Monday, September 26, 2016

Game Changer: New Technology and College Applications

Last week Betsy Bell and I got to attend the NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) conference in Columbus, Ohio.  

When I first joined the counseling department at North Oconee High School in 2005, I had a goal of attending this conference.  It has taken me 10 years, but I finally made it!  Plan to see A TON of posts regarding this opportunity that Betsy and I had to tout information about our kids and NOHS-as well as the things that we learned while in Columbus.

Attending a conference of this magnitude is an enormous feather in our students cap.  The information that is disseminated and connections that were made will assist our students in the college admissions process for years to come.  Betsy and I got to witness firsthand the vast amount of colleges that are available to our students nationally as well as internationally.  We, along with 6,500 other college admissions/college counselors/school counselors, came together to discuss information and to share resources.  The next few days the blog will be filled with examples of the information that we obtained that can help our students through the college application process.

One of the first sessions that I attended at the conference dealt with college admissions, STEM programs, and online portfolios.  I was excited to listen in on the panel that consisted of a Carnegie Mellon instructor and an Assistant Director of Admissions at MIT.  Determined to see what their stance would be regarding online portfolios and the college application process, I camped out and got a seat in a jam packed session.  Throughout the presentation, I kept thinking how glad I was that I decided to attend that session!  It seems that more and more colleges are headed towards accepting an online documentary of activities/experiments.  MIT and Carnegie Mellon are using this method as a part of their admissions practices for most of their applicants, not just artistic students.  Slide Room was the preferred vendor of choice for MIT and CM, therefore, that was the program that was discussed at length during the session.  Colleges expressed interest in watching a student develop a project, learn from the experience (success or failure), and how they adapted from the end result.    It has become so common that it is now listed on the Common Application for over 1000 colleges.  The NOHS Guidance Office will host a learning session to discuss the details of this session to our students.  Students that are planning to apply to MIT, Carnegie Mellon, or other schools in a STEM area would need to plan to attend.  The session will be held on Thursday, September 29th during Titan Time.