9 minute read
The Year Everything Changed (or didn’t) in College Admission
The Webb Way Still Applies: College Admission Today
by Debbie Carini
Navigating the college admission process is an activity that can best be described as fraught with anxiety, even under the best of circumstances. Multiply that by a global pandemic, and it has the potential to add even more stress for prospective students and parents.
n an interview with NPR, Angel Pérez, I
CEO of the National Association for College Admission
Counseling, and former head of admission at Trinity
College in Connecticut, told listeners:
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted high school schedules, eliminated standardized testing administration dates, and altered families’ plans to tour campuses across the country. But it hasn’t stopped the agile and multiskilled Office of College Guidance at Webb from providing students with the best possible preparation for applying to the country’s top tier campuses.
Given the level of uncertainty and the timing of the pandemic at a point when high school juniors from the Class of 2021 were on the verge of college application planning, it's crucial to understand the importance of having college guidance officers who know their students well, and who can be reached almost any time, any day of the week. “ MR. MARTINEZ'S VAST KNOWLEDGE OF THE APPLICATION PROCEDURES, TIMING, AND COLLEGE'S INDIVIDUAL REQUIREMENTS, AS WELL AS HIS CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES MAKE HIM A GREAT RESOURCE. ”
The office is well prepared. College guidance is not an afterthought at Webb but rather a fully developed fouryear program that guides students and parents through a rigorous process that starts during the freshman year and continues through the acceptance letter: The team takes students and parents through each important stage of college admission: exploration, application, preparation, and placement.
“I was worried about how the college admission process would work given the challenges of the pandemic and students not being on campus with easy access to advising,” says Marylou Ferry, parent of Faith ’21. “My worries were quickly set aside when Mr. Martinez reached out to both Faith and me to help us prepare for this daunting process late in the summer. His vast knowledge of the application procedures, timing, and college's individual requirements, as well as his close relationships with colleges and universities, make him a great resource. He asks great questions, listens
to her and me (in separate meetings and together) and, also, shares with us in candid ways how this year is going to be different and how it is also the same. Especially with the shut-down last spring, we had not visited as many colleges as we would have liked.”
Faith Ferry ’21 is taking advantage of the many online opportunities the Webb college guidance office set up through Canvas, an online learning platform and management system, through which she is able to look at informational videos and directions.
“I never feel like I am lacking support from the counselors; they are always there to talk about my applications, my essays and my list,” explains Ferry. “Mr. Martinez does a great job, because even over Zoom, you can tell that he cares.”
For the College Guidance office, the challenges involved in the process have ranged from the most basic—finding students who are not in class on campus—to the larger picture.
“Our biggest challenge has been assessing, ‘how do we engage with our class and keep them informed?’” says Associate Director of College Admission Anthony Shin ’99 of the move to remote learning and no physical activity on campus. Although the team misses seeing students in the office and having face-to-face communications, they have quickly adapted to new technologies and made the most of their connections with admission officers at selective schools around the country.
“ Even though we are all working from home,” says Martinez, “we are still nurturing those strong relationships with colleges and universities via text, phone and Zoom meetings. Our Webb community is very special, and these institutions realize that—they treat our students differently because our students’ experiences are different.”
Adriana Flores, the college guidance team’s executive assistant who organizes, schedules and coordinates students, parents and college reps, has been working from home, but she’s still mailing transcripts and putting files together—all while her own daughter, Isa ’21, has been applying to colleges.
“We all miss the personal touch—the interaction with students,” says Flores of the remote situation. “I miss the students coming into the office, eating candy, hanging out, especially since this is my daughter’s class.”
Of the many differences between this year and years prior, including the fact that many seniors have applied early to schools they have never seen in person, one of the biggest is that many schools are not requiring test scores.
“These tests, the SAT, ACT, have been part of our culture for 100 years,” says Hector Martinez.
But the truth is, many schools— upwards of 400—had already become test optional, including highly selective institutions like the University of Chicago, Cornell, and the Claremont Colleges.
“These schools just realized that they didn’t need that measure to enroll an outstanding freshman class,” says Martinez. “There are other ways to decipher the academic rigor and prowess of a school and its students.”
Parents have been appreciative of the College Guidance office’s fast responses to their concerns.
“I asked a lot of questions back in March when test centers were canceling left and right,” says Mariah Jamal, parent of Cheyaan ’21. “I knew this year was going to be so different and somewhat unpredictable. I was grateful that the College Guidance office assured me that everything would be fine and that they had my child’s best interest at heart.”
Parents, especially, have had a lot to navigate, with many working and having more than one student attending school from home. The extra communication and support from the Webb team has been a valued addition to the dayto-day concerns of keeping students on track.
“Mr. Martinez has been a voice of calm, reassuring students (and parents) that everyone’s in the proverbial ‘same boat,’ so that a lack of test scores will not hurt a student,” says Tracey Letteau, parent of Mason ’21.
Perhaps even more important, Letteau adds, is that each student at Webb is given individualized attention during the admission process. “We know and trust that their letters of recommendation, and the teacher letters of recommendation, will be personal, thorough, complete and submitted in a timely manner. This gives Webb students a huge advantage compared to schools where guidance counselors have little knowledge of, or interaction with the students.”
This has proved especially significant for Letteau’s son, Mason Letteau-Stallings ’21, who is most interested in applying to schools with strong ROTC programs — Mason also applied to the military academies at West Point and Annapolis, which have some of the most competitive admission standards in the nation and were still conducting interviews in person.
Though Mason misses the traditions of his senior year, he feels that for every opportunity lost—including the cancellation of Boys and Girls State, a summer leadership and citizenship program to which he was accepted as a representative—he and his classmates have found new ones. Mason has been working out, taking online Russian and calculus classes, and volunteering at Roosevelt Memorial Park Cemetery where he has helped to care for veterans’ grave sites.
“An important measure that college admission staff members are looking at this year is the academic rigor of the high school and the strength of a student’s transcript,” says Shin, “They’re also looking at essays and recommendation letters more carefully. But schools are also being more creative, providing students with different ways to express themselves, including allowing the uploading of supplemental videos.”
As for sports recruitment, Shin says that the schools for whom sports are important such as USC and UCLA, “they are not going to stop looking to fill their championship teams.”
On a professional level, Martinez and Shin both miss the camaraderie of their colleagues as well as representatives from colleges and universities.
“We haven’t been able to travel — or go to conferences,” says Martinez. “We miss having visitors from colleges and universities on our campus where they often realize that Webb is almost like a college.”
On the other hand, Shin says, “colleges are good at reaching out—and it is easier than ever now, no one has to fly anywhere. Now colleges are looking at different ways to showcase their campuses. A lot of schools are more available to students online—you might be able to talk to a professor online, meet other students. All the resources are there.” Both are also drawing on the collective wisdom of the many professional organizations they belong to, including The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS), National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS).
“We were on it early,” says Shin of Webb’s reaction to the COVID crisis, so much so that the office was able to help other schools with recommendations and references.
In a year like no other, Webb’s college guidance team has helped provide students and their parents with a sense of normalcy that was much appreciated.
“We felt supported at every step,” says Lisa DeArmas, parent of Kaitlyn ’21. “They told us how to plan, how to navigate the whole process. Every time I emailed, they were very responsive— plus the Zoom meetings, the links to students and parents who’ve already been through this, their availability by phone and email, they are there for us.”
As poignant as it is for students to miss many of the traditions of their senior year on campus, they all share a gratitude for the support they have received from their teachers and the administrative staff—especially as they turn towards graduation and college.
“I was expecting to be more ready to move on,” says Kaitlyn DeArmas ’21. “I miss the activities of my senior year, but Webb has prepared me academically and even in the pandemic, with everything happening online. I’ve told myself, ‘If I can do this, I should be able to handle college.’”
