Tips on preparing your child early for university admissions
At SSIS, we prepare students for university throughout their senior years. Our highly skilled and dedicated University Counselling Guidance team focuses on developing students’ candidacy to be accepted into the institution that fits them best, regardless of where in the world it might be.
We want to ensure our students are fully prepared for when they leave SSIS and go into the next stage of their journey. There are several key elements that should be taken into consideration throughout the process.
Development of student’s candidacy
A student’s candidacy is developmental and occurs over a four-year period. Parents and students should be aware of factors that are helpful and harmful to the child’s candidacy. Strong academics, positive relationships with the school community and communicating with university Admissions officers early can improve their candidacy. However, parents contacting universities when it’s unrequired and aggressive lobbying for the student can be harmful.
Key questions to consider
throughout Senior School
Being a reflective learner is usually a key component that is missing in an application. We therefore encourage parents to ask their children questions relating to their life goals throughout their senior years, as this helps to build a reflective learner.
Tips to become a successful candidate
year by year
Maintain a reflective journal
Students should keep a reflective journal of their experiences, learning and accomplishments. This is the start of building their voice for university application essays.
Accept constructive feedback
Students should get used to receiving feedback from teachers, something majority of high school students do not do. However, this adds to building the narrative of reflecting on their learning experience.
Stay active through the planning process
Students should continuously be planning and developing year by year, until they are ready to submit their applications. Going through an active planning process is important because they are developing their SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals.
Students should include your family in their educational experience
It’s important to work together as a family with the student. This includes communicating with the teachers and counsellors. Feedback from the family assists the teachers and counsellors with how they work with the student at school.
Go beyond the minimum
Students should know in Grade 9 already that the minimum is not okay. When they hear teachers say “I recommend you…” they should know it’s something they should definitely do, even if it’s not required or mandatory.
Students profiling themselves
Students will start profiling themselves in Grade 9 when they are given a series of personality and learning assessments that will redesign how they move through the curriculum. This is part of a larger exploration of careers and university options.
Complete university research
by Grade 11
When students hit Grade 12, all their enquiries and preparation for their applications should be complete. In Grade 11, our students research over 200 different institutions across multiple countries, and they would have selected up to 15 of them to apply to.
Students should set out an application calendar for Grade 12, which includes the date they plan to submit their applications. They should also identify which teachers will be assisting them. Applications usually open between August and October every year, and it’s encouraged to apply as early as possible.
Watch the video below where University Counsellor Daniel Gould goes into great detail about preparing students for university.
To know more:
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IB – The Ultimate Pathway to Excellence
How to Support Academic Excellence at Home
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