Our role, as college counselors, is to help students and their parents navigate the college search application process; our goal is for the journey to be exciting but also smooth, instructive and illuminating. We hope to provide a seamless transition from high school to college as we assist in finding the best undergraduate institutions to fulfill each student's personal and academic goals. Applying to college has become something of a rite of passage for students and their families. Ideally this search and selection process is an opportunity to visit new places, or perhaps see familiar places with a fresh perspective, to meet new and interesting people, discover a wide range of possibilities, and most importantly, an opportunity for students to learn more about themselves and the people they hope to become. Over the course of junior and senior year, students will consider their many strengths and interests, what things are important to them as students and as individuals, and what environments might best support their continued growth and learning as they embark on the next stage of their education.

Our starting premise in this process is that every student can be happy and successful at more than one institution. We will work with students to develop a list of schools to visit and to which to apply that will include some choices that may be more aspirational, and others where there is a close fit between the student and the school's profiles. At the end of the day, students will make informed choices about where to apply and ultimately enroll.

For many reasons, including a seemingly unending barrage of articles and features in various news media, the college search process can be stressful and fraught with unnecessary baggage. “Success” in this process equals enrolling at a school in which a student will thrive and have the opportunities to pursue his or her interests and prepare for a lifetime of learning and achievement. Success is finding the right “fit,” a comfortable alignment of individual interests and ambitions and an academic program and campus environment. There is no one-size-fits-all school and our role will be to help students assemble a list of schools that will meet criteria that they and their parents will define in the coming months.

From learning how to learn about schools, creating a college list, and navigating the process through a final decision about which college to attend, our goal is to help students make choices. We hope that students will experience this as an exciting time as they look forward to the challenges and adventures that await them in the future.

Dorothy Denburg	David Steinberg