Academics
College Counseling
Our Approach
Our Approach
Preparing students for college begins the moment students step on campus. At Justin-Siena, our team of counselors and college counselors provide a seamless, four-year college advising program to support students regardless of their post-secondary plans. This begins in the freshmen year during one-on-one counseling, academic advising appointments and advisory workshops on goal-setting and interest inventories and culminates in the senior year through the exhaustive process of applying to, being admitted to and enrolling into a post-secondary institution.
Throughout all of these workshops, parent nights, college visits, counselor meetings and shared resources, the goal of our entire Justin-Siena Counseling Department, school counselors and college counselors alike, is to help students have college options that reflect the strengths and desires of each individual student.
Freshman and Sophomore Years
While students are freshmen and sophomores, they get early exposure to college advising with their school counselor and advisory teacher via Family Connection/Naviance. Naviance is college planning software that we have used at Justin-Siena for the last ten years. It offers students career interest surveys, college search tools, and a place to record students' extracurricular activities, awards, and achievements throughout high school. Naviance also offers an amazing database of information on college admissions from Justin-Siena students who have come before them - admissions, denials, and waitlist data. Having access to this data early on is very helpful in getting students to understand how competitive college admissions is but also how successful our students are in being admitted to a broad range of schools.
One-on-one meetings between students and their school counselor draw out conversations about student academic interests and activities in order to begin to make connections between who they are, what they value, and what they might look for in a college experience. Justin-Siena’s college counselors offer an annual college fair that is open to freshmen through seniors in the Spring. Approximately 100 colleges come to campus from around the world each Spring. College counseling also posts local and national opportunities and competitions that students should be aware of - writing contests, internships, college fairs, information sessions, scholarship opportunities, etc.
Junior Year
It is in the junior year when activity starts to transition over to the college counselors. Juniors are invited to attend college admission presentations that occur throughout the fall in the College Counseling Center. We have over 100 colleges visit our campus each year to present information in a small group setting. In the winter, college counselors commence one-on-one college planning meetings with their assigned juniors to discuss college list, testing plans, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, college essays, etc. We meet at least twice in the Spring and Fall semester with every student; however, we will meet with a student as much as they need. Students who are engaged in the process and interested and open to our advice will certainly benefit from college counseling services.
In the spring of Junior year, college counselors lead advisory workshops on a number of different college admissions topics like how to research best fit colleges, who to ask to write letters of recommendation, and how to create a Common Application account. By June, these workshops are lengthier and much more detailed in the way they walk students through the college process. In the summer, college counselors offer five half-day college application workshops for UC applications, the Common Application, and Essays/Personal Statements.
Senior Year
During the fall and winter of the Senior year, college counselors are focused on list, personal statements, supplemental essays, scholarships, application advice and feedback, decisions around ED/EA/RD application status, admission or scholarship interview preparation, major selection, etc. Seniors continue to have access to college admission presentations, field trips, and advisory workshops that guide them through the process of applying to and selecting a college that is right for them. The spring of the senior year is spent in discernment with students - where to go, how to pay for it... many conversations about personal values, goals and long range plans.
Justin-Siena High School
Justin-Siena is a Lasallian Catholic college preparatory community that serves young men and women in grades 9–12.