As the year is approaching its end, there has been a rise in interest regarding college admissions. Ms. Kelecy Edwards, the SIS college counselor, responded with a presentation in the auditorium debunking college admission myths. With multiple students engaging in resourceful information, on Feb. 20, Ms. Edwards released her full schedule for “The Admission Puzzles” series.
“Practically speaking, going from working with 90-99 seniors in the classes of 2021-2023 to classes of 72 for 2024 and 2025 allows me to think about how I can use my time differently,” Kelcey Edwards, college counselor of SIS, said. “I want our families to have useful, accurate information at their fingertips. That way, none of the students will be surprised when we officially start working together in the spring of junior year.”
The series is open for all high schoolers except for seniors, who have already completed their admissions. Most recently, on Feb. 26, Ms. Edwards held a presentation explaining teacher recommendations to students. Students from various age groups attended.
“I attended Ms. Edwards’ presentation on the college admission myths,” Sylvia Lee (10), a student at SIS, said. “I was surprised that most of the information which I thought was quite obvious was not even true. This really helped me think about what I really need to prepare for.”
The series happens every Tuesday activity period. Every Tuesday, since there are no club meetings, it gives students a lot more flexibility to participate in the series. While some meetings are open to all grade levels, some are narrowed down to a specific grade level.
“The topics are all relevant to all SIS high school students–perhaps in slightly different ways,” Ms. Edwards said. “Because I tried to anchor my series in the Tuesday activity period, I knew that all grades might be available for some weeks but sometimes certain grades would already be spoken for (e.g., meeting with the Counselors or Mr. Macklin/Mr. DelVecchio). If I knew a grade level would not be available on a particular day, I tried to schedule a topic that would be less relevant to that grade level.”
For example, on March 5, the info session on Extracurriculars was open to freshmen and sophomores. This was because there is not much opportunity for the class of 2025 to factor the information into their approach toward extracurriculars, whereas the 9th and 10th graders have a long time before college apps to make good choices about how to prioritize their time outside of class and to prioritize opportunities for the right reasons.
