One Student’s Perspective on College Visits

This past fall I started working part-time in the college counseling office at Cate School.  Margo Dorion and Emilie Griffin, the two counselors I work with are wonderful and I enjoy the community at Cate.  This type of work is just what I know … working with young adults in an environment sharing information about college.  With students rushing the office sometimes with anxiety about the details of applying, SAT’s, deadlines … “Ms. Griffin, Ms. Griffin … what if … and what if …”  Calmly and with encouraging words Margo and Emilie seem to settle nerves — of students AND parents.  One of our seniors, Hallie McPherson, wrote a piece for the school newspaper, on visiting campuses.  I found her approach and perspective funny and I was glad to see a young adult who “gets it” and is attempting not to take the process of college too seriously. 

She starts, “I had deliberately avoided my itinerary for a month, ignoring words like “Harvard,” “Yale,” and “Swarthmore” like minor cavities that you forget not to tongue, and cringe when you do.  College talk makes me catty on my best days, murderous on my worst, and my dad has learned to speak quickly whenever we’re on the topic; too many minutes at a time produces in me a strange kind of minor hysteria. … Click here for her entire article on her visits to 12 colleges in nine days.