As we prepare for Providence Academy’s annual College Day next month, please note that parents are invited to join us for a special session of our College Conversations program scheduled for Thursday, April 6 at 8:45 a.m. via Google Meet. We are planning for a “College Day Preview” covering not only the activities planned for April 19, but also how to leverage your student’s academic and activities record and PA’s college enrollment trends to prepare for fruitful conversations with the college representatives.
Regarding the College Day itself, please follow this link for the preliminary list of colleges that will be participating in College Day. We anticipate hosting close to 100 colleges representing several States plus international institutions. The college fair portion of the event is scheduled for 1:45 – 3:00 p.m. in Gym A. All parents are invited.
We also invite Upper School parents to arrive early enough to attend the topical sessions that precede the college fair program. These sessions are scheduled for 12:45 – 1:40 p.m. in various Upper School classroom locations. Parents are welcome to attend any session: the preliminary list of sessions will be shared after spring break.
We will also meet with 9th-11th grade students during Activity Period sessions after spring break to prepare them for the College Day program, which will include the following activities:
· Students will complete a short survey in Naviance to indicate their top choices for their topical session assignment. College Day session assignments will be finalized by Friday, April 14 and students will receive an email with their session assignment no later than Monday, April 17.
· Grade 9-10 students will conduct a personalized search of the colleges attending College Day according to their own preferences and criteria to build a short list of schools to approach on College Day. We will encourage students to use the college fair time purposefully, to have respectful interactions with our college admission guests, and to take full advantage of this unique opportunity to learn about a truly wide range of post-secondary options. Grade 11 students should be able to craft a College Day plan based on their first two meetings with their college counselor and their current “Colleges I am Thinking About” list in Naviance. For any juniors unsure of which college representatives to speak with, they should connect with their college counselor prior to College Day.
We will share the search instructions with parents during our College Conversation on April 6 so that parents can help their student(s) with an initial post-secondary search that could be a great entry point into a broader conversation about college parameters and goals. Our goal is to help students think about objective criteria and subjective criteria that could be important to their college search (and how to know the difference), and have a conversation about any family-related factors or expectations that may impact his or her college search.
College Day has become one the signature celebratory occasions of each academic year at Providence Academy and we sincerely hope that this event aids PA Upper School families in post-secondary planning. For questions regarding College Day, please contact Mrs. Sarah Hogan, Director of College Counseling and Alumni Engagement.