College choices loom for juniors

Now that Hewlett High School seniors are beginning to hear back from colleges, the cycle begun a year ago will start over as the Pupil Personnel Services Department will begin to focus on helping the juniors.

After discussing interests, options and personal preferences, 11th-graders and their guidance counselors make “the list.” This initial list of suggested colleges is much larger than the final list they will make, but it is an important first step in the process.

Counselors make suggestions based on students’ grades, test scores, and career interests. While many of these areas change throughout junior year, they are the starting points of a long journey. Juniors are both excited to plan their futures and nervous to learn which colleges they can apply to.

The list often consists of a large range of schools, including “safeties,” “targets,” and “reaches.” These terms become common lingo for juniors, signifying schools that they expect to be accepted to, schools that accept students of similar qualifications, and others that are much more difficult to get accepted.

Besides academics, students also consider schools based on their location, size, and characteristics of the student body. Some students look forward to going away, while others search for colleges closer to home.

After visiting a few schools, students often feel more confident in their preferences. This can include whether they want the campus-feel of a closed community with lawns, or a college that blends into a city. The possibilities are endless, but counselors are extremely helpful to juniors, even if they are unsure what they would like from their college experience.

There are some students who have dream schools from the beginning of the process, a college that they truly aspire to attend. If this is the case, students can begin early on to make their application specifically appealing to their dream school. In addition, students may decide later that they would like to apply early decision to their first choice college.

“At first, I thought I wanted to apply early decision to Brown University,” senior Franny Gould said. “I loved the school … until I visited it during junior year and realized it wasn’t right for me. I also realized that I didn’t need to go to the school with the lowest acceptance rate or the ‘Ivy’ label. I applied early decision to the Kilachand Honors College at Boston University instead. Even though it was a ‘safety’ school, I knew it was the best choice for me.”

Parallel to the world that is constantly changing around us, students often change their opinion on specific colleges throughout the year. The search for the college with the perfect fit may be long and difficult, or simple for others. Either way, complex factors contribute to determining which colleges would fulfill a student’s desires. However, in the end, the most important factor that students should keep in mind is that they are finding their future home.