We started just like we always do at Bishop - with prayer. It was the sweetest prayer and I'm not going to lie - it had me choked up. I couldn't even finish saying it out loud, I just had to listen.
A Parent's Prayer
God, I love my children with all that is within me.
I pray that in your mercy you hear my humble plea.
I ask that you let your lives be long and healthy.
May they achieve all their dreams.
May they be who they were born to be, and may they never forget
that they were, are, and always will be deeply loved by me. Amen
After the prayer I looked to the mother to my left and said, "Great, now I'm crying." She shook her head in agreement and I noticed their were tears in her eyes too. Nice to know I'm not the only sap!
Back to the real portion of the evening...
There were 13 admissions counselors from 13 different colleges represented so everyone broke up into 13 groups. The students formed groups separate from their parents and then we all went into classrooms.
The admissions counselors were the leaders of each group and we all did the same activity. Each group was acting as the admission board for a fictitious university and we were read some details about the university and we were presented with the goals of the university for the upcoming class they were going to be reviewing.
The criteria included: trying to grow theater department, they had a couple of division 3 championship winning seasons in lacrosse and were trying build on that, they were trying to diversify the student population, they weren't family need based, they preferred SATs in the 129-=1400 range, ACT in the 27-31 range and GPAs of 3.8 or higher on a weighted scale..
After we learned about the university and what they were trying to accomplish with the incoming class, we were presented with 4 applications from 4 different (fictitious) students.
The information contained parent's jobs and schooling, GPA, class grades, ACT/SAT scores, extra curricular activities and honors, recommendation letters, and the essay.
After reading through all four candidates we discussed pros and cons to each and then got to work decided who we should accept. (We could only accept one, decline one and defer two).
After a lot of back and forth and consideration and comparison, we finally settled on what we were going to do. Then all the groups met back in the cafeteria and we could see who everyone else chose to admit, defer, and reject.
It was such an interesting activity. And having a real life college admissions counselor there was huge. I was asking her if even the big colleges really read every single essay. The answer was yes. (At the time, we didn't know which admissions counselor was with which college but found our at the end of the evening.)
The counselor in my room was with Clemson and that's a pretty big school so I guess they really are reading those essays. What an odd/interesting job that would be.
After the mock admissions activity there was an expo and the kids could go around to the different colleges and pick up information and ask the admissions reps questions about the colleges.
In addition to NC State, Peter picked up info on Alabama, Auburn and Clemson. It was a worthwhile evening and it really hit me - we have a junior who will be going to college in a year and a half.
Gonna need to start buying my Kleenex in bulk!
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| I spy Peter! |
3 comments:
What an amazing event! I am sure that you all feel much more prepared for the task at hand. And what a wonderful prayer, it made me tear up and my oldest is 7!
I have never heard of an evening like this. So interesting. Tank is a junior and not the most academic. I see improv in his future. Still college topics should probably begin to be discussed.
Love that prayer.
What a very sweet opportunity for all the kids to have. It can be a daunting job to choose a college, but hopefully Peter will have an easy go of it.
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