As our seniors are in the midst of college essays and applications, college is on their minds. As our juniors begin testing for future plans and admittance, college is on their minds. As our counselors, teachers and administrators write recommendation letters, college is on our minds. College and university plans should be on our minds as a campus - it is a large part of our expectation as a campus and community.
As a campus, we are challenging our students to answer a major question on their choice of school: why? Why is this the favorite or most desired choice? Why is this the most appealing campus to spend 4 years (or more) as part of the learning journey? Why is this your ideal setting to begin life away from home? Why is this the school to put a significant financial commitment towards? Why is this place special for you? We hope our students can answer these questions about their school of choice as they leave Westlake High School. Every year we give an update to the Eanes ISD School Board about our graduating seniors’ choice for post high school. This presentation details the applications to universities, acceptance and then enrollment by our students. Please feel free to view this HERE. One of the most unique pieces of information is that we have students at 151 different universities/colleges. This number was up by 15 schools from the class of 2016. We had students personalize their choice of a college experience at a multitude of settings in and out of Texas and the United States. After discussing this whole process of admittance and selection over my career, I have learned a few things. The first one that I will share is that kids love to hear about an adult’s college choice and experience. They love to hear about your process of selecting a school and the personal criteria you used when you were a teenager. They love hearing about your choice of a major or majors depending on our choices as we traveled through school. They love hearing about the highs and lows of your academic career. Our teachers have learned that hanging a banner or pennant from their alma mater can lead to some great discussions about college. As a parent, discussing college may be a precarious event depending on everyone’s mood at a given time. The best advice I can give parents is: kids want to talk to you about college, and they want to know everything to help them make the best decision without the parent making the decision. Take the chance to talk about college because your kids do want to know about your experience. Don’t worry; your kids do know you well enough by this age to discern accuracy and honesty…..
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Steve Ramsey: WHS Principal BlogPrincipal's Weekly Reflections Archives
May 2019
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