PROGRAMS / High SChool
A rewarding college experience begins with a thoughtful and deliberate high school education. Our philosophy and approach to college counseling are consistent with the School’s mission. Our expectation for keen self-reflection informs students’ priorities and aspirations for future study.
Beginning in January of eleventh grade, the college counselors meet regularly with students in class, meet students 1:1 formally between January and March, and hold individual conferences with families between March and June. From these conversations, each student is guided through developing a well-informed college list and application planning timeline. The college search and application process during the junior and senior years is coordinated through the college counseling office. Along with providing standardized test preparation in the spring of tenth grade, eleventh grade students are provided the opportunity for comprehensive year-long test preparation. The college counselors serve as empathetic listeners, painstaking editors, and fierce advocates for Grace students, helping them to meet the objectives they have set for themselves.
The overriding goal of the Grace college counseling program is that students experience the search and application process as empowering and exciting, while honoring the magnitude of such a significant decision and the importance of their active role in it.
The first year at Grace presents myriad opportunities for students to develop their interests, both academic and extracurricular. Grace students are independent, creative, self-aware and collaborative; consistent support from teachers, their dean, their advisor, and their coaches ensures all students have a fruitful and engaged start to their high school journey.
At Grace, we have built in time during the week for extracurricular pursuits. We encourage students to find work or volunteer opportunities, dedicate themselves anew to long-standing commitments, and join (or found) a new club. Deep engagement, both academic and an extracurricular, is important during a student’s first year at Grace.
Ninth and tenth grade families are invited to three presentations sponsored by the College Office covering related aspects of the college process: (1) how to proactively navigate the stresses of high school; and understanding and planning for (a) standardized testing and (b) need-based financial aid.
During sophomore year, Grace continues to support students in achieving their academic and extracurricular goals. Students are also provided, during the fourth quarter, an introduction to test preparation and a diagnostic exam. In addition to the three events to which they are invited in ninth grade, the College Office speaks at Curriculum Night with tenth grade families for a substantive review of the school curriculum in preparation for what to expect during junior year. Following this Curriculum Night presentation, the College Office meets with each tenth grade advisory in the spring to counsel students’ eleventh grade curricular choices.
While sophomore year can be a good time to lay the groundwork on a few college-oriented fronts (including testing, financial aid and any possible athletic recruiting), we encourage students first and foremost to continue devoting energies to meeting and exceeding individual academic goals, and continuing to pursue and refine extracurricular interests. We want students to dive wholeheartedly into their IP10, the yearlong independent undertaking during which students complete a substantial piece of work growing from their interests. We have seen students’ enthusiasm for their projects grow into future independent projects or inspiration to seek out internships.
During the fourth quarter, all sophomores are provided with thorough standardized test preparation. Students who elect to take a diagnostic test at the end of the year are provided advice to help them make decisions about which standardized test to pursue.
During eleventh grade, extensive individualized support is provided to students and families as the college application process begins in earnest. Our counseling cornerstones include:
Our programming is designed to help students and families make the most informed decisions possible throughout the college process.
In November of eleventh grade, the College Office provides an in-depth overview of the college counseling process at Grace to parents and juniors. In subsequent grade-wide meetings, the College Office shares with students the required writing assignments students submit prior to their first individual meeting with a counselor. In January, the College Office hosts a kick-off event with a representative from a selective college admissions office for all juniors and their families. In the second semester, the College Office also begins teaching a weekly class with the juniors that extends through early January of their senior year, which provides students with a holistic approach to their college process. In College Seminar, students learn about all aspects of the research and application process. This includes encouraging their thoughtful consideration about how to create a positive culture through the rigors of the process, and equips them to take ownership over building lists that protect each student and offer genuine, considered options for enrollment. The course covers college search support, personal essay writing, interviewing skills, and curricular counseling toward senior year.
Students develop a personal relationship with the college counselors that ensures the centrality of their decision-making in the process. Juniors meet individually with a college counselor for the first time in a lengthy meeting between January and March; after spring break, two counselors meet with each family in another lengthy meeting. Students are encouraged to continue meeting with the college counselors as questions arise and as their research process unfolds.
Grace co-hosts a college fair every spring, during which our students meet with admissions representatives from over a hundred different colleges, often the same admissions representatives who will read their applications the following fall and winter.
From September through April of eleventh grade, an opportunity exists for students to continue optional weekly standardized test preparation on the weekends.
Senior year builds on the work and accomplishments of junior year. We begin with an intensive half-day reintroduction to the college application process during Orientation in September. Following this event, students meet individually with the College Office and continue to participate in a weekly College Seminar during the fall semester, which guides students through every detail of the college application process. Students complete applications, essays, and financial aid applications and are provided extensive individual support by the College Office. In the fall, the College Office also welcomes nearly one hundred college and university representatives to meet with our students.
Students who opt to pursue early action and early decision applications are provided support through these processes, as are students who apply regular decision. Throughout the year and into the spring, the College Office assists families with matriculation decisions, which includes working through financial aid awards. We celebrate not just college acceptances and decisions, but the culmination of our students’ hard work over the course of four years at Grace Church School.
Grace graduates go on to leading colleges and universities not because they were prepared for admissions, but because they were prepared for what comes after. That distinction shapes everything about how we teach.
The College Office is proud of the strong relationships we forge with students and families throughout this college search and application process. Being accessible and communicative with families allows us to provide honest and informed counsel while supporting student agency and decision-making. We believe that the process we embark upon together is as important as the outcome.
Our college counseling process at Grace Church School is student-centered. Applications to all schools to which students choose to apply are fully supported by our office. Students and families consult with us, then choose what is best for them; our role is to support those choices.
The safety and sanctity of students of color, first-generation students and students for whom aid is a factor in the application/admissions process continues to be and has been paramount, as it is for all students. A history of gatekeeping in college admissions has rendered some students more vulnerable. We bear the weight of this history seriously in our engagements with students, with families, and with our peers in admissions.
We understand that the college process and its outcomes can be fraught. Knowing this, we work with students and families with care and empathy to navigate and assuage these challenges, all the while keeping the individual student at the center of the process.
The Office of College Counseling hosts several events with professionals from colleges and universities. The events give parents and students a chance to hear directly from schools and provide information that helps families throughout the admissions process.
