This year's guest speaker was Deborah Shaver, Director of Admission at Smith College, who spoke to the audience about the selection process at highly competitive colleges.  Ms. Shaver emphasized to parents and students alike that a student's acceptance to college is an academic decision.  She defined "academic" as a student's grades and the courses in which those grades were earned.  Standardized test scores (SAT and/or ACT), for schools that still require them, are also considered in the admissions decision, although are less important than a student's grades and choice of courses. 

Ms. Shaver stressed the importance of course rigor -- attaining good grades in challenging courses.  She also explained that in today's highly competitive climate, the selective schools have many more applicants with strong academic credentials than they do spaces for those students.  Therefore, a student must first qualify for admission on his or her academic credentials; only then are other "qualifications," such as extracurricular activities, leadership, legacy, athletics, minority status, gender, etc., considered in the student's application.

On Saturday morning, parents had the opportunity to participate in a mock admission session, and gained a deeper understanding of how college admissions decisions are made and the considerable thought and deliberation that goes into the eventual "admit" or "deny."

View photos of this year's Fifth Form College Seminar.