THE MILTON COLLEGE COUNSELING PROCESS TeamWork
At Milton we have a team approach to college counseling. While we assign each student to a college counselor, we are very committed to the idea that all counselors are working with and for all students. The important aspect of our team approach is that we consult each other regularly – in twice-weekly department meetings, office retreats, and daily conversation – on behalf of each student. We review college lists, share essays, ask one another for advice, and read one another’s recommendations. We have been using this team approach for over thirty years and it works! Getting Started The “entrance ticket” for a junior’s first college meeting is a completed Student Response Form. The student must submit this form to the College Office one day prior to the first college meeting. This form may be downloaded at www.milton.edu in the Academics–Academic Resources–College Counseling–Resources–Class II Resources section. At this first meeting we review the student’s selection of senior courses and plans for standardized testing. Using the Student Response Form, we start to get to know the student. Our goal in this meeting is to learn as much as we can about the student’s past experiences, present situation, and future goals. Ordinarily, the student’s advisor accompanies the student to this first meeting and helps to facilitate the process. The first meeting must take place by March 8. The goal of the second meeting, which must take place by April 13, is for the student and counselor to develop an initial list of colleges for the student to investigate. The student brings to this meeting a list of desirable characteristics in a college and the names of any particular colleges that might be of interest. Students, parents, advisors, and counselors can all play a role in making these suggestions. Many students know very little about specific colleges and largely rely upon others for the list. Other students have ideas of their own and need very little help with this task. At this stage the list is intended to serve as a foundational starting-point for the college search, but it is often updated, added to, and changed throughout the process. In May/June we will email copies of this list to students and advisors and mail a copy home. In addition to these two required meetings during the junior spring, many students will stop in to get further advice or to share new ideas as they arise. We welcome these additional meetings . Parent Input We encourage appropriate parent involvement in the process. After we have had at least one meeting with a student, we like to meet with parents and/or communicate with them by phone, letter, or email. The Parent Response Form is especially helpful to us in getting to know the student better and in writing the school letter; we encourage all parents to fill it out and return it to us as soon as possible. This form may be downloaded at www.milton.edu in the Academics– Academic Resources–College Counseling–Resources–Class II Resources section. Summer Tasks Armed with an initial list, the student will find guidebooks and the internet especially useful at this stage. After careful research, the student should set up a summer visiting program if possible. The optimum time for visiting colleges and having interviews is in late August/early
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