College Counseling

Richard Roller, Director of College Counseling

At Tabor, it is our goal to make each student's college search an integral part of his/her educational experience. To help achieve this objective, we have adopted an inductive, counseling intensive approach aimed at helping students to uncover the best possible "match" between their personality/credentials and their college choices. Our counseling model also encourages students to develop a of lifetime skills – self-evaluation techniques, the ability to set realistic goals, to define objectives, to identify appropriate options, to manage data and meet deadlines, to take realistic risks, to make intelligent choices, and to take an active role in determining their own futures – that will serve them well in future years. In essence, our program is both a comprehensive college counseling effort and a course in self-assessment and decision-making. It is our goal always to keep the focus on the student and through frequent meetings and continued support, to assist each student and family in the development of an appropriate college "game plan."

Tabor's College Counseling Office is staffed by four counselors who serve a class of 125 seniors, a ratio that affords each student considerable individual attention. The college process for each student formally begins on "Kick-Off Day" in February – a day devoted to a series of presentations, workshops, etc. to get the junior class started on the college process – and continues until each senior has accepted an offer of admission from a college of choice.

Following Kick-Off Day, students attend weekly class meetings as well as individual counseling sessions. Class meetings deal with the more procedural aspects of the process – standardized testing, campus visits, discussion of different admission programs – while individual sessions focus on getting students to begin the process of thinking critically about themselves and their credentials, identifying strengths and objectives and determining what characteristics a school needs in order to constitute a "good match."

During Parents Weekend in late February, juniors and their parents attend two days of lectures and participate in admissions case study exercises offered by  several college admissions deans who join us for the program. Following a summer of family discussion and college visits, students return as seniors ready to begin to narrow down their list of preferred colleges and to meet with a number of the more than 100 college representatives who visit campus each fall. Class meetings, individual counseling sessions and programs for parents pick up where they left off in the spring as we work closely with each student in compiling a final list of schools. The process that is the college search constitutes a significant event for each senior and is an adventure we look forward to sharing.

Links to explore
Tabor's Matriculation List
Links to Helpful Websites for Admissions and Financial Aid