BlogsCollege GuidanceAcademicsAdvancementAlumniUpper School
Reflections on College Boot Camp
Aug 25, 2015 1:35 PM
By Sam Moss III '63 - FF/S
When I reflect back to last week's College Boot Camp, my first thoughts must be about how proud I am of our seniors. Throughout the day, they all seemed engaged, interested, and attentive. They appeared to be enthusiastic about the sessions that they attended and appreciative of the advice given to them by our five college admissions officers and members of Darlington's faculty.
Our visiting speakers were uniformly complimentary both of the conduct and of the engagement of our seniors. I was very, very proud of the Class of 2016!
My second thoughts are about how fortunate our seniors are to be at Darlington, a school which is able to attract such a fine array of college officials who were willing to come here and devote an entire day to our students.
These were not first-year admissions counselors – not “rookies” out representing their colleges for the first time – but rather senior admissions directors, deans, and vice presidents. They represented a wonderful variety of institutions: Auburn University, Spelman College, Emory University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They were large, medium, and small; in-state and out-of-state; single-sex and co-ed. They presented sessions on a wide array of topics: campus visits, interviewing tips, essay writing, financial aid, athletic scholarships and NCAA eligibility, highly selective admissions, and the value of a liberal arts education, among others.
Finally, I must say how pleased we were with such a strong showing by the seniors in their completion of their summer assignments, including the Common Application. As they are now fully immersed in their heavy senior schedules of classes, sports, arts, leadership, service projects, and other school and community activities, I believe they will be very happy to realize how much of college application work is already behind them. It should go a long way to reducing some of the stress they feel in the college application process.
We certainly hope that they all found the College Boot Camp to be an informative, helpful, and positive experience!
Our visiting speakers were uniformly complimentary both of the conduct and of the engagement of our seniors. I was very, very proud of the Class of 2016!
My second thoughts are about how fortunate our seniors are to be at Darlington, a school which is able to attract such a fine array of college officials who were willing to come here and devote an entire day to our students.
These were not first-year admissions counselors – not “rookies” out representing their colleges for the first time – but rather senior admissions directors, deans, and vice presidents. They represented a wonderful variety of institutions: Auburn University, Spelman College, Emory University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They were large, medium, and small; in-state and out-of-state; single-sex and co-ed. They presented sessions on a wide array of topics: campus visits, interviewing tips, essay writing, financial aid, athletic scholarships and NCAA eligibility, highly selective admissions, and the value of a liberal arts education, among others.
Finally, I must say how pleased we were with such a strong showing by the seniors in their completion of their summer assignments, including the Common Application. As they are now fully immersed in their heavy senior schedules of classes, sports, arts, leadership, service projects, and other school and community activities, I believe they will be very happy to realize how much of college application work is already behind them. It should go a long way to reducing some of the stress they feel in the college application process.
We certainly hope that they all found the College Boot Camp to be an informative, helpful, and positive experience!
