Approximately 50 public and private universities from throughout the country came to NCSSM-Durham during the school's annual College Fair to share information about their schools with students. (photo: Leslie Knight)
The collection of college and university representatives in NCSSM-Durham’s gymnasium was marketed as a fair, and that’s exactly how the entire scene felt as hundreds of NCSSM students travelled from table to colorful table, stopping often to chat with recruiters, pick up swag, and join distribution lists.
But while it may have looked and felt like a main event, the annual college fair and all its energy is just one small part of a comprehensive effort from NCSSM’s Counseling department to aid students in their preparation for college.
“It’s a holistic approach” that begins almost as soon as students walk on campus for the first time, says Lamia Younes, one of the school counselors at NCSSM-Durham who work with students over the course of their two years at the school to help them make the most of the opportunities offered through NCSSM.
“The first thing that we’re really trying to do is to acclimate students to their environment, and their classes. I know it doesn’t sound like a college prep thing, but that first initial step of starting to thrive in this environment is a really big, important piece of being able to carry yourself forward.”
Once students have settled into life at NCSSM, the process of crafting a successful plan for college turns to the careful consideration of course selection. That’s where NCSSM’s counselors enter the nuts and bolts part of the college planning process. While students bear responsibility for selecting their courses, counselors work closely with them to make sure that students thoughtfully select classes that balance NCSSM’s core requirements with courses that align with the student’s academic interests and their desire to explore different fields of study.
Scott Schwartz ’06, another college-focused counselor at NCSSM-Durham, says counselors both lead and follow in that process. “We are reactive and proactive,” he says. “We’re reactive in the sense that if a student has something they want to discuss, we will meet. We’re proactive in that we regularly reach out to all of our students with updates and information that they may find useful.”
But it’s those early days in the academic calendar at NCSSM that often set the baseline for students’ later in-depth explorations of colleges. Not long after the academic year starts, NCSSM begins hosting on-campus visits with representatives from public and private schools across the nation where recruiters sit for small-group and one-on-one visits with students. Typically there are two to three recruiters on campus at a time. The visits typically occur Monday through Thursday in the afternoons, and run through November, offering students multiple opportunities to gain insight into programs of interest. Counselors begin planning for the visits during the summer before students even arrive.
Those early-year visits are a great opportunity for students to learn more about schools they hadn’t initially considered, says school counselor Janice Webster.
“At first, sometimes students are kind of stuck on this ‘I’ve been, you know, dark blue all my life and this is where I want to go.’ But when students know that there are other opportunities, they will explore them.”
For juniors, their second semester finds them in a required course called College and Career Planning, which provides students with in-depth insight into effective ways to plan for their academic and career future. Delivered in partnership with NCSSM’s Residential Education instructors, the counselors focus their efforts on aspects like the selection process, essay writing, financial aid and scholarships, as well as familiarizing students with SchooLinks, a student-centered platform that helps students manage their college and career planning. The Common Application used by many universities is also explored.
NCSSM’s counselors work hard to give students the information and tools they need to take charge of their future education. But most students still come to their counselors with at least a few questions as they make their way through the process. And sometimes, there aren’t clear answers. NCSSM’s students apply to colleges and universities throughout the United States, and, occasionally, even internationally. Each school has its own admissions criteria and its own set of strengths and weaknesses. NCSSM’s counseling staff make tremendous efforts throughout the year to stay informed, taking regular advantage of professional development opportunities that strengthen their hard and soft skills. When they are posed with a question they don’t have a ready answer to, they’ll do their best to seek out that answer if a student isn’t properly positioned to resolve it themselves.
The questions most commonly posed to Schwartz happen to be ones where there is no definitive response. “The one I get most is, ‘What do I need to do to get into this super selective program?’” he says. “The second big question is, ‘How do I pay for it?’”
It’s then that Schwartz reminds students that there is no magic solution. The smartest plan is to put forth one’s best effort, take advantage of all the input they can get from NCSSM counselors and from other sources of information, and then go for it. But with one caveat: always remember that, in the end, offers of enrollment involve a multitude of factors that simply can’t be anticipated or managed in their entirety.
“It is important for students to figure out what is in their control and what is not in their control,” Schwartz says. “As the student, you get to choose what schools are you going to look into, and what college visits are you going to attend, and where are you applying. You don’t control who’s reading your application that day, or what a school’s institutional priorities are that specific year, and you don’t control how many applicants there are going to be for the specific program at the specific school you are interested in.”
The guaranteed enrollment in UNC System schools afforded NCSSM’s students has taken some of the pressure off of college planning, but the process can still bear what feels like a significant weight once students begin digging into the details. Fortunately, they have at their fingertips an entire team of counselors ready to step in whenever and however they can. “Even though we work hard to help set students up for their college planning, I will still take them from wherever they’re at when they come into my office,” Younes says. “It varies from student to student how much we share with them all sticks, you know? It varies from student to student how much they remember, or how scared they are, or how confident they are. But generally speaking, I think we give them a good footing and they’re moving forward.”
Successfully planning for college takes time and thought where students must manage ambition and expectations, Webster says. Sometimes, the dream school becomes reality. Sometimes it doesn’t. But that isn’t what determines future success. “It’s not about the name of the school,” she says. “It’s about what you do wherever you are.”
NCSSM’s school counselors are available on both campuses to provide resources and support to Residential students. NCSSM-Morganton will host the next college fair in 2027. You can learn more from NCSSM’s Counseling website.
