Mt. Greylock Regional School District

Application Camp

Each of seven students left the three day, 6.5 hour program with at least one college essay on a topic of their choice (some writing topic prompts provided). Four students had crafted two or more essays. Those essays were read aloud, proof read, revised, edited, re-read, and each student received comments from me and from a current Williams student (Brianna Wolfson, who is interested in high school guidance) Each student completed substantial portions of the Common Application. We spent a fair amount of time discussing topics for essays, and topics to be avoided.

Other topics we discussed in some depth:

Letters of recommendation, who to ask, how to ask, what the recommender is asked to write about, thanking the recommender, how colleges use those letters, non-faculty letters of recommendation—how many, who, why

Transcripts, quality, variety, and challenge of coursework, senior year course selection, how colleges assess grades, what high school profiles say, how colleges use those, taking advantage of the support from your guidance counselor, the guidance/school letter of recommendation, not having a "senior slump"

Developing a realistic college list, how to research college options and offerings, speaking with individual students about their college lists

College visiting and interviews, each student received a list of potential interview questions for them to ask their interviewers, and potential questions an interviewer might ask them, alumni contact and interviews

Tried to help them understand the parental stress of having a child moving on to college, maintaining a sense of humor and perspective, caring for your public image and making good choices in school, personal life, and online on social networking sites

We discussed specific recruitment of athletes (there are three students in the group who plan to play varsity college sports and were very much interested in this), and were prepared to discuss art portfolios, music CDs, theater DVDs, and the submission of other supplemental materials though no student expressed interest there, contacting a faculty member at colleges in your discipline