The College Counseling Office (CCO) kicked off the college counseling process for Uppers last Thursday, hosting group meetings between counselors and their students. The meetings detailed what to expect from the CCO in the following months.
Before meeting with their counselors individually, Uppers and their parents must fill out a survey about themselves and their thoughts towards the college process. After completing the survey, Uppers are then required to meet with their counselor individually at least twice before Spring Break, and twice after. Karina Hernandez-Guarniz, Director of College Counseling, expressed her enthusiasm about starting the new process.
“For me, [the assignments are] like the start of the new school year, even though it’s not, because we’re picking up a new group. It’s really fun sitting down and getting to know all about their experience here, and before they got to Andover… We provided an introduction to the CCO during Family Weekend, and then [the students] got their assignments in January. That’s when the process really kicks off for the eleventh graders,” said Hernandez-Guarniz.
Students noted the various feelings of excitement and nervousness they felt as the application process suddenly seemed much closer than before. Ethan Zhu ’26 commented on what the first group meeting consisted of and looked forward to the more personal individual meetings.
“[There] wasn’t much information. [The counselors] really were telling us about who they are, what they do, and what the point of their job is. I felt fine after it, it was a regular introductory overview meeting… We are going to have our individual meeting where we are going to talk about our grades, our individual scores, what colleges we may be thinking about, or what direction we are trying to go towards,” said Zhu
Sophie Liang ’26 pointed out how in earlier years, college seemed like a faraway thought. She noted that becoming an Upper and starting college counseling suddenly makes the application process very real and apparent.
“It’s a mix of being excited but also being scared. Especially where we are within our high school career, college is something that is on a lot of people’s minds, so starting the process makes it feel very real very soon… For Junior and Lower year, everyone is like ‘I’m going to college,’ but it really doesn’t start to manifest itself as much until your Upper year. That’s where part of the stress is coming in, but also excitement,” said Liang.
Lily Liu ’26 emphasized the limited prior interaction and unclear communication about a survey used for the counselor assignments, which left students feeling that their assignments were randomized. Liu suggested that making the system more geared to personalization and individual circumstances could make the process more beneficial overall.
“I would have appreciated it if they got to know me a bit better before I got assigned someone. I know [the college counseling process] is supposed to be a microcosm of the Andover community, but I didn’t give them any information prior to the assignments. If I would have been able to be matched with someone who would better understand my situation or things that they can help me with, then I feel like that would be more beneficial for students in general. There was a survey, but a lot of people didn’t know that you had to fill it out, so we pretty much got assigned [our counselors] by random,” said Liu.
Malkese Edwards-Perry, Associate Director of College Counseling, highlighted the office’s continuous efforts to create supportive approaches by altering the process to meet the needs of students. Edwards-Perry also emphasized the importance of viewing the college process as a personal self-discovery journey to find the best fit rather than fixating on external pressures.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of work in the office to try to improve our practices, make our conversations more equitable, continue to try to meet students where they are, and to develop the curriculum and content for students from a wide variety of backgrounds… This process is really about getting to know yourself, getting to know what you want that next step in your life to be, and [trying] to find the best fit for [yourselves] and [your] families… My advice is to take this process as a really personal one and not listen to a lot of the outside noise,” said Edwards-Perry.
