Mary McDonald
Director of College Counseling

In 1990, Mary was teaching English and serving as college advisor at Darlington School, a co-ed day/boarding school in Georgia, when a chance remark by a friend influenced her to investigate working overseas.  Intrigued, she applied to become the Director of Counseling at the American School of Rio de Janeiro and was hired.  She spent five years as Director of High School Counseling in Rio and nine years in Singapore, five of them as Director of High School Counseling.  Both overseas schools served strong expatriot communities, and students from both were highly sought-after by major universities from the USA and around the world. Over 200 colleges and universities visited the Singapore American School every year; through these visits and through numerous visits to U.S. campuses, Mary has established a broad knowledge base and a network of contacts that has proven invaluable as she returned to the USA, first as a College Counselor at Kent School in Connecticut and now as Director of College Counseling at Portsmouth Abbey. 

Mary is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the New England ACAC (NEACAC), the Overseas ACAC (OACAC), Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS), and past member and past president of the Association of School Counselors in South America.  She has attended and presented at regional, national and international workshops and conferences.  Mary served as a faculty member of the College Board Summer Institute on College Admission and Financial Aid for three years, 1995-97, and is currently a faculty member of the NEACAC Summer Institute for New College Admission Professionals.