STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Goals - The principal goal is clear enough: to help each senior identify and gain admission to one or more undergraduate institutions which are appropriate for her or him.  An “appropriate” college is one where the student finds an ample selection of courses in his/her fields of interest; where the student will feel socially comfortable (allowing for a reasonable period of freshman adjustment); where the student will be challenged academically but not overwhelmed; where the student can explore and develop his/her entire range of talents and interests and grow to become a confident, responsible adult.

However, the college application process is more than just filling out forms, and much more than just “getting in”.  It is a complicated experience, involving a seemingly endless series of deadlines, forms, writings and tests.  And more than this, it is a wonderful opportunity -- perhaps the student’s first -- to make a careful and considered decision which will affect the course of the future.  The process itself can and should become a meaningful growth experience.  Good applications and good decisions require unprecedented self-examination, self-description, and risk of judgment.

Means - So it is the philosophy of this office that each student should be guided and encouraged but not supplanted in this experience.  Parents and counselor share responsibility both to assist and to empower the student at this challenging, transitional stage of life.  We must give the student the information and the support necessary to enable the student to present him- or herself in the most favorable light, and to ensure that good applications are written and good decisions made.  But the ultimate relationship is that which develops between the candidate and the college.  Within the bounds of reality, as imposed by student credentials and family financial means, it is vital that the student, who will build the foundation for a life in these years, be the chooser of the colleges and the author of the applications.  We are the coaches and the fans; he or she is the star.