What GRADE 12s should be thinking about in October?

Now that the back to school excitement has settled into routine, it is time for our clients to start filtering through their post-secondary options.   In our office, October is academic value setting and research month for grade 12 Canadian bound students.  For our US bound clients, this process usually occurs in early spring of grade11.  By academic value setting, we begin to focus more on a student’s academic experience than on general demographics.  General demographics such as size, location, cost, housing, and facilities are the focus of investigative study in September.

We encourage our students to really think about what they are looking for in their education and how they will put their tuition dollars to work.  Usually when we ask students at this time of year, “Why do you want to attend University X?” or “Why is University X your first choice?”- the answers we receive are overly general and tend to be about the university’s aesthetics (“It is a pretty campus.”) or location (“It is close/far from home.”).  Additionally, we find many of our students pick a faculty randomly or by feedback from friends.   We tease them at this point and encourage them “to defend their decision in an educational court of law”- to which they usually smile and respond, “Melinda, I know nothing about the academics there.”  We then set on a mission to change this in two steps.

One we make a list of values or priorities for their education and their post-secondary search.  Values need to be educationally related- such as class size, quality of instruction, range of majors offered, opportunities for coop or internship, international study options, and/or specialized features of the university curriculum.

We then enter a period of research.  We encourage students to move away from the admissions pages of the websites; because at this point, they have selected their courses and have a solid understanding of what marks they need.  Instead, we want them on the FACULTY pages learning more about what it means to study a particular major at a specific university.  What courses will they have to take?  What special opportunities are available?  What values does the site portray?  What students are highlighted?