BB&N Bulletin Fall 2012

The College Question An Inside Look at BB&N’s College Counseling Office “No!” scolds Amy Selinger from the swivel chair in her office at the Upper School campus. Selinger, BB&N’s Director of College of Counseling has been taking a break from a hectic deadline to talk about the application process, and the thoughtful, empathetic counselor has morphed suddenly into a protective den mother.

The mistake was mine, substituting “college placement office” for “college counseling office.” It’s a distinction that embodies the philosophy of Selinger’s office, and she will not allow it to go unchecked—not with the psyches and well-being of 130 seniors at stake.

“The way I think about our college counseling process is that it’s a scaffold…we provide the structure and the framework that students move through and we have different places where we prevent them from falling through the cracks and catch them,” Selinger says. “We aren’t placing them at all.”

Theirs is a holistic approach, one that seeks to guide students along the journey to the college that will be the best fit, rather than a bullet point for a future resume, or a trophy on a shelf. “We define ‘the best school’ as the college that is the correct match for you,” says Selinger.

However, this perspective can be a difficult sell, especially for the many parents and students for whom the college application process takes on a watershed-event momentum—one with unrealistic expectations and unmanageable stress. So, how does BB&N’s college counseling office handle this essential and vulnerable stage in a student’s life?

Well, if one were to look at results and statistics, the answer would be “exceptionally well”—a glance at the college matriculation list from the past five years would impress any observer. But woe to the person who defines Selinger and her cohorts’ success by such calculated means—after politely berating you (and perhaps beating you gently), they would explain that the real answer sounds more like, “with a lot of love, and a lot of empowerment.”

I recently sat down with Selinger and her colleagues (Mo Zelaya, Fred Coyne, Katie Gayman, and Sarah McDonald) to sort through the landscape that BB&N seniors are treading right now: the realities of the college application process.

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