Sonya Ohlsson
Sonyao@isb.ac.th
Seniors:
Seniors had their last “official” Senior College Seminar this week. Next semester, they don’t have it built into their schedule but we will still be available for one-on-one meetings with students as needed.
We STRONGLY encourage seniors to submit their applications well before the deadlines. We have seen, and some ISB students have experienced, application websites crash under the weight of the last minute submissions. Just this week, the University of California system crashed and they had to create an emergency extension. We have been telling students for the past several months to try and submit at least 3 days (minimum) before the deadline to avoid the panic and possible heartache of having a system crash!!
UCAS submission deadline is today, December 4th. Submission sends the application to the counselor. We review it, add the reference and then submit it on to UCAS, if there are no issues. We will submit all UCAS applications before we depart for the holidays.
The College Office is busy submitting all the school-related documents for applications that have a deadline before February 15. It is very important to be aware that students may get an email or portal status back from the schools they apply to that documents are still missing. This is an automatic response and so they will not have had time to even check to see if they have received the documents. Be aware that it can take the universities up to 2 weeks to process the thousands of documents they are getting from all over the world. Just because it’s electronic, doesn’t mean it’s instantaneous!! So, please be patient.
A gentle reminder that the college counselors will not be available during the holiday break as it is a break for everyone. Therefore we encourage the students to complete their applications as soon as possible so they can have a restful break as well.
Juniors:
December 10 will be the next Junior Seminar and we will focus on how to determine the priorities and preferences that will be important to a students’ research into universities and finding the right fit.
PSAT 11 Scores Available Next Week:
The College Board says they will send PSAT scores to the email address that the student put on their registration form. Students should check their emails between December 7 – 10 to find out their score–be sure to check your spam mailbox!!
SAT Saturday, December 5:
All students must bring their school ID to get on campus. ALL STUDENTS must bring their Passport or Thai National ID and Admissions Ticket to gain entrance to the test rooms. No student will be admitted without a Thai National ID or a Passport and their Admissions Ticket. A school ID is NOT accepted for testing purposes. There are NO exceptions–College Board makes these rules, not us. All phones will be turned off for the entire testing time and students may not access them until the tests are completed. We will let students in at 7:30am.
The next SAT will be March 13, 2021 (SAT only, no Subject Tests) and the registration deadline is February 12, 2021.
Parent Coffees:
Just a reminder that the presentations that were held this semester virtually are all available to view on the College Google site under the resources tab. The topics this semester were:
- An Intro to College Counseling at ISB
- Standardized Testing
- Rankings: What Do They Really Mean?
Next semester, if all goes as planned, we will hold the remaining Parent Coffees in person
~Sonya Ohlsson
Head of College Counseling