College Counseling
Choate’s mission statement notes that “students are prepared to seek knowledge for its own sake and to pursue study at the finest colleges and universities.” College counseling is an important component of life at Choate for both the student and his or her family. In a sense, college counseling begins as soon as a student enters Choate. Advisers, teachers, and deans help each student choose an appropriately challenging class schedule and advise about athletics, extracurricular activities, and standardized tests – all of which can play parts in the college admission process.
Resources for college admission are many and varied at Choate. Our counselors are in regular contact with college admission offices, keeping up-to-date on admission trends and discussing individual students’ strengths. A comprehensive College Information Weekendfor parents of fourth and fifth formers is held each February. Representatives of more than 100 colleges are on campus during the year, either at College Nights or for individual interviews. In part because of the thoroughness of the counseling program, Choate’s college acceptance record is excellent.
Formal college counseling starts midway through the fifth form year, when each student completes a self-assessment and is assigned a counselor who will assist with all facets of the 18-month process. The college counselor works closely with the student to identify the student’s interests, talents, and strengths, and to help match those strengths to an appropriate range of colleges for the student to explore in depth. In addition to individual counseling, College Nights, visits from college representatives, and special programs and talks at form meetings for fifth and sixth formers, the College Office offers students and parents TCCi, a web-based program. TCCi assists students with self-assessment, research on colleges and majors, information on Choate’s history of acceptances at individual schools, regular notices posted by the College Office on upcoming events, relevant deadlines, testing, and much more. Parents may access the site by using their child’s login information once the student enters the formal college process and is given a login code. This exploration is an important part of creating the list of colleges to which the student will ultimately apply. The counselor continues to work with the student throughout the college process.
The college admission process doesn’t end until the spring of the sixth form year, when the students makes the final selection of the colleges they will attend after graduation.
College Counseling Announcements
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