News from CPC

The days are growing warmer and for the graduating class of 2009, college is just around the corner. Applying to and gaining admission to college can be an arduous process and many students in New York's overcrowded high schools do not receive the attention they need from their schools' college counselors. Started in 2002, Project Gateway operates inside CPC's Central Office and prepares high school students for the college application process through individual counseling, workshops, SAT prep, a summer immersion camp, as well as college visits and library resources. Project Gateway is free (except for inexpensive SAT prep) and serves high school students from all five boroughs and from private and public schools.

Jennifer Ja, a full time college counselor for Project Gateway since 2002, says Project Gateway serves a heterogeneous population. Some students come to the office knowing nothing about the college admissions process and others already have a plan of action. Project Reach counselors meet with students one-on-one and considering the student's grades, extracurricular activities, and interests, help them come up with a list of colleges to apply to. Their list includes a "dream school," a school that the student may not have good chances of gaining admission to but dreams of attending. After dream schools come "reach schools," places where students have a good chance of getting into. Finally, there are "safety schools," schools that students have a sure chance of getting into. If students are not happy with the outcome of the admissions process, counselors talk them through their disappointment and sometimes help students transfer to another college.

To prepare Project Gateway students for the transition to college, counselors invite alumni to speak to high school seniors the importance of time-management, money-management and how to handle the culture shock of a majority-White campus as well as making new friends and living with roommates.

The vast majority of Project Gateway participants have parents that want to be involved and help their children with higher education. This is not without complication though: teenagers and parents often disagree over intended majors, whether students should stay in the city and live at home for college or venture farther and live on campus. Understandably, parents want their children to have financially stable futures and the most popular intended majors for Project Gateway students are biochemistry (pre-med), engineering, finance, business and accounting. However, the recession had made students and parents unsure about finance-related careers. Counselors often have a difficult time convincing students to go to liberal arts schools and parents and students usually prefer colleges and universities that have well-known names.

Parents are often more hesitant to let daughters leave the city for college and live on campus but there are a surprising number of students who want to stay in New York whose parents want them to leave the city. Counselors talk to parents with the students' best interests in mind: some participants are unwilling to talk to their parents because they doubt their parents will understand or just cannot communicate with them because of a language barrier.

Project Gateway began counseling high school juniors but they changed their approach, realizing that it's often too late to teach juniors the importance of getting good grades, community service and extracurricular activities. Unfortunately, some students have the attitude that they don't have to work too hard to get into college because community colleges are required to accept anyone with a high school degree. Counselors have moved on to working with middle school students and introducing the concept of going to college to them so that they can succeed academically in high school and get involved in extra-curricular activities knowing that they are important for their own personal development as well as college admissions.

Some of the colleges and universities that Project Gateway participants have attended include: