Welcome to the College Counseling pages of the Portsmouth Abbey School Website. It is the mission of the College Counseling Office at Portsmouth Abbey School to guide and support students and their families through the college search and application process. We endeavor to work with students as individuals, to understand who they are beyond the classroom and to help them find a college that will provide a challenging and comfortable environment for them on all levels. True to the Benedictine tradition of Portsmouth, we treasure the spiritual and intellectual diversity and individualism of our students and understand that their lives will take them in many directions.
The formal college counseling process begins in the Winter Term of Fifth Form year, but students are encouraged to understand that college preparation is a compilation of their entire high school academic and co-curricular experience. We seek to build an open relationship with students and their families in order to understand all of the factors involved as the college list is developed.
As an office, we are here to guide, counsel, challenge, suggest and inform. The process ultimately belongs to the student. This is the first adult decision that many of our students will make, so each one must be invested in this choice, and have ownership of the process that brings them to it. Our role is to assist and advocate for them and to make sure that their choices are informed and appropriate.
Meet the Office
Mary McDonald
Director of College Counseling
B.S., University of Georgia
M.Ed., University of West Georgia
Phone: (401) 643-1252
Email: mmcdonald@portsmouthabbey.org
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, past member of the Overseas ACAC, 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. She lives in Portsmouth.
Erica Schratzmeier Hoff
Associate Director of College Counseling
B.S., Fordham University
(401) 643-1275
ericas@portsmouthabbey.org
Christy Johnson
College Counseling Coordinator
(401) 643-1254
cjohnson@portsmouthabbey.org
