Educational Sessions

The responsibilities and goals of effective college counseling are seemingly endless.  Counselors are constantly working to help students and families make thoughtful and good decisions during the college search, application, and selection process.  Think of this session as a break from the norm.  This presentation will focus on ways to track and utilize the experiences and successes of alumni college counseling.  If you strategically engage your graduates, you can develop a strong, meaningful alumni community that can share real-life insights and reflections, while also serving as pivotal advocates and mentors for your students throughout the college access and success process.

The Essay: Ways to Help Students Tell Their Stories
For many students, writing the college essay is the great challenge of the college application process.  Fraught with questions of identity (“Who am I?  What really matters to me?”) and voice (“How do the colleges want me to speak? Who is my audience? Do I sound smart enough?”), the college essay can often stall a student’s application process. 

This session will describe what makes an effective, compelling college essay, exploring the key elements of the essay such as content, voice, tone, and length.  This session will also provide various methods for helping students identify and develop topics, including some self-discovery exercises that encourage students to contemplate and connect key moments and elements in their lives. 

Hot Topics in Admission
Panelists will participate in a discussion about the current trends in the college admission process.

Multicultural Students: Do they Understand the Admission Game?
Some students are playing Monopoly when they should be playing Uno.  Different rules for different games. The importance of follow-up on applications or demonstrated interest - are these concepts first-generation students understand about the admission process? Do they understand that colleges expect prospective students to participate in tours, campus visits or respond to emails or phone calls  from the admission office.  Could they lose the game because they do not understand the rules?  This session will make you aware of the practices some institutions use when considering applicants for admission. Help your student play the game and win.

Breakout Sessions IV

A Closer Look at the New Common Application
The Common Application is being completely redesigned for the 2013-14 admission cycle.  This session will detail changes and new features that students and counselors will see when the new system–CA4–launches in August 2013. An overview of training resources to familiarize users with CA4 will also be provided.

Engaging Parents in the College Admission Process
Many colleges, schools, counselors and social scientists talk about the dangers of the over-involved parent (helicopter parent, bulldozer parent, volcano parent).  They cite the ways in which parental pressures can cause stresses in students, stresses which, in turn, cause students to underperform, act out, withdraw, or engage in other self-defeating behavior. 

Much less has been said about the under-involved parents who, for a variety of reasons (socio-economic, educational, emotional) cannot or will not participate in their child’s college process. This lack of involvement can also have a significant, negative effect on a student’s ability to conduct an effective and satisfying college process. 

This session will review techniques and programs to bring parents – over-involved or under-involved – productively into the process.  These ideas will range from personal, one-on-one interactions to school-wide initiatives.  Participants will be invited to share success stories from their own communities.

Intermediate-Level Strategies to Assist Students With Learning Disabilities
For students who have a diagnosed learning disability, counselor advocacy and input becomes increasingly important during the college application process. This session will educate counselors about the “do’s and don’ts” of the college application process for students with a diagnosed learning disability, as well as describe what counselors need to know (e.g., legal parameters, student rights, etc.) and how counselors can effectively communicate with colleges on behalf of these students.

The Role of the Common Core Standards to Ensure Career and College Readiness for All K-12 Students
The implementation of the Common Core Standards by nearly every state is arguably the most significant reform to impact K-12 education in decades. But how do school/college counselors fit into this development?  This session will discuss the role that school/college counselors have in Common Core implementation and just how important they are in ensuring career and college readiness skills for all K-12 students.
   

Breakout Sessions V

On the Verge: Showcasing the Use of Innovative and Disruptive Technology
Over the course of the last decade, the college search and application processes have been inundated with technological resources to assist students. Tasks that were once burdensome for school counselors and college admission professionals are now handled in seconds. This session will not only examine the ways in which technology is presently utilized in the college search, but it will also look toward the future in an effort to contextualize the latest Ed/Tech boom.
       
Counseling Students for Transfer
Whether it is for fit, cost or academic preparedness, many students will transfer at least once over the course of their undergraduate study.  Counseling students about ways to best utilize a community college, or to have well-strategized reasons for moving from an initially chosen school – to one that better suits their needs – is often overlooked.  And what’s more, continually evolving policies and goals at both the local and national level pertaining to readiness and degree completion – including both technical and transfer-oriented associate’s degrees – makes the community college sector more vital than ever in meeting large-scale college success goals.  This panel will present perspectives from a two-year institution as well as state-level leaders dedicated to redefining and supporting readiness through system-level planning.

Understanding the Landscape of For-profic Higher Education
From cable television to municipal buses to highway billboards, the presence of for-profit colleges in today’s higher education landscape is ubiquitous. For decades, state and federal governments have wrestled with this unusual combination of profit and education. Between 2000 and the present, for-profit colleges have exponentially expanded student enrollments, at potentially great cost to both students and taxpayers. How are we to counsel students in this environment? What do we make of for-profit overtures to school counselors? This session will explore answers to these questions, offer resources for learning more about for-profit colleges, and provide a historical perspective on for-profit higher education.

More Than a Fad: Making Sense of Gap Year Growth
Once considered taboo, the notion of taking a year between high school and college has seen a large boost in momentum—especially in the last five years. But what really constitutes a gap year? How are they viewed by colleges?  Can participating in a gap year program hurt a student’s chance for admission? This session will outline the ways in which gap year programs are viewed in the college admission process—emphasizing the distinct differences between formal initiatives and DIY activities.

Breakout Sessions VI

Rural Area Recruitment: The College Perspective