Rising Seniors

Congratulations, Class of 2024! You’ve got this. Here are all of the details of our plan for your senior year.

The Return of College Knowledge

Every senior will be enrolled in a section of College Transitions: the third year of the College Knowledge Program. The class will meet during the fall semester, once every four days. Unlike the previous College Knowledge classes, CK 12, as we call it, will focus on the one thing you need most — college application work time. We will start by having all seniors apply to UNM during our first class session.

College Adviser Check In

Every senior will have a mandatory check-in meeting with their assigned college adviser. Meetings will be short and will be available starting Wednesday, August 2 and go through Wednesday, August 16. Click Schedule Your Check-In Meeting on the right side of this page to set up your appointment.

Summer Workshops

We will also offer a series of optional in-person application workshops in early August. The workshops will be held in the Senior Commons:

August 2: Application workshop, noon-2 pm
August 9: Application workshop, 9-11 am
August 16: Application workshop, 3-5 pm

No need to sign up for these optional workshops. But you are highly encouraged to attend at least one of these workshops, and you are welcome to come to more than one. Just join us in the Senior Commons!

Next year is going to be great. And we are going to help you make it better. If you want to be in touch with your college adviser before the August check-in meeting, we all work during the summer. We won’t always be in the office or constantly on our email (and we will take some time off for vacation), but you can typically reach us by email.

The CGO

Ralph Figueroa (figueroa@aa.edu; 505-828-3218)
Dean Jacoby (jacoby@aa.edu; 505-828-3219)
Jessica Becenti (becenti@aa.edu; 505-828-3301)
Juaquin Moya (moya@aa.edu; 505-858-8856)
Mauree Thordahl (thordahl@aa.edu; 505-828-3220)

Schedule Your Check-In Meeting

Seniors, use the links below to schedule your college check-in meeting with your assigned college adviser.
Check-in meeting with Ralph Figueroa
Check-in meeting with Dean Jacoby
Check-in meeting with Jessica Becenti
Check-in meeting with Juaquin Moya – calendar coming soon

Essays

You all should have done some work on a college essay draft with your English teacher this year and the department will require an essay as the first assignment of senior year. Some of you will not need an essay for your college applications, but the majority of you will need at least one, and maybe two or three.

Summer is a great time to revise those essays, or begin a new draft. The Common App essay prompts are also now available.

It isn’t important to have a perfect and polished essay at the end of the summer. Instead, try to select a topic that is true to your experiences and think about how you might express it. It would be better to try three different topics in one hour, rather than spend three hours perfecting one essay only to decide you don’t feel that the topic makes your best case for admission.

Ready for some more feedback? Email your latest draft to your college adviser.

Your College List

The closer you are to a final list early in the fall, the easier it is to devise a plan to submit your applications. What are some ways to develop and refine the list? Research colleges – start with SCOIR. Dive into its college web pages, linked college suggestions, and the scattergrams. Use other college search tools such as Unigo, Niche, Big Future and Peterson’s. College websites are rich sources of information regarding majors, programs, and experiences. It can be slow at first, getting the hang of navigating the websites for various schools, but the more you do it, the more expert you will become at finding information about the college that is relevant to your needs and interests. Summer is also a time to visit and experience college campuses yourself.

When forming your list, consider your chances of being admitted. Aim for a mix of likely, match, and reach schools. Understanding the admission rates at colleges is a key factor in having a list that is suitable to your strengths as a student and will result in many options for you to choose from, come spring of senior year when you will decide where you will spend the next four years.

In the end, we want you to come up with a list of five to 10 colleges to apply to. The best way to do that is to eliminate a lot of options upfront.

Test Prep

The summer is the perfect time to do some more test prep in order to be ready for whichever tests you want to retake. You know better than anyone what type of prep will be the best for you, but don’t overlook the resources online. You are already signed up for Methodize (click HERE if you have not yet registered your Methodize account) and Khan Academy, both of which are excellent and no cost to you. When you are among the top test takers in the country, two or three more correct answers in each section can make a real difference in your score.

What's Your Deal?

The application process gives the impression that college admissions officers will understand you completely and somehow accurately judge your merit and capabilities. It just is not possible to present your entire character and all of your accomplishments in the limited space of the application.

Instead, think of the application asking, in the words of one admission officer, “What’s your deal?”

Your answer better be concise. You can convince a college of two or three truths about you. If you are planning to apply to a selective school, a great summer activity would be to tell an admissions officer what your deal is. We recommend that you think about the stories of your life, the threads of your interests, and how they intersect, forming the passions that you will bring to a residential and intellectual community. These talking points will help you select an essay topic, impress an interviewer, enliven your meetings with admissions officers visiting the Academy or at a college fair, and make it more likely that you will be accepted.

Introducing College Kickstart

As the college process gets increasingly complicated, the CGO has sought to find ways to put more information in the hands of students and families. Starting in July, you will have access to College Kickstart. This database will offer in-depth data about financial aid and acceptance at each college with insight into building the best possible list of colleges and when to apply for the best results. Families will have access to this information at home, and we will use it in the fall College Knowledge class.