MASTHEAD EDITORIAL An Assessment of the College Process
The News Staff
The early round of college decisions has come and gone, and Choate’s sixth form seems to have been left in varying states of bewilderment. The last week before December’s winter break, when most decisions came in, looked undeniably bleak. Now that the news has settled in and the tears of some have stopped flowing, this year’s results look to be about in line with past year’s -- even as competitiveness for early admission reached even higher levels.
There were some bright spots -- five students admitted to Harvard, and four to Yale, for instance -- but what was more disquieting were the looming uncertainties that plague the college process at Choate. While Terri Burditt, the Interim Director of College Counseling, insists this was a good year, especially considering the staggering rise in the number of early applications at many competitive colleges, the general mood in the sixth form seems to be one of relative melancholy. Choate’s early admission acceptance percentage dropped from last year’s 45% to this year’s 43%, despite the fact that the College Office had praised the class of 2006 as a much stronger group than the previous year’s.
But a number of causes for concern also cropped up in the tumult. The University of Pennsylvania, inexplicably, did not accept a single Choate student – especially disconcerting because from 2000 to 2004, the latest period when statistics are available, more Choate students matriculated at UPenn, 44 in total, than at any other school.
And it’s not like our historical success in college admissions has been very close to that of our peer schools -- partially because we offer less financial aid than they do, and thus they assemble “stronger” incoming freshman classes. But there are some legitimate areas of worry -- weaknesses that certainly do not make the college process any easier here at Choate.
One major concern is the high turnover in personnel that has beset the College Office itself in the last several years. As it stands at this point, when the class of 2007 enters the college hunt next fall, the most senior member of the office, David Olins, will have four years of Choate experience.
The process surrounding last year’s departure of then-Director of College Counseling Rosita Fernandez-Rojo was confusing and embarrassing. It’s hard to not expect anger and frustration from parents and students when they discover at the end of junior spring that their counselor will be someone completely new: though faculty learned in February 2005 of Ms. Fernandez-Rojo’s imminent departure, and despite subsequent News reports last winter and spring of her decision, nothing was formally announced to students or parents until last summer, when Mrs. Terri Burditt was appointed interim director and had half her counselees re-assigned. No permanent director was hired because of what a senior administrative source told The News last year was a botched process, in which only one candidate was seriously considered and communication was less than ideal. Needless to say, nothing materialized with that candidate, leaving a gaping hole at the top of the college counseling pyramid.
Without stability in the office, the crucial trust between students and parents and the counselors is difficult to achieve. And colleges have no idea what to think: it is the simple truth that a new counselor who is less familiar with Choate just can’t explain the nuances of our school – from Arts Concentration to the Science Research Program to Capstones – as well as someone who has been at the school for a longer period. And when colleges don’t quite know what these programs are all about, they fail to see how impressive much of our work at Choate really is. And then we get deferred -- or rejected.
Another big frustration among many Choate students is the administration’s apparent indifference to this revolving door. This year, two more college counselors, Mr. Walsh and Mrs. Burditt, are calling it quits at the end of the year. Mrs. Burditt is adamant that the frequent turnover is not indicative of any sort of alarming trend. But regardless of the face of calm she has managed to put on the office in the past year -- and she has done an estimable job -- the issue of turnover must be addressed. We must find a way to actually keep college counselors here. Why is the turnover so high?
College counseling is a thankless job. Counselors usually get little credit and often much of the blame from students and parents. But even so, our college counseling office needs to be a place where people actually want to work -- and work for more than just a year or two. Here’s a suggestion.
Show them the money.
If spending more money is what it takes to attract a well-qualified director and retain counselors, then Mr. Shanahan and the Trustees need to do that. Our office apparently lacks the crucial connections with college admissions offices that our peer schools so savor. None of the current counselors have significant experience in college admissions, other than Mr. Olins’ four years as an officer at Tufts; on the other hand, our peer schools’ counselors have a very different background: Andover’s College Counseling Director was Director of Admission at Kenyon College for 19 years. Another counselor in their office was the Director at Oberlin. Exeter’s director was a senior admissions officer at Tufts for a decade, while another counselor was second-in-command at George Washington University. Deerfield’s Director was a senior member of the Harvard admissions office for a decade.
One finalist for Choate’s Director of College Counseling job, The News learned in December, is a counselor at a second-tier Connecticut prep school. In December, he visited campus, sat in on classes, and met with Mr. Shanahan. In that school’s four-person office, he is the third most senior member, and like our current counselors, possesses very little college admissions experience, according to a biography on the school’s web site. Why can’t we find a director like those at Andover, Exeter, or Deerfield – someone who actually has contacts and connections within the uber-competitive college admissions scene? Our current counselors, are, by most accounts, a talented, helpful bunch. But at the helm of our college office we need someone with those connections, with the ability to make sure schools like UPenn does not snub us.
On the bright side, the College Office, under the guidance of Mr. Shanahan, has taken an important, positive step in its remaking of the College Process for next year’s fifth and sixth formers. The College Office, in the words of Mr. Shanahan, will make itself much more of a part of life at Choate from early on in the fifth form year – with more regular meetings, more informative group sessions, and more student involvement in the process -- in the hope that the college process will be demystified and less of a frantic rat race in the fall of senior year. It should be noted that these reforms are occurring under the leadership of Mrs. Burditt, whose more open approach to new ideas -- and to integrating the College Office into the rest of Choate life -- is certainly preferable to the legacy of the Rosita Fernandez-Rojo Kremlin of a College Office.
Also encouraging is Mr. Shanahan’s new emphasis on connecting with and educating admissions brass across the country. Although some similar visits were undertaken under Mrs. Fernandez-Rojo, the new Director, Mr. Shanahan said, will frequently be “on the road” meeting with college officials. To facilitate this, staffing levels in the Office have been increased, as seen in Mr. Matt Proto’s shift to a full-time position from his split-time job between Admissions and College Counseling this year. “Colleges’ awareness of how the school has grown is five years behind,” Mr. Shanahan said after the Trustees Meeting. “They don’t know some of the programs. We have to be out there all the time, explaining these programs to them.” This is a positive step – the more admissions officers know about Choate and what we do here, the better off we will be at decision time. There is only so much that can be said in a 45-minute conference call.
“I’m expecting this effort will pay big dividends over the next two or three years,” Mr. Shanahan said.
What is clear is that the hiring of a new Director is an absolutely crucial decision. We hope this new director can right the College Office ship much like Dan Courcey ’86 has revitalized the slumping Development Office two years ago.
A preparatory school such as Choate starts losing its credibility when its College Office is in turmoil. While there are promising signs, this year’s deferrals and rejections and the departure of two more counselors is a matter of concern. Our administration must address the uncertain future of the College Office and nurse this vulnerability back to health.
Mr. Shanahan put it best in an interview with The News: “We need to get strong leadership in [the College Office] to carry it forward.”
And, in the meantime, we must not shoot the messenger. Our college counselors shoulder an unenviable burden, and pointing fingers just makes matters worse. As hard as it may be to believe, a deferral here or a rejection there is not apocalyptic.
