Given the special nature of that pivotal choice, Allendale Columbia's College Advisor works with our students beginning in the winter of the junior year and follows them through the process until its natural conclusion, their graduation in June of their senior year. Students usually find themselves faced with academic demands larger than those encountered in the two previous years in the Upper School. In addition to a more challenging course load, juniors are beginning to rise in positions of leadership and responsibility. Ultimately, a student's junior-year record is one of the most crucial factors in the college admissions process.
Concept becomes reality.
And, then, somehow as if by magic, senior year arrives, and along with it many things to do, more school work, increased responsibilities and a torrent of predictably unpredictable emotions. It is also a year in which seniors and their parents interact as adults, communicating about adult issues and decisions for, perhaps, the first time. The eighteen months of the college selection process are filled with so many details and decisions as well as with excitement, anticipation and special pressures. It is a time for undertaking reflective self-assessment and sorting out ambitions, goals and priorities. It is time for research, questioning, exploring and drawing conclusions.