The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

62 JUNE 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT Claire Wedderien is an educa- tion and youth specialist with the State Department’s Family Liaison Office. She grew up in the Foreign Service. T he college appli- cation 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 pro- cess—the coalition application. With the stakes so high, the Family Making Your College List Don’ts Creating a college list is stressful and demands a good deal of research and thought. To lessen the load, Judy Bracken has compiled the following list of factors that should be disregarded when making decisions. She strongly suggests you do not pick a college “just because your parent(s) are alumni or because your boyfriend or girlfriend is attending.” She also recommends that you do not eliminate a school because of the climate, the location or the “off the shelf” costs. Deciding what college to attend is prob- ably the first truly adult decision you will make, and you have to look at the larger picture of setting yourself up for success. Becky Grappo notes that she too often sees TCKs making the mistake of “following the crowd.” She sees students applying to the same 20 to 30 colleges as everyone in their high school. According to the Washington Post , there are more than 5,000 post-secondary 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 experi- ence 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 Interna- tional Consultants and specializes in helping parents make the right educa- tional 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. The Do’s and Don’ts of the College Application Game 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. BY CLA I RE WEDDER I EN