen! Actually, speaking of Vienna Moms, I can even find a former client a very legitimate and impressive internship off that same group when she comes home after freshman year to stop in and visit, and confides that she dropped the ball with her school’s career center. And I can get into about five million fights with my husband who goes to bed alone most nights and yells at me that I have no boundaries because I am sitting in my home office writing emails at 2 a.m. and boomeranging them to be sent at 9:30 the next morning!

I could literally write a novel about all of the random stuff that my awesome team and I do on a daily basis to help “our kids” reach their ultimate goals. And while I’d like to think that it’s because we are just that amazing, the truth is that it’s also because we have the capacity to help in this way. Yes, we enjoy it and we are good at it, but we also have the time. And, as I mentioned, we are compensated on an hourly basis for this work.

In my office, we work with about 30-40 students each year on an ongoing basis before closing our doors to new clients in a given cycle. We also have 6 rockstars on our team providing help. If we did not have that kind of ratio, we would not be able to give the help we give.

To be clear: I could not do ANY of this stuff for the kids with whom I worked in my position as their school college counselor. Well, I guess I did sign some of them up for the Skimm, if I’m being honest. But it was just a very different kind of relationship. It’s not that I loved them any less - I actually really enjoyed them and am still in touch with many of them and their parents. I LOVE seeing them move through their adult lives on social media (the fact that some of them are parents already sort of blows my mind). So my inability to go above and beyond wasn’t about a lack of care, concern, or professionalism on my part - it was just about time. When you have a ratio of thirty kids to one counselor, it’s a matter of math. I did much more for those kids than public school counselors could have ever done, but the parents’ expectations were also much higher than the public school parents.

Now, we have 25, 35, and 55 hours of time to work with students on a 1:1 basis - plus another 20+ hours of individual administrative help (aka nagging) provided to each student, depending on their package. Is it any surprise that we can do more for them?

I will never forget (I wonder if I should post this - I won’t say which school it was) meeting a prospective parent on a tour given by a member of the admissions staff at a school at which I worked. That in and of itself was not strange, as I met prospective parents all the time. But on this particular day, everything was unusually quiet because there were no kids in my office and the hallway was empty. As they left, I could hear the person telling the parent information that was patently false about the services that my office provided. I can understand a little spin, but this was just … not true. You should have seen the horror on my face! I was younger at the time, and it was hard for me to speak up, but I did - in a professional way - because I felt like I had a moral obligation to do so. I think about that moment all the time, basically every time an independent school parent comes into my office and tells me that their counselor is horrible.

Maybe the counselor is horrible. That’s totally possible. Counselors like that exist. However, upon digging a little deeper, it’s typically the case that the counselor in question is not horrible at all. It’s just that the admissions staff may have been a little creative in terms of the expectations that they set back when they tried to sell the school to the family.

So when they reach the college process, parents automatically assume that it must be the counselor’s fault that she doesn’t have time to edit multiple drafts of essays, provide individual interview prep or analyze an activities list. I don’t blame them at all - I’d be furious too if I paid amounts that often add up to be hundreds of thousands of dollars based on inaccurate information!

In reality, the reason the counselor doesn’t have time is not because she’s incompetent or lazy. It’s because twenty-nine other families are asking for the same thing in her eight-hour work day. Depending on the school in question, she’s also teaching one section of a class, coaching a sport, working car line duty, planning college nights, responding to questions from over-excited fourth grade parents, and the million other responsibilities that come along with life at an independent school. She’s writing the school profile. She’s planning the junior college trip. Hosting a hundred college reps. Oh and attending “administrative team,” “management team,” and “department head meetings.”

Oh and here’s the best part:

Guess what Sidwell is looking to pay their new counselor to replace the one that everyone has issue with (not the one who wrote the letter)? Keep in mind, this person must have 3-5 years of specialized experience. I can’t verify that this is true, but the salary range listed on at least one website for this position stated $45,000-$58,000 per year.

Why would anyone accept $45,000-$58,000 per year to deal with what is probably a sixty-hour work week and an abusive parent community chock fill of unrealistic expectations? I mean seriously?

So, here’s my advice (I know it took a while to get to it!). Look at an independent school education for what it is: a luxury that is often-times completely worth the money for a multitude of reasons, but one that will probably NOT, and I repeat NOT, tip the scales to get your child into a better college. Your child can get into a fantastic college from any of the high schools in our area. I work with kids that do, every single year, so I can promise that for sure. The kids from independent schools generally do end up with better recommendation letters, and if their counselors are willing to make counselor calls, that’s very helpful. Other than that, though, there’s not a heck of a lot of direct impact to admissions outcomes once you strip away the other variables that account for parental income, student ability, drive, etc.

I want to be clear that I’m not anti-independent school at all. I actually LOVE independent schools. There are a zillion reasons to go that route. If there was an independent school for elementary-aged children on our side of the Potomac that I felt would be a good fit for my family, I would be all for it - we just don’t have very many options within a reasonable commute because our public schools are so strong. I firmly believe that kids who graduate from independent schools have a whole variety of advantages and that my education had a large part in shaping my personality, abilities, and professional success.

So, parents, manage your expectations. Think about what you’ve been promised and whether it is reasonable given the staff in place and the ratios. And if you find yourself in a position where you’ve been the victim of “creative” marketing techniques, for the love of God, please do not take it out on your overworked and underpaid college counselor. Start advocating for change and put pressure on your school to increase their staff to be able to actually provide the services that they advertise to prospective families!

Maximizing the High School Experience: A Teacher’s Perspective

Today’s post is brought to you by McClain Herman, one of our fantastic essay coaches!

High school: two words that ignite strong emotional reactions in adults everywhere.

For many of us, these words bring back memories of a carefree time. For others, high school may be associated with awkward school dances or that one teacher.

Today, however, for adults whose kids are quickly approaching the teenage years, the term high school can trigger a very different reaction. Anticipation. Anxiety. Confusion. Due to the constantly evolving nature of technology and advances in pedagogical theory, school looks much different today than it did 20 years ago. I have no doubt that these advancements, coupled with the fact that the college process becomes more competitive every year, contribute to any nervousness parents may feel as their children approach high school.

I’ve been fortunate to work both as an English teacher and an administrator at two very different local schools--a JK-12 independent school and a public high school. In my current position, I teach the most advanced level of English offered at my school, as well as general education English. What I’ve learned is that regardless of the type of school your child attends or the academic rigor of their classes, the recipe for success is largely the same. With the right habits, high school doesn’t have to be something your children get through. It can be something they actually enjoy.

Here are some suggestions to promote your child’s success in high school:

Create a routine. Especially if your child is taking a rigorous course load, transitioning from middle to high school, the workload can feel overwhelming. It is essential for students to create a consistent after-school routine to juggle their many academic and extracurricular demands. This will look different for each student. Most kids need a short break after school before diving back into school work. But the students I teach who struggle with procrastination and completing work lack a set schedule outside of school, and this often leads to working into the early morning hours. This obviously takes a toll on not only their academic records, but also their physical and mental health.

Discover and pursue interests. It’s not a coincidence that the most involved students in high school are also some of the most successful. Encourage your children to get involved with something they are truly passionate about (or to discover what that even is). Whether it’s sports, clubs, the arts, or student government, extracurricular involvement will enable them to form connections with their school beyond the classroom. Students who invest in their schools in this way often begin to care more about how they do in the classroom as well.

Self-advocate. Changes in best practices have led schools to offer many opportunities we simply weren’t afforded as students. These include the ability to ask for more time on assignments, and to retake or make corrections to assessments. Most teachers offer these supports, but in most cases, your child will have to ask for them. Many schools also build study hall time into their schedules for students to seek help from teachers.

Build relationships with teachers. I continually tell my students that they will catch more flies with honey than vinegar. This of course leads to laughter and that classic teen eye roll, but it’s true! Students who create a positive, respectful, and friendly rapport with the adults in the building reap the benefits, whether that means using their classroom as a quiet study space after school, getting extra help, or receiving glowing recommendations for leadership opportunities or even college.

Do things right the first time. I teach students who, feeling stressed about everything on their plates, often rush through reading or assignments just to get them done. While this can be tempting, even for adults, rushing through work often results in students having to redo their work or relearn concepts, and performing poorly on large assessments. Making sure their academic work is done right will actually save your child time in the long run, and make the learning stick.

After graduating from Clemson University, McClain began her career in education at Flint Hill School, where she worked in Upper School Admission and coached field hockey and lacrosse. McClain then graduated from George Mason University with a masters degree in Secondary Education English and Curriculum & Instruction, and began to work for Fairfax County Public Schools as an English teacher. Currently, she teaches IB English Literature II and English 11.

Future clients interested in more tips to help maximize the high school experience can book a Strategy Session here.

Current students interested in working with McClain on their college essays can make an appointment here.

Independent School Admission Tips for Success

In my last post, I briefly discussed the two top considerations that independent school admission officers use to evaluate a candidate’s fit. This time around, I’d like to share some practical tips to help families achieve success in this process:

• Do your own research and keep an open mind. It can be really easy to make decisions about the right school for your child based on information from your friends or even friends of friends. However, you will receive the best information about a school from the school itself. Scour their website (i.e., go beyond the admission page). Have conversations with not just admission professionals, but also current parents, students, and faculty (many schools can make these connections for you if requested). It is important to keep an open mind when considering the “best fit school” in which your child will thrive.

• Visit schools, and visit early! I encourage you to schedule tours at a wide variety of local private schools with your child. This will enable you both to determine what you are really hoping to find in a school, and to ensure that you are applying for the right reasons. Most tours include conversations with not just admission officers, but also teachers, coaches, and administrators, making them a great opportunity to learn about schools’ communities and values. I suggest visiting schools the spring before your child applies so that you know exactly where you will apply as you enter the fall admission season.

• Be aware of admission deadlines. Most local private schools require that applicants complete all steps of the admission process by mid to late January for admission the following year. Many won’t even consider an application if even a small part of it is submitted late.

• Attend school events.  A great way to get to know a school is to attend its events. Admission events are effective for learning the nuts and bolts of a school, and spending quality time with the admission team and some administrators. However, even more valuable to truly understanding a school is attending community events--homecoming, sports games, arts events, etc. This will enable you to observe and interact with students, parents, and teachers in an authentic environment. Also, attending multiple events, admission or otherwise, sends the message that you are serious about the school and helps admission committees remember your child come decision time.

• Schedule a shadow visit. If you move forward with submitting an application to a school, most private middle and high schools will offer you the opportunity to schedule a “shadow visit.” This means that your child will have the chance to actually attend classes at the given school for a half or full day. You should take this opportunity, as it will help your child determine if he or she can see themselves in each school environment. On the other hand, passing on a shadow visit suggests to the admission committee that a family might not really be interested.

• Prepare your child, but don’t overdo it. Most admission processes for middle and high school require a student interview. It is important to talk to your child about what that will be like. Share that they will have a conversation with a member of the admission committee, and that this is an opportunity for them to get to know him/her as a candidate “off paper.” The admission committee will ask questions about the student’s interests, educational habits, home life, etc. Parents should also encourage students to be themselves and relax. Over-preparing your child will often lead to anxiety, a robotic conversation, or excessively rehearsed responses.

• Follow through on the little things. Encourage your child to write handwritten thank you notes to tour guides, the interviewer, any coaches/teachers who met with him/her, etc. You as a parent should also do the same, either with a handwritten note or email. This may seem like a small gesture, but these personal efforts are remembered.

Hitting the Rewind Button: Independent School Admission in the D.C. Area

There are many benefits to living so close to our nation’s capital, including the incredible options we are able to pursue for our children’s education. Not only is the D.C. area home to some of the best public education systems in the country, but it also includes excellent private options. On the other hand, these many great choices can create confusion. Where should my child apply? What is the process like? What are her chances of getting in? It’s not an easy decision and it’s one with which I continue to struggle myself, as a parent.

When I started DC College Counseling back in 2010, my goal was to use my expert knowledge to guide families through the college admission process. Even though I ultimately spent eight years of my career working in independent schools, independent school admission was not on my radar. However, along the way, two developments occurred: first, families began to ask if we could assist their younger children with private school admission after we worked with their older children during the college admission process. These parents realized how much we were able to help simplify everything and wanted the same level of assistance at an earlier stage.

After guiding families through that process a few times, the next development occurred in the form of a lightbulb that went off- we realized that we were actually uniquely poised to do so with an insider’s perspective on each school community, because of our college admission work! We assist so many area private school students with the college admission process that we have picked up quite a bit of insider knowledge along the way. While it wasn’t initially our intent to use it in this capacity, we actually have a pretty clear view on the strengths and challenges of many area schools. Not only do we know their communities, their administrators, their curriculums, and their teachers - we are able to learn about the school within the context of the very reason many parents opt for private school in the first place - outcomes.

If you are stressed about the private school admission process, remember these key points:

Schools genuinely want to set your child up for success. They are looking for students who they believe, first and foremost, can thrive academically within their specific rigorous college preparatory environment.

Schools also seek students who will diversify their student body. Yes, this means fostering racial and ethnic diversity within the community. However, diversifying student interests and talents is considered to be just as important. Independent schools want to welcome students who have genuine and unique passions and who will be engaged in the life of the school.

Try to move forward while keeping these ideas in mind, and begin to develop a strategy to show your student’s diversity and potential for engagement. However, you also need to make sure that you are putting your child in the right environment. If they don’t have the capacity to succeed, it’s not the right fit.

Stay tuned for more specific tips in our next post, and good luck to all of the families hearing their independent school decisions in the next week!