By: Kevin Callahan
kevinc@isb.ac.th
Did you know…:
- That Dr. Curtis recently received the CIS Peggy Templeton Strong Award, given yearly to an international school guidance counselor who, among other things, “shows a thorough understanding of what the work of a guidance counselor/university advisor can mean for an individual student, his or her family, their country and our world”, and “is excellent at inspiring and leading others”. Congratulations Dr. Curtis!
- At Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, students with a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30 or higher are required to take a physical education class before they are allowed to graduate.
Semester Exams: It’s time to begin preparing for your semester exams. Make sure that you have your materials organized and that you begin review from the beginning of the semester, because you are responsible for the whole semester. Cramming a night or two before the test isn’t really a good strategy for test success, and it sure won’t help you retain the material. So take a look now at what you’ve been studying all semester, half an hour per night!
Freshmen: All the freshmen met with their counselor on November 26th and 27th to discuss their grades in progress. We counselors always enjoy these opportunities to talk with our 9th grade students and get to know them better. By the way, they are a lovely group and in general, fine students! On December 6th and 7th we’ll talk with freshmen about preparing efficiently for semester exams.
Sophomores: Many 10th graders didn’t get to the Sophomore Seminar, and won’t have the information on Naviance in order to go forward in future sessions. See Mr. Weiser to find out what you need to do to get caught up – it’s important!
Juniors: Wednesday 28 November and Thursday 29 November was our second junior seminar, which kicked off the college research/selection process. This was an important session where students began to explore their possibilities after ISB and begin building a plan. Parents have work to do, too, as they will be asked to fill out a form to help counselors know their advisees better. Make sure your son or daughter attended and ask for your homework!
Seniors: If you turned in a transcript request form for any school and you wonder how to send your mid-year documents (like an updated transcript), don’t worry. We send mid-year reports and updated transcripts to every school that you apply to. You don’t even need to ask!
If you still haven’t turned in the simple transcript request form for schools with deadlines of February 15th or earlier, we cannot guarantee that school documents will reach universities by the deadline. We’ll try but you are awfully late by now. And remember that from the 21st of December to the 2nd of January inclusive, no one is in the high school office. All staff is on break. So if you have a January 1 deadline and you are completing it on December 30th, you’ll have to hope that everything goes smoothly or that your friends are good troubleshooters.
Two weeks ago both Debbie McDowell and Cathy Curtis attended the Council of International Schools Forum. Although there were a number of interesting sessions along with a reverse College Fair (where counselors stand at the table and admissions representatives come by the tables) and plenty of time to speak with University Representatives on numerous occasions, two of the best ‘take aways’ from the conference were the comments about IB English A and about scholarships for girls.
1) The Evolving IB: Impact on Admissions Decisions. This session provided both admission officers and high school counselors with an overview of the most recent changes in the International Baccalaureate in the IB language course and the impact of these changes on course selections in schools and on university offers and university admissions decisions. The panelists were from:
a) Swarthmore (USA)
b) University of British Columbia (Canada)
c) University of Stirling (UK)
d) International Baccalaureate (Head of Recognition)
e) International Schule Frankfurt-Rhei-Main (Germany)
This discussion revolved around the question of whether students should take IB English A: Literature or IB English A: Literature and Language. It was a lively discussion for both the counselors and the university representatives but the bottom line was that if students are planning to study literature in university, they should take the literature course as that focus would meet their needs for the student of literature in university. If students are planning to study any other subject, they should take the literature and language course because, although it does not have as extensive a review of literature, the Lit/Lang course will address a broader perspective of the manipulation of the language itself which will help in the areas of law, business and in science (for communicating ideas) and other liberal arts courses.
2). Financial Aid for International Students at US Colleges in a New Economic Climate – again a very lively and interesting discussion but the test ‘take away’ was the advice that girls who need financial aid should apply to a woman’s college. They usually have excellent funding and they tend to be generous. Food for thought!