Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Matt EmersonOctober 27, 2015

The New York Times reports on a new initiative to reconfigure the process of college admissions—and the resistance this move is receiving from counselors at Jesuit schools.

The article notes: "The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, a new organization led by admissions deans at top campuses, has announced an ambitious goal: to make applications more reflective and in tune with how students organize and express themselves." The process will invite students to start preparing for college even earlier than they usually do:

The coalition wants students as young as ninth grade to engage with its college planner. They will be able to upload videos, photos and written work to a portfolio, called a virtual college locker. Selected items from the portfolio could be added — in some cases years later — to a college application. They can also invite counselors, parents and even admissions officers to view the portfolio and advise on it. (Yes, it works on your phone.)
 

 Though the coalition's plan appears well-intended, counselors at Jesuit high schools have raised some very good concerns.

And some criticism has gone to the very heart of the program: that drawing 14-year-olds into admissions tasks will make a stressful process more so. In an Oct. 13 letter to the coalition, 100 counselors from Jesuit high schools, many serving low-income and first-generation students, objected to pushing first-year students to think about college. They should be acclimating to high school, they wrote, and learning for learning’s sake.
 

“We believe ninth grade is a time for students to reflect and become their academic selves,” said Katy Murphy, director of College Counseling at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, Calif., and a past president of the Jesuit High School College Counselors Association.

See here for the rest of the article and here for the letter from the Jesuit High School College Counselors Association.  

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Francis prays alongside 12 Christian leaders at an ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square days before the Synod on Synodality that 'the Holy Spirit will purify the church from gossip, ideologies, and polarization.
Pope Francis places a red biretta on the head of new Cardinal Christophe Pierre, nuncio to the United States, during a consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 30, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Francis told the college of cardinals that it is called “to resemble a symphony orchestra, representing the harmony and synodality of the church.”
Gerard O’ConnellSeptember 30, 2023
A Reflection for the Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels, by Christine Lenahan
Christine LenahanSeptember 29, 2023
A Reflection for Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time, by Delaney Coyne
Delaney CoyneSeptember 29, 2023