Dear Counselors, Teachers and Principals,
Now, is the best time for you to counsel your students to start their college search to study in the USA. With the rising number of college applications flowing into the university admissions office, you should know your important roles in the application process. According to Professor Ernesto Guerrero, Academic Counselor at University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA), who has read 1400 college applications per year at UCLA emphasizes that a college counselor has the following crucial roles to play:
- Guide students to maximize every part of the application, specifically the section on extra-curricular activities
- Expose your students to as many US universities and colleges as possible
Here are a few suggestions as to how you can do the aforementioned points.
Tackling the extra-curricular activities of the student
- Students tend to be unaware of their strengths and accomplishments. In addition, they do not have enough experience to learn how to market themselves. You as a counselor, can encourage students to create a resume or a list of accomplishments of what they have achieved in their academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular work since their 9th In addition, they should include information on any of their leadership roles. The students should feel free to include any time of community service, internship or shadowing that they might have completed.
- The students can leverage their profile by expressing their accomplishments through action words. Here is a link that gives you a list of action words that easily help describe a particular task. You can share the following with your students as you go through this exercise with them. http://www.economics.illinois.edu/undergrad/career/careerinfo/documents/ActionWords.pdf
- I encourage you to conduct workshops on resume-building as well.
US University Visits and Workshops
There are 4300 universities in the US, out of which if your student decides to choose a university from the top 250, she would be graduating from the top 6% of the universities in the nation. That being said, please keep an open mind and expose your students to as many colleges as you can. In US university selection, it is not about finding the perfect university but it is about finding the most ideal university for the student. Professor Guerrero mentions that an average student has about 20 to 30 universities that could be a good fit for them. As a counselor, you can guide these students and their parents as they find the ideal university for themselves.
- Sign up as a counselor on the university website (popular universities among your students). In this way , you will be able to receive periodic newsletters and information about events that the university is conducting in your city.
- Take advantage of the campus e-tours that many universities provide through their website
- You can assign your student office bearers to do a university feature in your school magazine or newsletter. In this way, your students will be exposed to different universities and their program offerings
May is the perfect time for you to initiate the aforementioned activities with your 11th and 12th standard students. If you need more creative ideas to play your crucial role as a counselor, The IKC will be more than happy to help. Don’t forget to email us at info@myikc.com or call us at 080-41234927 if you have any questions or need any support in helping your students through a success college planning process.