College advice for all

HARLEM VALLEY — As this year’s deadline for college applications approaches, college guidance counselors from three area high schools, Millbrook High School, Webutuck High School serving Amenia, Wassaic, North East, and Millerton and Stissing Mountain High School in Pine Plains, have advice for parents of students from freshmen to seniors.

Start early

Beginning early helps. “Don’t wait to start thinking,� suggests Karen Pogoda, who has been the college guidance counselor for 22 years at Stissing Mountain.

Parents should start motivating students to think about college long before the first semester of senior year.

Julie Taft at Webutuck  urges students to start visiting campuses early, and every year the school takes students on four tours of colleges. Even ninth-graders can participate. Transportation is paid for by Silo Ridge Country Club, and the trips are free to the students.

College fairs at all the schools are another way for parents and students to learn more about what schools offer.

Visiting colleges early helps students and parents to understand their requirements for admission. In Millbrook, presentations by the college advisors start in the sophomore year to help students think about the kind of education that is right for them. Students with academic potential are urged to take a heavy, challenging course load so they have the necessary courses to apply to competitive colleges.

“Colleges are looking for students who have done more than play video games for four years,� said Taft. Community service and extracurricular activities throughout high school are important.

“Colleges look at the entire four-year high school experience of a student — grades, course selection, activities,� Pogoda said.

Parents can also urge their children to get started on writing college essays before classes begin senior year. Essays are probably the most difficult aspect of applying to college but are a very important part of the application. From the essays, schools should learn something that the rest of the credentials don’t say. Pogoda says parents can help students “think about what is special or different about them.�

 In Millbrook students are asked to write an autobiography over the summer before their senior year to guide the guidance counselors in writing their college recommendations, another critical part of the college application.

Narrow the choices

All the counselors agree that parents should help students decide what type of school is right for them and assist their children in narrowing their choices.

Webutuck’s advisor, Taft, reminds students that college is a place where they will live for the next four years. Do they want to live in a small town or a big city? Do they want to go to a small school where professors will know their name or a large university with more options? How far away does a student want to be from home?

Millbrook High School does not limit the number of schools that students can apply to, and last year some students applied to as many as 11 or 12 schools, according to Helen Grady, who has been counseling students there for 20 years. Each application is time consuming and expensive, so focusing is important. Visiting schools is key, Grady agrees.

“You need to eat the food and stay overnight to see if you feel comfortable,� she said.

Pogoda told the story of two students who visited the same school. One returned saying, “I wouldn’t go there if they paid me,� and the other said, “I’ll die if I don’t go there.�

Taft, who previously worked in Westchester, observed that the Northeast Corner is somewhat isolated, and that students here have had little exposure to college campuses, so visiting is especially important.

 Parents should remember that although college admissions have become more competitive with the peaking of the second baby boom, students should realize that they also have a choice and find the best match for them.

“It’s a two-way street,� according to Pagoda. Taft urges interested students to e-mail, talk to local college reps and make phone calls to learn more.

Be informed and work

as a partner

All of the schools offer information sessions for parents to help them understand the  college application process, but many of the counselors found it discouraging that more didn’t participate.

Parents should support their children, but never do college applications for them. Grady said a poor example of this were the parents of one student who, when asked where he was applying, said, “Ask my mother.� Pogoda says that students themselves must manage the process.

Be honest about family financial assistance

Parents should be straight forward about available family resources with their children. In the current economic climate many students are deciding to attend two-year community colleges initially, which are less expensive.  About half of area students make this choice and many go on to complete their degrees at four-year colleges, which accept their community college credits. Especially attractive are the Charles and Mabel Conklin scholarships, which offer paid tuition at Dutchess Community College to students graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

“The reality is that the core courses in a two-year college are the same as at a four-year college,� said Pogoda. “More and more of the best and brightest, including last year’s salutatorian, are going to Dutchess. They like what they see there.�

All the counselors agreed that no school should be ruled out because of financial constraints and that every student should apply to their dream schools, regardless of family finances. There are all sorts of scholarships available and students should do the hard work of identifying them and applying.

Out-of-state colleges should not be ruled out. Pogoda pointed out that University of North Carolina is no more expensive than New York SUNY universities, if you can get in. At Clemson in South Carolina a student with high SAT scores can qualify for in-state tuition.

And there is even assistance in New York to help pay for SAT tests and application fees.

Listen to your child,

let them decide

The final choice of the schools to apply to and attend should be the choice of the student. It is their dream, their time to explore and grow. Let them make the final decision. The hardest part of the college advisor’s job, according to Taft, is that you “can’t do everything for the student. They have to want it.�