The Transition into the College Counseling Journey

          As college application season comes close to an end for the V Formers, the process has just begun for the Class of 2025. The starting bell for the IV Formers’ college counseling journey officially rang this past Monday, January 15. With a brief introductory session, students were acquainted with the College Counseling Office (CCO) and their mission to “offer the opportunity for students to draw upon and apply the academic skills and personal development that result from their overall Lawrenceville experience.” 

          The College Counseling Office consists of a team of counselors led by Co-Directors Holly Burks Becker P ’06 ’09 ’12 and Jeffrey Durso-Finley P’13 ’14 ’19 ’22  who are in their 39th and 23rd years at Lawrenceville, respectively. Beyond the leadership duo, counselors Beth Foulk, Courtney Roach, George Long, Melanie Litzinger, Tim Cross , Testing Supervisor Robyn Campbell, and Office Manager Sharon Carabelli contribute to the College Counseling Office’s many years of experience. To say that the Lawrenceville College Counseling Office has an extensive resume would be an understatement: the School’s counselors hail from established institutions around the country such as Amherst College, Brown University, and Dartmouth College to name a few. Speaking about the College Counseling Office at large, Durso-Finley highlights that “the Lawrenceville CCO has more than 100 years of combined experience…and an amazing team of collaborative educators who know both the college admission process and Lawrenceville as an institution incredibly well.” For Lawrentians looking to supplement their college search journey with external help, he emphasizes that the School’s team is more than enough to deem out-of-school assistance “completely unnecessary,” as the team “finds [themselves] having to repair poor essay feedback fairly often.”

          As Durso-Finley puts it, “colleges and universities are complex organisms with distinct differences, even if they have structural similarities.” He hopes that IV Formers can focus on “trying to understand themselves,” to recognize “their own educational direction and strengths,” followed by the “fun part:” putting together “the two big-picture ideas to build an approach to college applications.” Becker echoes Durso-Finley’s thoughts, emphasizing that “the tasks of applying to college are entirely manageable as well as revealing, interesting, and fun.”

          For underformers concerned about their prospective college or university paths, Durso-Finley advises them to be “engaged in maximizing their Lawrenceville experience.” As “little formal college counseling…is appropriate for a II or III Former,” Durso-Finley explains that the IV Form will be “ready to dive into the college process given their essential preparation to the foundational components of a vibrant education in the first few years.” Even so, support and scheduling are given to underformers and their families at Family Weekends throughout the year, as well as during Scheduling Day during Spring Term.

          The College Counseling Office is aware of each Lawrentian’s busy sequence so the “curriculum and sequential process is designed to be achievable, stress-free, educational…and quite fun,” according to Durso-Finley. The CCO’s “curriculum and to-do list” are “completely manageable,” but they do require students to be their “best-organized selves” and “attend to the process.” Reflecting upon her many years of experience, Becker concludes that “the happiest seniors are those that return in the fall with a few thoughtful essay drafts, a complete draft of the main common application, a resume, and a balanced college list,” emphasizing the summer before the students’ V Form year to be extremely important. Luckily, the team of counselors has designed a process that is broken into “reasonable and recursive units.” In the upcoming months, IV Formers can certainly anticipate a period of “building relationships” and “self-discovery” as they start to navigate the intricacies of the challenging yet rewarding college application journey.