RBR Summer Workshop Helped to De-Stress Seniors' College Application Season

By Marianne Kligman,Community Information Officer for Red Bank Regional High School District

While the preparation for and taking of the college entrance tests are a major source of angst for college-bound high school students, nothing says crunch time like the fall of the senior year when all those college applications are due. Red Bank Regional (RBR) High School has sought to significantly ease that stress by providing a multi-session, special college application workshop to its students this summer. In all, over 50 students took part in the program.

RBR Guidance Director Dawn Kaszuba explained, “Senior year is often one of significant anxiety for students--it is the objective of this program to significantly reduce that anxiety with a hands-on workshop for not only the search but also the application completion.”

Addressing each student at their computer station during the first session of the workshop, RBR Guidance Counselor Jill Maline stated, “By the end of your last session, you should be able just go home and submit your applications electronically.”
Step by step, she guided the students through the amazing tools of the Naviance on-line program, which the school district invested in several years ago to better serve their students’ college and career search. From the day they enter high school, all students are given an account which tracks their academic record and helps them discover possible career paths. The program then identifies the array of colleges with programs of study in those particular careers. The students were first encouraged to create a student resume and fill out their “self assessment survey” which aids teachers as they write recommendations for their students.

The students were then able to search for colleges by personal preferences from the over 4,500 colleges contained in the program’s database. Students could narrow their choices by location, school size, environment, social environment, etc. Ms. Maline also encouraged everyone to physically visit school campuses this summer to acquire a better feeling on just what their preferences would be—small versus large, public versus private, city versus urban, etc.

Once students decide on schools they are considering, a scattergram for each school of interest details how many RBR students in recent history were accepted or rejected at that school with details of each (anonymous) students’ GPA and SAT/ACT scores. The student’s own profile is also indicated within the scattergram to determine if this school is either a “reach” (a challenge for the student to be accepted), “target” (likely to be accepted) and “safety school” (most likely to be accepted.) Ms. Maline recommended that students identify five to ten schools to which to apply with one or two in the “reach” range, one or two as “safety” and three to six as “target.”

Naviance also indicates which colleges take the popular, time-saving Common App for its essay requirement. Ms. Maline believes that most colleges will eventually adopt the Common App since its questions are usually similar to what all colleges require in their essay topics.

At the first session, the actual 2015 College App choice of essay topics were distributed to the students. They were then asked to create an outline to structure one of the essay topics in time for their next session. Next, they would work with RBR AP English teacher Andrew Forrest for one-on-one conferences on essay drafts, personal statements and the writing process. The third session would be devoted to improving upon the final essay and other answers to required questions. The fourth session would wrap up the entire process by addressing any lingering questions and requesting teacher recommendations through the Naviance system.

Unlike just a few years ago, the college application process is now totally digital. Students are responsible for sending their final application electronically, either through the colleges’ websites or through commonapp.org, with their application fee payment. Guidance counselors send all other supporting materials on-line including, transcripts and teacher recommendations through the Naviance system.

At the first session, Anna Balto and Ceara Gagliano, both of Little Silver, conferred on how to best answer the self-assessment questions.

When asked why she chose to attend the workshop, Ann replied, “I thought I could get a lot out of this with teachers here to guide me.”

Ceara agreed, adding, “I think this is really helpful and it takes the stress out of doing it during the school year.”
Also at the workshop, Kristen Jones of Union Beach, who attends RBR’s Pre-Engineering Academy, acknowledged that she was thinking of applying “early action” to Rutgers’ pre-engineering program. She stated, “I think this is really helpful to point me in the right direction and I don’t have to balance doing it with school work.”

Matthew Collado of Shrewsbury had already picked a favorite school where he is thinking of going pre-med. He hoped the program would better help him understand the daunting college application process so it wasn’t “so scary.”
James Fogerty of Red Bank was working on the college selection page, and had identified five schools in which he was very interested. As a drama major in RBR’s Visual & Performing Art Academy, he chose schools with good theatre programs so he could minor in the performing arts, while he pursues a liberal arts major. He stated, “I heard about this college application program from my friends and thought it would be a great help, especially with the college essay, and I also wanted to learn how to better navigate Naviance.”

Once the college applications are finally submitted, another college-based activity occurs, figuring out how to pay for their higher education and seeking scholarships to defray the cost.

Jill Maline reminded the students that Naviance is updated constantly with all scholarship opportunities as they are made available. She encouraged them to check their account site weekly. At any point, the site could be bulging with over 100 scholarship opportunities giving all parameters to apply, including, in most cases, a download for the scholarship
Of course, once the college and scholarship applications are sent, the great waiting game for acceptance begins. A few stressful days occur before the holiday break for those seeking early decision or early action replies. The great majority of regular decisions students will have to bear that anxiety to early April. While there is little RBR can do about that reality, it is hoped this workshop takes a bit of the stress out of the entire process.