As the year comes to an end and we prepare to watch the Class of 2017 head off to their many college destinations, we are always conflicted. Where is she going to college? Did he get off the waiting list at so-and-so University? Why do we do this? We cannot help ourselves. We have read the articles by Frank Bruni, analysed the data showing the lack of correlation between elite schools and economic success, and the longitudinal studies showing that happiness cannot be ranked by US News and World Report.

It is hard to believe 4 years ago I was applying to college. It is even harder to believe I am in my last semester at St. Lawrence University preparing for my next journey in life… a career. It is a common understanding as a senior not to talk about the dreaded "J" word because we get enough inquiries from parents, relatives, and professors who constantly ask, “Do you know what you are doing after graduation?”

Calvin Johnstone '15 (Bates College '19) shares the second in our series of Young Alumni blogs on life in college for Proctor graduates. Calvin experienced tremendous growth during his four years at Proctor, participation in Learning Skills, European Art Classroom, and both the varsity football and baseball programs. Read Calvin's thoughts on Proctor's ability to prepare him to be a collegiate athlete at Bates College! 

For students with learning style differences, transitioning from Proctor to college requires a thorough understanding of the three R’s: Rights, Responsibility, and Reasonable Accommodations. Up until this juncture in a student's education, Learning Skills and/or parents have been the core support system. Here is some advice for our students who thrive on support systems on how to navigate the transition to college.

When asked to write a piece on how Proctor prepared me for college, I couldn’t help but chuckle because I couldn’t think of just one way Proctor helped me. I look back at my three years at Proctor and realize that everything I experienced made me grow into a person who would be successful at a university. It might sound corny, but being a day student actually prepared me to live far away from home in college. I was able to see my boarding student friends live alone, some of them for the first time. Because I watched them grow as people through dorm life, I wanted to engage myself in residence life in college. I saw Proctor dorm parents building a community within the dorms and creating a family where people felt safe to speak their minds. Seeing that made me realize that I wanted something similar out of my college experience. Of course, there are no dorm parents in college, but being an RA is pretty close!

Submitting a college application is a transaction. The process of preparing for the click of the submit button is a journey. The journey starts now. Over the past three decades of helping students identify and apply to colleges, we have found that students who understand their abilities, passions, and interests, are able to find the “right fit”, and consequently have the most successful application process. They have completed extensive research, become self-aware, asked the tough questions, put their best foot forward in the application process and, as a result, they have found a range of schools that they can embrace.

The months of April and May can be incredibly stressful times for many of our students as the college application process looms before juniors and seniors are in the final stages of making their college decisions. The mission of Proctor's College Counseling department is to foster students’ academic, intellectual and personal growth while empowering them to take ownership of the college process and their futures. We find the students who find the greatest success in the college admission process are those who understand their abilities, passions and interests, and are therefore able to find the “right fit.” Historically, Proctor students have had the motivation and the self-awareness to make such matches. They trust their hearts and inner-self, allowing insight, not college rankings, to guide their post Proctor careers.

This week’s March 30^th editorial by Frank Bruni, College Admissions Shocker! is a humorous poke at the ridiculously competitive landscape of some of the top colleges in the country. The author of the editorial, and the best selling book Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, takes on the foolishness of college admissions rate in a delightfully provocative way. And it has got me thinking on the eve of our own Revisit Day about our own school, our own process, and what the difference is between the landscapes of independent secondary schools and colleges.