High School Counseling Newsletter

Jennifer Melton
jenniferm@isb.ac.th

Dear Parents,

Welcome back from the October holiday! We hope students are well rested and ready for the push leading up to December break. As always, if you are concerned about your son’s or daughter’s performance or experiences here at ISB or outside of school, do not hesitate to contact his or her counselor.  We’re here to help.

Grade 12 – Seniors applying to universities with deadlines of November through January (Hong Kong, UK, Canada, US, etc.) are busy finalizing and submitting their applications with counselors. November 24 is the final date to submit transcript requests (formal notification to ISB of where a Senior is applying). We want to remind students and parents that application essays should be the sole work of the student, written in their own voice. Admissions representatives are keen at detecting if essays are not the work of a 17/18 year-old student and compare written work to grades and standardized test scores.

Next week there will a variety of universities from Japan, Europe, Canada, and Australia visiting ISB. Please read further for more information.

Grade 11 – All Juniors took the PSAT before the October break. Results should arrive after the December break in time for students to review and prepare for the January SAT. The SAT is designed for students to take second semester of Junior year and first semester of Senior year. The January SAT is an ideal time for Juniors to take their first SAT, not sooner. Juniors can see their counselor for information on how to register at ISB.

If a student is not enrolled in the full IB Diploma, they are advised to sit the SAT. Many universities across the world (UK, Canada, Australia, etc.) may ask for these results in place of the IB Diploma.

The institutional TOEFL will be given next Tuesday on the early release day for non-native English speaking Juniors.

Next week there will a variety of universities from Japan, Europe, Canada, and Australia visiting ISB. Please read further for more information.

Grade 10 – Believe it or not, course selection for 11th grade is in just a few months! We hope you are able to attend the Grade 10 IB Information Evening on Monday, November 3rd at 6:30pm in the MPB. Both students and parents are invited to attend.

Sophomores took the ACT-Plan on October 15th; the results will hopefully arrive before the end of the semester and we will share the information with the students when we get them.  There is also an interest inventory that the students completed; it will be useful in comparing it with the career-oriented seminars that we will do this year.

The next Sophomore Seminar is Wed-Thur, November 12-13 (depending on the student’s free periods).  We will explore further the idea of finding out what students like to do and are good at, and how that might help them to explore possible courses of study, and later, careers.

Grade 9 Every Freshman will be meeting with Mr. Davy for an individual conference during the month of October and beginning of November. This will be a check-in to see how life in the high school is moving along. This week in Freshman Seminar students were creating their own Personal Learning Plan (PLP). This incorporates different activities and information where students have evaluated themselves as a learner. This PLP will be a working document / website that will be added to / adjusted during the course of Freshman Seminar, and hopefully beyond.

Upcoming College/University Visits

Monday, November 3: @ lunch in room #203

University of Alberta (Canada)
Concordia University (Canada)
University College Cork (Ireland)
University of Indiana (US)
California College of the Arts (US)

Wednesday, November 5: @ lunch in room #203
Drexel University (US)
International College of Hotel Management (Australia)

Thursday, November 6: @ lunch in room #203
Quest University (Canada)
Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne (Switzerland)
Jacobs University (Germany)
MODUL University Vienna (Austria)

Friday, November 7: @ lunch in room #203
Ritsumeiken Asia Pacific University (Japan)

Please see Naviance for the extensive list of colleges/universities that will be visiting ISB.

Have a great weekend!
The HS Counseling Department

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