Trends from the College Counseling Office

By Andy Ramirez, Director of College Counseling

GCDS has established itself as an academically dynamic and rigorous institution with diverse, interesting, and kind students who are eager to make a meaningful impact on their college campuses. We empower our students to think critically about academic and personal fit as they research schools and build their college lists with our guidance. As we reflect on these last four years, we are proud that we’ve helped students present themselves as individuals who value the acquisition of knowledge and accept the responsibility of employing their education in service of our greater society. 

Here are some of the ways that our unique curriculum and recent trends in college admission have impacted our students. 

• Our 11th and 12th grade academic program is designed to resemble the flexibility of a traditional liberal arts curriculum. Drawing from college-level seminars and research courses, GCDS students have the freedom to design schedules which cater to their specific interests and allows for deep exploration.
• There is a continued de-emphasis of standardized tests in favor of high school transcripts among colleges and universities. As we expected, most colleges extended their Class of 2022 test optional policies to the Class of 2023. The 11 Florida state universities, Georgetown University, all service academies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are notable exceptions. At GCDS, the majority of seniors this year took advantage of test optional admission policies in their own application processes. 
• Diploma programs—in Engineering, Sustainability, World Languages, Classics, and the Visual and Performing Arts—have played a key role differentiating our graduates from their peers allowing colleges to match students with existing programs of study on their campuses. 30% (out of 114 students) of the Class of 2023 earned at least one diploma.
• Specialized programs in areas such as Business, Engineering, and the Performing Arts continue to become more selective at both small and large as well as public & private universities. Over the past four years, our students have enrolled in programs across a range of highly selective institutions in these areas, including:

-New York University (Stern School of Business), Boston College (Carroll School of Management), University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business)

-University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology

-Vanderbilt University (Blair School of Music) and Northwestern University School of Communication (for theater)

As always, the GCDS College Office is committed to ensuring that our community has the most current information as it relates to college admission practices and policies.

• As we process the recent decision from the Supreme Court on race-conscious admission, specifically the ending of affirmative action, the GCDS College Counseling Office will continue to affirm the value of each of our students’ lived experiences–including their class, race, and ethnicity–and relatedly, the undeniable benefits that emerge from diverse learning communities. In addition, we will remain steadfast in our support for each of our students as they represent themselves fully, in whatever way they choose in their college applications. 
• This includes changes that are occurring with longstanding legacy admission practices. For example, Amherst College, Johns Hopkins University and most recently, Wesleyan University have joined institutions such as MIT in ending admission preferences for legacy applicants.