College Counseling

The college counseling office at TAS is responsible for helping students and families navigate the college search and application process; at no other time has the need for professional support and guidance been greater, given the many changes to the current college admissions process brought on by COVID-19. As such, we offer an expertly comprehensive, dynamic, and proactive program that aims to guide and support you through the process. We are in continuous conversations with colleagues around the world at top institutions and peer schools to provide the most up-to-date and relevant support and suggestions for each individual student and strive to provide a reassuring and informed program to help ease whatever concerns or stress students may have.

We are constantly reviewing and improving our offerings, but our program consists of several major components:

Individualized Attention

In the junior year, college counselors begin compulsory, individual meetings with students and parents as we establish differentiated plans for each student. Until this formal start to the process, the college counseling office is available for specific questions by appointment.

During initial family meetings in the junior year, the student’s academic record, interests, and goals are discussed. During the individual appointments with students, college counselors seek to learn about the student’s personal and academic interests, explore possible college choices, and discuss expectations for the college search and college admissions process. These meetings help foster strong relationships with the students. In the senior year, the college counselors continue to meet regularly with students and parents to provide guidance throughout the college application process, provide feedback and advice on applications and essays, and help students with their final college decisions.

College Counseling Classes

In the second semester of junior year and the first semester of senior year, students meet regularly for college counseling classes. The TAS college counseling curriculum engages all students in various aspects of the college search, research, and application. Each class is intentional in providing relevant and timely information as well as guidance and the time, space, and professional support for students to work towards timely application submission. The timing and topics are designed to keep the student at the center of the process and ensure they stay calm and organized. Topics include: what colleges look for in applicants, how to evaluate colleges, early action and early decision programs, how to apply to the University of California system, how to complete the Common Application, writing an effective college essay, and how to more deeply research a college’s quality and unique offerings in order to define the “fit” for that student. We also encourage and support applications to tertiary education worldwide, with guidance on the application process to schools in Canada, the UK, across Europe, Asia, and Australia. College counselors share information and work together as a team in supporting options and varied application processes outside of the United States. Our compulsory college counseling classes are conveniently scheduled to facilitate attendance by all students and run concurrent to individual student and family meetings.

Parent College Programs & Communications

Realizing that parents play a critical role in the college process, the college counseling office offers parent programming for all upper school parents in the form of various parent evening programs, some grade-based functions as well as Parent Corners (see below). Our primary goals in working with parents are to educate parents about the current college admission landscape; to provide insight into the many aspects of the college application process; and to keep parents informed about where their students should be in the overall process.

Parent Corners

Parent Corners are an opportunity for upper school parents to meet with members of the College Counseling team as well as members of the Personal & Academic Counseling Office. We understand that parents have quick questions that they would like to ask a college counselor or want reassurance that their child is taking the “right” classes to maintain a strong academic trajectory towards college. Parent Corners provide this very opportunity! Sometimes parents or their friends hear comments in the community that surprise or puzzle them about college admissions policies, standardized testing, or application strategy and timing. These Parent Corners provide a comfortable environment to ask about these or other topics, to lessen misinformation, and to talk about changes in the college admission scene. We hope parents take advantage of this opportunity whenever convenient and hope they find it helpful; the Joint Counseling conversation provides further opportunity to address any current issues or challenges families may be facing as they transition beyond TAS. As an important clarification, these sessions are not intended to replace individualized college counseling meetings, and we will not be able to talk about a particular student’s or parent’s experience or difficulties.

Relationships with Colleges

The college counselors at Taipei American School work diligently throughout each year to build, develop, and maintain relationships with colleges and universities through participation in college admissions conferences, professional organizations, and college counselor visit programs to colleges throughout the world. Prior to travel restrictions and campus closures worldwide, the office regularly eclipsed its annual goal of visiting 75 colleges and universities. To help expose students to the various colleges and universities and to educate these institutions of higher education to TAS, the College Counseling Office typically welcomes over 200 college admission representatives to the School each year. In 2020-21, we expect to continue to have multiple opportunities for students and families to engage virtually with college admissions representatives from a similar number of schools and in new and creative ways to learn more about post-secondary options.