肯特咨询集团双周简报
Bi-weekly Newsletter from KCG
Dec. 1st - 15th, 2014
简报介绍：肯特咨询集团双周简报致力于与您分享作为顶级教育咨询公司的优质服务和相关新闻，希望能够帮助您更多地了解关于肯特咨询的价值观和使命。
一年级
作为一名一年级新生，重要的是要去让自己适应迪尔菲尔德的校园生活以及为自己在学业和课外活动方面的打下坚实的基础，而不是为了升大学而做准备。不过也有一些地方值得学生和家长提前有所计划。其中最值得注意的是选课和修这些课程的表现，因为这是建立坚实的学业基础的关键。因此，你应花时间和你的指导老师或者大学咨询办公室交谈，如果有必要的话，也可以和你的父母商量一下你在学习方面的计划。同时，在合适的情况下，如果你在某个学科有着良好的基础，你可以参加SAT II的考试，如果你对全国大学生体育协会的规定有些疑问，尤其你是复读生时，请务必与维塔，泰尔联系。
二年级
二年级学生要开始为升学做准备了，当然，真正认真的准备会在高中三年级的一月初的时候开始。最值得注意的是，二年级学生应该咨询学校顾问如何选好课程,如果想作为运动员被大学录取，如何遵从全国大学生体育协会的规定，SAT II的考试，以及参加五月份大学春季招生会等。大学升学咨询办公室的工作人员鼓励学生和家长在二，三年级之间的的夏季去访问学校，他们可以通过对地理位置，学校规模，以及学术侧重点和被学校录取的难易程度的直观感受，看学校是否适合自己。学生在大三冬季的时候可以会得出一个更综合完整的申请学校名单。
三年级
我们会在帮助四年级学生提交完大学申请后，开始着手帮助高三学生做大学申请的准备工作。
冬季课程
有关三年级学生准备大学申请的必修课在一月份就会开始。三年级学生将会被分为几个小组，在他们空闲的时候安排他们学习课程。我们会去探究影响选校的几个因素，例如地理位置，学校规模，与哪个城市相邻，相对竞争力，被录取的难易程度以及提供特殊项目以及设施设备的能力。我们会给学生介绍Naviance，并告诉他们密码登入这个网络数据库，这样，他们就可以开始搜索大学了。我们也会在申请文书写作，考试，面试，推荐信，访问学校，招生官如何选择学生，以及每组学生可能关心的问题方面给予一定的辅导。在辅导课上，我们强调大学学校巨大的多样性和搜索必须由学生独立完成。通过在三年级的时候给学生介绍搜索过程的具体细节，我们想让每个学生顺畅地承接他们这个新的责任，同时我们也鼓励他们在四年级的时候做出理性和明智的决定。我们在三年级就开始这些工作了，这样，在四年级的时候，学生就有时间来吸收大量的信息以及更加全面和感性的去了解大学，这是一件耗时巨大的工作。只要从现在就启动，并一直努力持续推动，到了三年级或者四年级，整个过程就不会对学生的学业有影响，正如你所期望的，学生参加这些辅导是非常有必要的， 因为我们打算将重要的材料都过一遍，之后，学生需要填写一份春季信息表，以引导我们后续的整个咨询过程。
和父母见面（一月中旬）
注意一月份的大学咨询顾问的会议邀请。请在一月份会议之前将父母问卷调查填好。
冬季的长周末和春假
这个时候大学生都在学校上课，所以这是安排访问大学的好机会。大学招生办将会忙碌于会议，因此安排校园参观和信息介绍会的机会将十分有限，但是拜访附近的学校可能会帮助学生开始考虑自己对什么类型的学校感兴趣和为什么感兴趣。如果可能的话，去拜访一个大一点的和一个小一点的学校，或者拜访新英格兰地区以外的一所偏远的大学，这些经历会增加你对可选的不同类型学校的感觉。到了2月份，学生会随机地安排给指定的升学咨询顾问，具体的分配方案会张贴在升学指导办公室外面的窗户上. 每个咨询顾问都要交叉服务班里不同小组的学生。
冬季学期末与三年级春季学期
当学生完成他们的春季信息表后，我们会开始与三年级学生进行逐个的面试，经过一轮或者两轮面试以后，我们会整理出一份有15到20个候选学校的名单，这些名单里的学校会满足部分或者所有的学生的需求。并且，我们会给出学生被这些学校录取概率的初略估计，比如”30%或者更少”，”五五开”，以及”70%或者更大”等。当名单确定后，我们会和学生讨论，并给父母发送一份同样的名单。之后由学生或者他的家人来充分了解这些学校，并客观的去评价学生的资质以及自己的需求。对于那些能够去迪尔菲尔德中学参加家长春季假日活动的家长（通常是五月初），我们会预约一个时间与家长和学生会谈。每年，我们都会邀请校外的专家来跟三年级学生家长分享对学生如何选择学校以及大学的录取是如何工作的等方面的经验和指导意见。在这个周末，我们将会为来自75所大学的招生代表举办一次招生会。学校的升学咨询顾问可以在任何约定好的时间与你沟通。
四年级前的夏季
搜索学校
搜索你的大学申请咨询顾问给你的学校清单里的大学以及其他你感兴趣的学校。参考例如Fiske这类的大学指南来，它会给你一些较为客观的信息，这些信息是不会在学校的网站上或者是在其书面材料中出现的。边收集信息边做记录——开始，大学听上去都差不多，其实当然不是这么回事。留意课程要求，学生和师资的比例，留存率，住宿条件，你最感兴趣的领域的相关系科的强度，地理位置，社会生活和其他任何对你很重要的指标，比如体育活动，多元化，社区服务等等。 把笔记保留好，明年秋季回答类似“为什么适合这个大学？”公共申请里的补充问题时，将会用到。
搜索每个大学时，一定要搞清楚你感兴趣的项目对课程的要求。比如，如果你计划申请加利福尼亚大学的任何一所学校，你必须在高中的时候就要参加一整年的艺术课程。如果你要申请工程方面的项目，要搞清楚该项目对高中的数学/科学课程，和/或者，数学/科学SATII考试成绩的要求。艺术或建筑项目可能需要作品集; 他们喜欢什么格式？截止日期是什么时候？
Freshman Year
Freshman year is more about acclimating to Deerfield and establishing a strong foundation for academic and extracurricular success than it is about applying to college, but there are several areas where students and families should be planning ahead. Most notably, course selection and how you perform in those courses is key to establishing a strong academic profile. Consequently, spend time speaking to your advisor, the College Advising Office, if necessary, and your parents regarding what you plan on studying. Also, if appropriate, take an SAT II if you have advanced standing in a particular subject, and be sure to check with Vita Thiel if you have questions about NCAA compliance, particularly if you repeated a grade.
Sophomore Year
Sophomore students should begin to prepare themselves for the admissions process, which will begin in earnest in January of their junior year. Most notably, sophomores should check with their advisors regarding course selection, NCAA compliance if they hope to be a recruited athlete, and standardized testing (SAT IIs), as well as attend the spring college fair in May. The College Advising Office encourages students and their parents to begin touring campuses in the summer between their sophomore and junior years to get a "feel" for what colleges will be a "good fit" based on location, size, academic focus, and selectivity. A more comprehensive list of colleges will be created in the winter of their junior year.
Junior Year
We begin our work with juniors in January after seniors have submitted their final applications.
Winter Term Course
A required course for juniors about the college admissions/application process will meet in January. Juniors will be divided into small groups and are scheduled for the course during free periods. We will explore the various factors that can influence college choice, such as location, size, proximity to a city, relative degrees of competitiveness and selectivity, and the availability of special programs or facilities. We will introduce them to Naviance and give them their password for this Internet database, so they can begin researching colleges. We will also touch on essay writing, testing, interviews, recommendations, visiting schools, how admission officers make their decisions, and any other concerns that the students in each group may have. In this meeting we will stress the tremendous variety of colleges and the fact that the search must be an individual one. By explaining the process in great detail during the junior year, we hope to make each student feel comfortable with this new responsibility and encourage rational, intelligent decisions during the senior year. We're starting in the junior year so that the student has time to digest a significant amount of information and thoroughly complete a sensible exploration of colleges, a task that is very often time-consuming. Begun now and pursued diligently, the process need not compromise a student's academic performance during the junior or senior year. As you might expect, it is imperative for students to attend the workshop, for we plan to cover important material, after which each student will be required to complete a Spring Information Form that will guide us in the advising process.
Meeting for Parents (mid-January)
Look for your invitation to a meeting with college advisors in January. Please fill out the Parent Questionnaire prior to the January meeting.
Long Winter Weekend and Spring Vacation
This is a good time to make preliminary college visits while college students are on campus. Admissions offices will be in the thick of their meetings and thus tours and information sessions may be limited, but a visit to nearby colleges may help students begin to think about what type of college they might be interested in and why. If possible, visit a larger university and a smaller, perhaps more rural college outside of New England to give yourself some sense of the variety of colleges there are to choose from. Students will be assigned randomly to specific advisors in February; assignments will be posted on the window outside our office. Each advisor will work with a cross-section of the class.
Late Winter Term and Spring Term Junior Year
As students complete their Spring Information Forms, we will begin having individual interviews with each junior. After an interview or two we will come up with a list of 15 to 20 institutions that will satisfy some or all of that student's requirements, and give our estimations of the student's chances of admission to particular colleges, using the rough categories: "30% or less," "50-50," and "70% or greater." When the list has been compiled, we will discuss our suggestions with the student and send a copy of the list to parents. It is then up to each student and his or her family to research these schools as fully as possible, attempting to be realistic about the student's qualifications and needs. For those of you able to visit Deerfield for Parents Spring Weekend (typically early May), there will be a time set aside for us to get together, by appointment. Each year we invite an outside expert to speak to the parents of juniors to offer insights into how a student should approach the task of choosing a college and how the college admission process works. That same weekend, we will host a college fair for approximately 75 college representatives. Advisors are also available at other times by appointment.
Summer Before Senior Year
Research
Research the colleges on the list from your college advisor and any other institutions that interest you. Use a college guide such as Fiske because it will give you some subjective information not available on websites or in a college's written materials. Take notes as you go-colleges can begin to sound the same but of course they're not. Note curriculum requirements, faculty-student ratios, retention rates, housing, strength of the department(s) that most interest you, location, social life, and any other criteria that are important to you-such as athletics, diversity, community service, etc. Save your notes; they will be helpful next fall when you need to answer supplementary questions to the Common Application about why you are a good match for a particular college.
As part of your research at each college be certain to check out course requirements for particular programs in which you may be interested. For example, if you are planning to apply to any of the University of California campuses you must have a full-year fine arts course during high school. If you are applying for engineering, please check for specific math/science high school courses and/or math/science SAT Subject Test requirements. Fine arts or architecture programs may require portfolios; what format would they prefer? What's the due date?