Curtis WestbayAt the threshold of academic year 2020-2021, BIPH ushers in its third year since its founding in 2018. The upper school department has been further expanded, and in each grade level there are a larger number of students with excellent academic performance, outstanding ability and strong character. In order to fully support our students’ college planning and assist them in pursuing their dream colleges, BIPH has established a strong college counseling team for the coming school year, who will systematically carry out a series of individualized college planning meetings for every single one of our upperclassman. In the months that follow, parents will receive regular college planning pages created by our college counselors, with whom our parents can communicate through emails, evening parent events, meetings, etc. Parents are also welcome to put forward valuable constructive suggestions with regards to college counseling. It is our sincere hope that, with the joint efforts of our parents and school community, our students will fully be able to display the BIPH spirit, face challenges and then march onward to their goals!
Our departmental vision for the 2020-2021 academic year
Who is the College Admission department at BIPH?
What are our goals?
Admission success for the whole graduating class
When we look at the admission outcomes of our graduates, we aren't just looking at the most notable results. For BASIS International Schools Park Lane Harbour, we will place scrutiny on all of the colleges to which our students matriculate.
Because we care deeply about the whole picture of college results, our counselors don't prioritize one student's college goals over another's. After our first senior class earns amazing college acceptances in 2022, the measure of success for us will be the mean rank of the top college acceptance for each student.
Nevertheless, we understand that, while college rank and academic prestige is the foremost consideration for the majority of our students, it's not the most important factor for every student. We will work hard to meet all high school students several times throughout each academic year, at a minimum. By doing this, we can help our students find a college that is the right fit for the next chapter of their lives.
Holistic college readiness
Academic preparation is only one part of the picture when it comes to college readiness. Upon transitioning to college, students will have to do everything for themselves: organizing, cleaning, managing their time, and (sometimes) even making their own meals.
The tangible tasks of living on their own may come more easily to our students than the intangible ones. Important skills like self-advocacy, communicating needs, and setting social and personal boundaries cannot be overlooked.
During the Grade 12 College Counseling seminar, once college applications have been completed, we will turn our attention to these other markers of college readiness. It is our goal that our students don't just survive college, but thrive once they are there, graduate on time, and have fun all the while.
Activities coaching
Particularly for students applying to highly selective colleges, the importance of activities on the application cannot be overstated. Colleges are not just considering students in an academic context— they also need to understand what kind of people they are accepting into their communities. A student's activity list answers the question: "how does this person spend their free time?"
Even for those students not pursuing colleges on the basis of selectivity, activities are extremely valuable. High school activities often produce the most memorable experiences of adolescence and become the genesis of life-long passions.
Not all activities achieve the same effect on college applications, however. Academic activities with a competitive focus usually find the most purchase in application review committees. Academic competitions are impactful because of inherent and verifiable context which accompanies them. These are the sorts of insights we hope to provide to our students, coaching them to produce unique, impressive activity résumés which will enhance their lives and their applications alike.
Setting long-term goals with a backward planning approach
The reason we get to know our students early is to help them plan backward to the college application. Not every student will know their college goals at the outset of high school, but many BIPH students will. With the goal in mind, our counselors will help students be purposeful at every step of the way in preparing for the pivotal Grade 12 year.
There are two things a student cannot correct late in high school: grades and activities. We will be heavily involved in these areas, helping our students build valuable academic habits and impressive activity lists from an early stage. Via backward planning and the establishment of intermediate goals en route to the college application, the College Admission department at BIPH intends to minimize surprises when admission results are released by colleges in the spring of Grade 12.
What is our plan?
Parent event schedule
We will host at least one parent event per month, conducted twice apiece. We admit that part of the reason we do this is because it's easier to communicate information about college planning to parents in a group setting than through individual meetings. But in our experience, parental involvement in college planning improves outcomes. Parents can guarantee that our students follow through on goals in a way that counselors can't. Accordingly, the more knowledgeable our parents are, the better college planning tends to go.
Prior to each event, an email will be sent to parents to indicate interest. Space is limited, so the materials contained in your student's Notion page will help to reinforce the ideas discussed at parent events, in case attendance is not possible. Subject to change, here are our planned parent events:
@September 9, 2020 and @September 13, 2020 : Meet the College Admission Team
@October 15, 2020 and @October 18, 2020 : The Components of the College Application
@November 5, 2020 and @November 8, 2020 : What You Need to Know about Standardized Testing
@December 3, 2020 and @December 6, 2020 : Building Narrative in the Application
@December 10, 2020 and @December 13, 2020 : How to Make the Best Use of the Summer
@January 21, 2021 and @January 24, 2021 : Overview of the BASIS Senior Year
@February 25, 2021 and @February 28, 2021 : College Majors, Explained
@March 18, 2021 and @March 21, 2021 : School Selection and Making a College List
@April 8, 2021 : Rising Night: Class of 2025
@April 11, 2021 : Rising Night: Class of 2024
@April 15, 2021 : Rising Night: Class of 2023
@April 18, 2021 : Rising Night: Class of 2022
Student meeting schedule
We plan to meet with every G9-G11 student multiple times throughout the academic year. Some of these meetings will be mandatory, one-on-one, scheduled meetings. We are in the process of finalizing that meeting schedule now, and once we have completed this annual calendar, you will receive access to your student's individualized college planning page. This page will contain counselor notes, recommendations for activities, target scores for colleges of greatest interest to the student, and various college planning resources.
School-level initiatives
College admission success does not occur in a vacuum. To produce great results, we need a school that supports our students. We are proud of the foundation that has been laid at BIPH, and in the next two years, we hope to get even better with respect to the school-level initiatives that will make applying to college easier for all of our students.
- Review of the ASA program
- Essay brainstorming Teams page
- English immersion
- Technology use and college research
Activities are crucially important, as discussed above. Our counselors will work with the school leadership (both administrators and students) to look for blind-spots in our ASA offerings.
Students can't write great essays too early, but they can journal about their experiences, emotions, and passions to make brainstorming more effective. We will set up a class group in Teams to encourage students to journal in preparation for college essays.
Our students' English fluency is a better predictor of college admission outcomes than any other factor. To ensure great college acceptances, there is no more important initiative than the English immersion policy being introduced at BIPH in 2020-2021.
With the expansion of technology use in our school, students will have the opportunity to communicate their needs with counselors instantaneously. Additionally, the research resources available to students will be accessible on these technologies so they can begin their college search earlier than Grade 12.
How can you get in touch with us?
Make sure you know who your child's counselor is and reach out to the right person.