Foggy Bottom Rambles

For young people, going to college involves making some of their first major life decisions. Here are some tips for Foreign Service high schoolers on how to get it right.                          

The college application process is like the ultimate dating game. Every year a new batch of students puts themselves through the possibility of crushing rejection with hopes of finding acceptance with “the one.”

It’s an emotional and opaque process in which the student must also learn to live with the fact that the rules of the game are constantly changing. This year alone has seen the introduction of the new SAT, a rising interest in doing away with standardized
test scores and even the creation of a new application process—the coalition application.

With the stakes so high, the Family Liaison Office interviewed two college counseling experts—Judy Bracken and Rebecca Grappo—in search of best practices for applying to college and a heads-up on the biggest mistakes Foreign Service kids make.

Judy Bracken has 17 years of experience in Falls Church and Fairfax County, Virginia, public schools as a college and career counselor, and currently works as a counselor for private clients. Rebecca Grappo is the founder of RNG International Consultants and specializes in helping parents make the right educational choices for their Third Culture Kids. She has also worked as a teacher internationally and domestically.

Both Grappo and Bracken are parents of Foreign Service kids, so they have been through the process themselves and understand the unique challenges FS kids face while attempting to untangle the college application process. Our discussion is the basis for the pointers to Foreign Service students heading into the college application process offered here. 
To read the full article by Claire Wedderien follows this link:

http://www.afsa.org/dos-and-donts-college-application-game