In a season that is already filled to the brim with assignments, projects, and pretty soon, exams, seniors are feeling the pressure as they balance their academic responsibilities on top of what might be the most important task they will face in their high school careers: college applications.
Fortunately for them, the students get to work with the college counseling office as a resource to better prepare for the college application process, with help from the three counselors: Mike Wagstaff, Jody Rodriguez, and Kristin Grosso.
Each college counselor is assigned a group of students from each graduating class and begin working with those students as early as their freshman year. Because of looming application deadlines, they have been working extremely hard to guide seniors through loads of college applications, even if it means sacrificing their own time throughout the day.
“I have lunch with the students–that’s my lunch time,” Mike Wagstaff, director of college counseling, said.
Wagstaff has a schedule that runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., well before and after the school day. Throughout the fall semester, he is working all day with seniors on their applications for colleges. By the time this graduating class is done with their applications, it will be time to start working with the current juniors.
“[Counseling] is a cycle. It just keeps happening,” Wagstaff said. “We try to plan things so far out for [students] so we aren’t slammed and congested, like these past two weeks.”
One of the tougher parts of the college counselor’s role is making sure students are applying to schools that are a good fit for them. Wagstaff says the hardest part about college applications for students is setting expectations for students and trying to explain to students an appropriate college list.
“It’s hard to tell [students] that this is a reach school, this is a favorable school for [the student] to get into,” Wagstaff said.
Wagstaff isn’t the only one who experiences this more difficult part of the job. Fellow counselor Kristin Grosso does her best to set students up for success.
“You want the very best for students,” Grosso said.
Once the decisions from schools come in, there is always disappointment to consider. Grosso explains that this can be the hardest part: one second a student can come in and be excited they got in, and the next have a student come in crying about a rejection.
“One time, University of Michigan decisions were on Christmas, and I told the student not to look at it or tell me until after,” Grosso said.
As the application process comes to a close for the class of 2024, the college counseling office prepares to navigate the results of not only their work but the students. Wagstaff explains that the most crucial part of all of this is getting a head start on the work. His biggest piece of advice to the class of 2025: “Get stuff done in advance.”
For more information on the college application process, stop by the college counseling office on the third floor.
