College Counseling
Comprehensive, individualized and ongoing college counseling is a PDS hallmark. A knowledgeable and accessible college counseling team assists high school students and their parents throughout the college search and application process. And although the process begins in earnest during the spring of the junior year, the team is available to consult with families at any time during a student's career at PDS.
College information evenings and financial aid workshops give families an overview of the process. College representatives from across the country visit PDS and meet with juniors and seniors each fall. And students are encouraged to access college information through the MY PDS college web page. It provides links to many useful external resources as well as the school's own College Counseling Handbook and the PDS profile, sent to colleges as part of the school's transcript packet for seniors. Additionally, the quarterly college counseling newsletter keeps students and parents on track with College Board testing dates, important deadlines, topics of interest and in-school and regional events.
Each spring all juniors take the "college prep" course. It guides them through the search process and helps them explore college options, expand horizons and refine choices. Students learn how to develop a résumé and choose topics for the personal essay, and they also practice interview techniques prior to college visits. They are well prepared for all aspects of the application process as well as the practical and personal challenges of independent life beyond graduation.
In addition to close personal attention from the college counseling office, students and parents use the resources of Family Connection from Naviance, college guidance software that guides students and families and helps them make decisions about colleges and careers.
At the end of the process, PDS students have choices among excellent schools. And they do well when they get there. Some graduates attend the most selective schools while others choose large state universities, small liberal arts colleges or schools of art, drama, design or music. Find out more by viewing the PDS School Profile for 2012–2013.
Students from the Class of 2013 have been accepted to the following schools:
American University of Paris, Art Institute of Boston, Beloit College, Brandeis University, Brown University, Bryn Mawr College, Clark University, Clarkson University, Colby-Sawyer College, Colorado College, Connecticut College, Davidson College, Dutchess Community College, Eckerd College, Eugene Lang College, Fordham University, George Washington University, Goucher College, Green Mountain College, Guilford College, Hamilton College, Hartwick College, Ithaca College, Johns Hopkins University, Kenyon College, Lewis and Clark College, Macalester College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, New York University, Parsons School of Design, Pitzer College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rider University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rollins College, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, SUNY Albany, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Plattsburgh, SUNY Purchase, Union College, University of California Berkeley, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Chicago, University of Georgia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Miami, University of Southern California, University of Vermont, University of Virginia, Trinity College, Utica College, Vassar College, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Wake Forest University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
