Posts by Christine Chapman
Meditations on Parenting: Influencing A Personal Writing Habit in Our Children (In Anticipating the Personal Statement/College Essay)
As a single mom and business owner, there aren’t many places where I can completely unplug. Thankfully, such a space does exist for me: my neighborhood yoga studio. There, my phone gets left in a cubby so I can surrender myself completely to the transformational magic of the heated space. Once inside, I roll out…
Read MoreMeditations on Parenting a High Schooler
As I lay in savasana at yoga this morning, my teacher shared a quote that landed and resonated deeply for me as I reflected on parenting and guiding a high schooler to think about life after high school: Awakening and enlightenment are accidents; but practice makes one accident prone. As a parent, I’ve spent countless…
Read MoreSearching for Scholarships
While the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly changed the daily lives of everyone, if you are a high school student, now is a great time to start looking for potential grants and scholarships while social distancing. Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors can apply to national, regional, and local scholarship and grant programs. Furthermore, you may be…
Read MoreCOVID-19: Advice for High School Juniors
With schools reverting to remote learning, standardized tests postponed, rescheduled, or completely revamped because of COVID-19, and college campuses and only offering virtual visit opportunities, the college admissions landscape has become a challenging and constantly evolving situation that students, educators, and administrators are navigating. If you’re a junior this year and applying to college for…
Read MoreCOVID-19: Advice for High School Seniors
With schools closed, and many standardized tests canceled, rescheduled, or reformatted, there’s a lot to process as school systems all over the world transition to remote learning, many deciding to grade students on a pass/fail scale instead of the traditional A through F scale. If you’re a senior this year and planning to attend college…
Read MoreA College Counselor Considers Vocational School Options
When you send other people’s children off to college for a living, it’s easy to expect that your own children will inevitably follow that same, traditional trajectory. So, when my eighth grade daughter came home recently, excited about the middle school’s field trip to the vocational school in our district, and asked me if I…
Read MoreCollege Tours: When Is the Right Time?
It’s never too early to get out to visit college campuses, as far as I am concerned. In fact, I’ve been dragging my own kiddos around college campuses since they were little, even if it is a simple drive-by or drive-through of campus. I think that’s one of the reasons that the idea of college…
Read MoreA Hopkinton College Counselor Reflects on the HS Graduation Ceremony
As a college counselor who has worked privately for many years, and as someone who has also worked as faculty in a private school, I’ve attended many graduations—both as a participant and as a guest. This year, for the first time, I was honored to be adopted by an HHS graduate’s family, to celebrate her…
Read MoreA College Counselor Processes Admission Decision Disappointments
So it was a tough week for people who do what I do for a living. The great celebrations of admissions decisions are always wonderful, but helping students and families manage disappointments is difficult and emotionally tears me apart. So, in the spirit of keeping it real, I want to just post some thoughts that…
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