Each year the Portsmouth Abbey School College Counseling Office "kicks off" the Fifth Form's college process with a weekend seminar.  This year's seminar is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, February 8 and 9.  Joining us from the college side will be Deborah Shaver, Director of Admission at Smith College.  Portsmouth Abbey is pleased to have Deb assisting us this year; she is an informed, articulate and entertaining speaker on the subject of college admission.  As the Director of Admission at one of America's most selective colleges, as well as the mother of a young man who has recently gone through the college application process, Deb is in a unique position to offer authoritative insight and perspective into this exciting, albeit rather daunting, time.

This year the seminar focus will be on the application process:  how it works, what Portsmouth Abbey's College Counseling Office does, and what Fifth Form parents and their students do in the process.  Discussions will include ways the School and parents can maximize a student's chances of acceptance to a number of appropriate schools, and how the inevitable stress of the process can be minimized.  In addition, the seminar will examine what happens on the college side:  how applications are processed and how students are evaluated.  Portsmouth's college counseling officers will also demonstrate the School's college counseling software, Family Connection, to which all Fifth Form parents have access. The program will end with a "Mock Admission" session; armed with their newly acquired knowledge of how things really work, parents will be asked to serve on an admission committee and select - or deny - students who are applying to a fictional college.  There will be optional sessions on financial aid and athletic recruitment immediately following the close of the program.

Fifth Form parents can register on-line here, or call Christy Johnson at (401) 643-1254.  We will finish by lunch time on Saturday, but we encourage all parents to stay for the afternoon's athletic events as well as the Parents' Committee cocktail party on Saturday evening.  The event begins at 6:30 pm and will include cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and live music.

Friday, February 8

5:30 pm             Parent Registration, Foyer, Stillman Dining Hall

6:00 pm             Dinner, Stillman Dining Hall
                          Grace: Brother Francis Crowley, OSB
                          Welcome: Daniel McDonough, Associate Headmaster; Mary McDonald, Director
                          of College Counseling; Erica Hoff, Associate Director of College Counseling

7:00 pm             Program Begins, Auditorium

7:00-7:45 pm    Deborah Shaver, Director of Admission, Smith College: On Being a Parent in the
                         College Admission Process

8:00-8:30 pm     Mary McDonald and Erica Hoff: Introduction to Family Connection

8:30-9:15 pm     Mary McDonald and Erica Hoff: An Overview of the College Admission Process
                          at Portsmouth Abbey

Saturday, February 9

7:45 am             Continental Breakfast, Winter Garden/Auditorium Foyer

8:30 am             Deb Shaver: An Overview of the College Admission Process from the College
                          Side:  What Happens When We Receive an Application and How Do We
                          Decide What To Do With It? /Auditorium

9:30 am             Mock Admission Session, Stillman Dining Hall

11:00 am           All:  Miscellaneous Issues: Starting the list, Testing, Test Prep, Q&A, Auditorium

11:30 am           Deb Shaver, Mary McDonald, and Erica Hoff: Comments on Maintaining Sanity
                          and Family Harmony

12:00 pm           (Optional) All:  Financial Aid Overview and Resources, Auditorium

12:30 pm           (Optional) Al Brown:  College Athletics, Auditorium