College Colloquium: The latest on the college application front AND the FWCD front

Kristin Larsen has been the Director of College Counseling at FWCD for nearly 20 years. She came to us in 2005 after several years in the role at a fellow ISAS school, Holland Hall of Tulsa. I have always known she was a pro’s pro: current in her knowledge of both the colleges and of our juniors and seniors, and available to address issues and to support our student, parent and faculty communities.

As she does every February, Kristin once again lured outstanding admission officers from colleges across the country to spend a day and a half with us on February 22. Kristin has these visits down and orchestrates a powerful one and a half days on February 21 and 22:

• She brings three to four admission officers to campus each year, being sure to vary their geography, school size and “type.”  
• The admission officers interact with members of the Upper School faculty during a breakfast meeting.
• The officers present to our students during the day and to our grades 8 to 11 parents at night. Kristin emcees the events for both students and parents, guiding the comments from the college admission officers to be the best possible guidance and counsel for our applicants.

Selfishly, I appreciate that Kristin invites me, along with Head of Upper School Peggy Wakeland and the College Counseling Directors from Trinity Valley School, The Oakridge School and All Saints’ Episcopal School, to an intimate and discussion-filled meal the night before the presentations. 

From these annual conversations, the formal and the informal, Kristin allows those not doing the job she and Associate Director Sarah Casarez do in our College Counseling Office to get some of the latest information on college admission: What is the impact of test-optional applications? How has COVID-19 affected incoming college students? What might the impact be of an upcoming Supreme Court decision regarding what is commonly known as Affirmative Action?

Much of that information we could gather from reading and presentations not tailored to FWCD. The more significant impact of these visits is the chance we get to hear these admission officers speak specifically about FWCD. Year after year, these officers confirm the importance of their ability, facilitated by Kristin and Sarah, to know our school. They know what it means to be a product of FWCD’s rigorous high school curriculum. They know the difference between a 92 GPA at FWCD and that same number at a less rigorous school. FWCD’s official profile is a major source for that knowledge, but the work our graduates do at their institutions is tracked as well. For example, the University of Oklahoma Director of Admission, Jeff Blahnik, spoke last week about FWCD graduates’ particularly strong record at his university. They know that there is a very good chance a GPA from FWCD will actually go higher when our graduate goes to their school. 

While we cannot cover all 4,000 national universities and colleges, Kristin and Sarah and I all visit college admission offices and carry the FWCD story forward each year. It is a thrill to speak of our students, our teachers, our scores, our community. No doubt, the college admission landscape remains incredibly difficult. A small percentage of schools (about 100 of the 4,000) admit fewer than 20% of their applicants, but these are often the schools our students seek. We will not rest in our efforts to spread the word about FWCD so that our students’ applications get the most favorable reading possible. 

While many of the admission realities are out of our hands, visits like those for our College Colloquium will continue to put FWCD on the national radar for college-preparatory schools sharing exceptional graduates across the country and even the world.