Between looking at colleges, picking which colleges to apply to, applying to colleges, writing essays, applying for scholarships and deciding what college to attend, a lot of work goes into the college process.
Webster Groves High School is an excellent high school, and the counseling department is wonderfully accessible while applying to college (counselors Karen Verstraete and Marsha Dempsey’s doors are always open), but the help they give could be more personalized.
Rather than giving a Powerpoint to a class of students about choosing colleges and an occasional one-on-one meeting, there should be a teacher or counselor frequently talking with students, saying, “Hey, where are you thinking about applying? The next step right now is to schedule college tours. Okay, now let’s work on application essays. Finished that already? Then let’s look at scholarships. No idea where to start? Go on this website, there’s an endless lists of scholarships. Don’t know which scholarships are worth your time? Here, I know from past students’ experience and your own interests that these scholarships are worth applying to.”
Webster should offer a class for seniors where a teacher or counselor would have these conversations with students.
Imagine if instead of one-on-one training, Yoda and Obi-Wan gave Luke Skywalker a few Powerpoints on the force and expected him to overthrow the Empire. That’d be absurd. Like Yoda riding on Luke’s back during his training, Webster should be riding on the backs of its students as it teaches them the ways of the college.
This class would keep students constantly involved and assisted in the college process. Not only this, but it would also give them the time that can be hard to find to work on applications and essays.
Seniors are coming into this college application process without any experience at all. They need someone with wisdom like Yoda’s instructing them along every step of the way.
We haven’t thought through the logistics of this class; maybe it’d fail, but we think Webster should strive more to personally guide its students to that first day of college.
Seniors applying to colleges, feel lost and overwhelmed at times. It’s important that Webster looks to help individual seniors more, and a classroom focused on this is just one potential solution.
