College Counseling Empowering Long-term Successes

2022-05-23From : 管理员Click : 671

To enable students to keep growing up meaningfully and to master the skills necessary for academic and personal success.

By adhering to the concept of "meaningful and sustainable growth" of students, SHBS college advising department aims to foster students so that they will become "independent thinkers and decision-makers", "knowledge learners and explorers", "community participants and builders" and "self-explorers and speakers".

The college advising department independently developed and designed various kinds of activities related to college application, and integrated college counseling into our daily educating and student activities by working with homeroom teachers. They helped students understand their own needs, personality traits, potentials, interests, and future academic paths in many ways so that students could develop a sense of purpose, and foster their own values. In addition to a series of training activities such as self-exploration, goal-setting and career-planning, lectures offered by college admissions officers, college application workshops, college application sharing sessions, the college advising department also assisted students with their academic planning, academic competitions, overseas university applications, and preparatory courses before going abroad. All of these activities are in line with our philosophy of cultivating students -- encouraging students to explore themselves, discover and develop their passions, and create values beyond themselves. What we care about is not only their admission results but their long-term development, success and happiness in life.

To build a consultation system that matches students' grade and cognitive levels

We believe that the college application process is also a process of self-exploration, and the more deeply students can explore themselves, the more likely they are to show the depth of their thinking to college admissions officers and get their desirable offers. Therefore, we encourage students to try bravely, get out of their comfort zone, try new sports, know about their own personality traits and academic situation, keep doing a certain kind of volunteer work, participate in different club activities, and learn new life skills and so on. All these will help expand their thinking and cognitive boundaries, tap their potential, develop the necessary skills, and build up their confidence.

Our college advising department encourages pre graders to participate in various activities both on and off campus, such as CAS, community service, picking-up in Zhujiajiao, academic competitions, club activities, self-exploration and goal-setting etc. We hope to make them think about who they are through learning and doing activities, and let students know about their own interests and strengths and develop their soft skills.

In order to better help students with their college application and development, college advisers must have a full understanding and evaluation of students' studies, extracurricular activities, personalities and strengths, interests and hobbies. The college advising department also uses personality and career test tools to help students understand themselves better. Although these tests are external assessment and can only indicate students’ tendency in the test phase, properly guided, students may use the test results to think about their own personality traits, academic situation, value orientation, etc. so that they can set goals recognized by themselves and make appropriate action plans.

As 10th graders need to know about how to prepare for their college application, the college advising department regularly organizes training sessions to advise students how to plan their studies, take standardized exams and do extracurricular activities, how to search for colleges, and how to develop their abilities through various school activities and experiences. Meanwhile, the department also has special wechat groups for college application, where relevant information is updated and released. Students are encouraged to attend lectures offered by college admission officers, to explore different types of universities and think about "What is university?", "What does going to university mean?" and "What can I do?"

College advisers advise 11th graders to make plans for college application and career development based on their own situation, i.e., to be aware of their own paths, including which college to attend, which major to choose and what kind of job to take up in the future, etc. The career exploration activities organized by the College Advising Department every year can help students talk face to face with elites in various fields and know about their plans for career development and industry prospects, so that they may better plan their high school years in advance. College counselors regularly talk one-on-one with students, follow up their studies, standardized exams, extracurricular activities, and how they are doing to achieve their goals, enabling them to further explore themselves and tap their potentials while they are going along their own paths.

12th graders face an intense sprint because they need to both complete their studies in the last year and submit their applications for colleges. College advisers must help them prepare essays and other materials early to ensure that the application materials are of high quality. The department usually runs workshops before the summer vacation to give advice to prospective 12th graders on essay writing and the use of application platforms such as the Common App and Cialfo. We also pay great attention to the mental state of students at this stage to help them cope with the stress from the college application. Sometimes, we also contact universities to speak for some of our students with their applications. When the application process is almost finished, we will also count up and analyze their application results and draw lessons from the experience. In addition, we also offer preparatory courses for students who are about to go abroad, including but not limited to visa, accommodation, overseas university life, common knowledge of Chinese medicine , etc., so that students will be well prepared to study abroad successfully.

This kind of counseling, which encourages and helps students to constantly know about themselves, explore themselves and find their favorite and suitable development path, will not only help students apply for college, but also help them grow up and succeed in the long run. It has been proved that we are doing better and better in college advising (we will do even better next year).