Report from College Counseling
Typically, about 20% of a Putney graduating class decides to work or travel for a year before attending the college to which they have been accepted. The number of students who have decided to take a gap year was much smaller this year. But five other students elected to take the year after graduation, not just as a gap year but as time to investigate colleges and apply. Once in a while, there has been a student who postpones the application process until after graduation, but never this many.
There are several reasons for their decisions. One student spent a fall semester abroad; another battled serious illness during senior year. But all of them preferred to dedicate extended time to seeking out appropriate college programs and learning environments, rather than combining the application process with the rigors and pleasures of their Putney senior year. They have taken the standardized tests; they have requested recommendations; all but the senior who was abroad wrote two personal essays last fall - it's an English assignment.
|
 Joyce Vining Morgan |
So it's not the paperwork per se. Even the forms have been done, generically - all juniors fill in the Common Application in spring of that year, to practice getting information into the necessary format (and to gather any needed information they didn't have at the ready).
The issue seems to center around determining which colleges are well suited to each student, and the problem is getting beyond the marketing spiels which have the ultimate effect of making all colleges of a certain size seem alike. Each junior has worked with me to generate a list of colleges to investigate. We then edit and re-edit the list as the student investigates and gets an increasingly good sense of "fit." Students get the catalogs, check out the web sites, and visit the colleges. We talk about marketing, reading between the lines, getting behind the lines.
One rising senior recently e-mailed me that she had visited seven colleges and that, except for the one state university, they all seemed very similar. "I actually asked in my interviews what was special about the one I was visiting" she said in her effort to compare peer institutions, "and no one had very much to say." One response would be that it might not matter, in that case, which she attends.
But the popular wisdom, promulgated by the media - which has found that college-related issues sell well - is that there is a perfect college for each student. Like much popular wisdom, it's better ignored. Most of us older folks know that we could have flourished at any of a number of colleges, though not necessarily at any ol' college.
On the other hand, five seniors ignored my personal wisdom, that it's better to complete the college application process at Putney so that it doesn't overshadow the gap year. They may well be right, at least for themselves. After all, the most serious business of this process is the self-awareness that enables students to decide on a next step. And that involves reflection, which takes time. As Putney adults watch students grow from "newie" to student leader, we see the changes. Students are no less aware of their growth, and of the need to distinguish passing fancy from serious intellectual and spiritual engagement. Taking special time to do this is not a negative. And Putney teachers and I are ready to help when any student, or alum, needs us.
|