Monthly College Counseling Update: October 2023

10/31/2023

Archmere Academy Reverse Advisory:

Last week, the College Counseling Office hosted Archmere’s first Reverse Advisory Visit. Our guests were from a wide variety of schools with extremely different backgrounds. We've invited them to Archmere to make a positive impression upon them for future applicants, but also to garner feedback that may help us when making future decisions that impact college-preparation and Archmere's perception within college admission offices. From Wednesday evening to Friday at lunchtime, our guests interacted with faculty, administrators, students, parents, and board members to learn as much about our wonderful community and education as possible. They sat in on classes and conducting Q&A panels with students and the faculty. The group will be responding to questions from Archmere individually and presenting a group executive summary of observations.

Whether you presented, performed, asked or answered questions of our guests - thank you for being you and letting Archmere shine. Good people welcomed good people and the event was a huge success. The qualities of an Archmere student, education, community, and experience was exhibited and our guests left incredibly impressed and appreciative of the program that we put forth.

We will receive a lot of feedback affirming we are doing great things, and also given questions to ponder as we attempt to grow and improve. We hope you had as much fun as we did talking with professionals that truly have the best interest of students and education at heart. If you have any questions about the program please reach out the College Counseling.

Seniors:

Wednesday is November 1st, the largest annual application submission deadline nationally and at Archmere. Over 95% of seniors will submit a college application prior to this deadline. College Counseling highly encourages students to submit well before the deadline; however, some students do work right up to the evening of 11/1. Students are recommended to sign into their application portals immediately upon receipt of the information - and continue to do so on a regular basis to review application status.

To celebrate the milestone, College Counseling will host a donut and coffee gathering during Work Period on Thursday, November 2nd. We recommend everyone congratulate seniors for their successful submissions.

Quarter-one grades should be finalized sometime next week. College Counseling will be sending out a form for all seniors to complete to inform our office if they want their grades shared with colleges they’ve applied to. An email will be sent when grades are available and when quarter one grade submission has been finalized.

Juniors:

A communication about an optional, free, practice ACT will be sent later this week. The date of the test is December 12th. We will begin at 8 AM and students must arrive to the SLC by 7:45 AM. Registration information will be emailed out.

Our Junior College Panel will be at 6:30 on November 16th in the SLC. We’re excited to invite five admission professionals to participate in a Q&A to help juniors better understand the college search, application, and selection process. While many families have already started the process, this is the unofficial commencement of the class’ college search. Attendance is mandatory for the Class of 2025, parents and guardians are more than welcome to attend, as are all members of the Archmere community.

As an FYI - Archmere will be hosting digital, in-school, SAT tests for the Class of 2025 on March 15th and April 22nd. These test are optional and Mr. Jezyk will be sending out registration information at a future date.

The Villanova School of Business (also including sophomores) was a big success. We’re planing on adding more schools and disciplines to the rotation in future years. Please continue to look for future programs.

Sophomores:

Members of the Class of 2026 that are in an advanced math track are invited to also consider the free, practice, ACT test in December. Please also keep an eye out for College Counseling’s next newsletter with a theme of exploration.

Students and families are more than welcome to attend the Junior College Panel on November 16th if they are interested in hearing good advice and some advanced information from the College Counseling Office.

First Year Students:

We hope you’re having a smooth transition to Archmere both academically and socially. As you get comfortable, please continue to seek out opportunities to get involved to find things that really interest you. If some of your course work is challenging to a point of a struggle, please talk to your teachers and Mrs. Dove to see what type of resources are in place to help you succeed. The College Counseling Office has a few touch-points in the Spring Semester to engage with your class. You are always welcome to stop in the Counseling Suite to ask questions.

College Counseling Networking:

The College Counseling Office will be visiting Rowan University, University of Lynchburg, Rutgers, and Montclair State next month. We will also be hosting the College Counseling Roundtable program at Villanova in December. This program is attended by 60 - 80 college, independent, and school counselors twice a year.

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