As junior year reached its most pivotal stretch, families of the Class of 2027 filled the MBR on January 21st for 11th Grade College Night, an evening designed to demystify the college process and map out the road to senior year. The juniors are already starting this process out with a bang, with Director of College Counseling Mr. Jim Sargent commenting, “This is an incredible turnout for our junior college night. We are immediately impressed with the promptness of the class of 2027.”
Over the course of the hour-and-a-half presentation, the counseling team introduced families to how “to navigate this process” and offer “a way of thinking about the process that is both aligned with the school’s commitment to wellbeing,” and “the surest path for success for this process,” explained Mr. Sargent. Rather than focusing solely on rankings or outcomes, the evening emphasized approaching college admissions thoughtfully and strategically.
The event featured Director of College Counseling Mr. Jim Sargent and Associate Directors Mrs. Marsha Setzer, Mr. AJ Jezierski, Mr. David Mills, and Ms. Noor Haddad, who guided families through timelines, expectations, and the philosophy behind the school’s approach.
To kick off the night, each counselor went around introducing themselves, sharing a few of their favorite things with their future students and families, accompanied by a photo slide depicting all of these. This list included their favorite sports team, their 2026 goal, a few of their extracurriculars, their favorite travel destination, and even what they would write their college essay on if they were to apply today.
Mr. Sargeant followed up with their introduction, saying there was a deliberate purpose to why they chose to introduce themselves “with a little more color and detail than their job titles and how long they have been [there], and certainly the colleges [they] went to.” That was by design, he explained. “We want you to understand that when you arrive at this moment, you engage the college admission process as a full person. You are not a GPA, a test score. You are not the college you end up choosing. You are not a list of extracurricular activities,” he said.
To help the audience understand what guides the work of the College Counseling Department, Mr. Sargent shared the office’s mission and vision. The department’s mission, he explained, is “educating and empowering students to lead an intentional and highly personalized journey to college, anchored in purpose, curiosity, integrity, and a strong sense of self.” The vision, which he described as the office’s “North Star,” is for Bishop’s students to “engage in a joyful and affirming college admission process where they are guided by their own values, supported by a trusted team, and celebrated for who they are.”. Looking ahead, he said he hopes that when the Class of 2027 reflects on the process sixteen months from now, it will have felt “more joyful, exploratory, and fun than they imagined it was going to be.”
He encouraged the process to be “student-centered.” It should be about the “driver of this process and the person whose story will be told. It should be a reflective, educational, and healthy journey,” he said. “You should learn something about yourselves, about higher education, about making big decisions, and about facing challenges together as a caring community. And yes, it should be fun.”
A major theme of the night was “fit.” Mrs. Setzer acknowledged that the word can sometimes feel overused or like a buzzword, but emphasized that it remains central to the college search process. She explained that “fit” comes down to three key factors: academic fit, personal fit, and financial fit. When those three elements align, she noted, students are more likely to find colleges that truly feel right for them.
As the slideshow put it, “If it’s not all three, it’s not a fit.” Counselors encouraged students to think beyond rankings and ask concrete questions: from class size to majors, campus culture, distance from home, and affordability. Mr. Mills proposed a very important question: “ You’re going to be there for four years, and being in class is only a small portion of your time during those four years of college. So, beyond your major, beyond those academic-specific components, what do you need?” Ms. Haddad added, “ A fit for you might not be a fit for your friend.”
The office also outlined the roles students, parents/guardians, and counselors play in the college journey. For students, “this is your process. Own it and be truthful to yourself,” Mr. Jezierski said. “This is uniquely your process. And I don’t love the word ‘unique,’ but this is one of the few times in your life that it holds true.” He continued saying that if you have an interest in something that is a little “off-beat” or “something that not as many of your friends are truly interested in”… it’s still your thing, so find ways you can explore that at a deeper level during your college years.
Later, the evening shifted into “mythbusting” common college assumptions and theories with guest speaker Emily Roper-Doten, Dean of Admissions at Brandeis University. Mr. Sargent introduced her as a “leader in the field, a current enrollment management and admissions practitioner, and a genuine expert who’s gonna help us do some myth busting.”
She started off joking, “ Hey everybody, you should all know that this is the most fun and exciting junior college night I have been to, and I have been to a lot. So that is not a myth, right?” This aroused laughter from the crowd.
The common misconceptions they discussed included topics like whether colleges limit the number of students admitted from one high school, whether applying to more ‘reach’ schools (school’s where ones academic profile is below or at the lower end of the school’s typical admitted student range) increases your chances, whether campus visits are required, whether University of California schools (UCs) avoid independent school applicants, and whether selectivity reflects quality.
One of the rumors that was addressed is that colleges only take a certain number of students from one school. “The short answer is no,” Mr. Mills stated. Ms. Roper-Doten added that schools are “concerned with the students that we’re bringing in, not necessarily that we’re filling a particular number from a school.” Applications may be read within school groups for context, but students are not competing against classmates for fixed slots.
On the idea that applying to more selective schools boosts admission odds, Ms. Setzer compared it to “buying lottery tickets for a different lottery,” explaining that applying to ten schools with a 10% admit rate does not equal a guaranteed acceptance. Similarly, the belief that students must visit every college that they apply to was dismissed, with counselors pointing to virtual tours, information sessions, and local college fairs as meaningful alternatives. On this topic, Ms. Roper-Doten added, “If you’re gonna do a virtual campus tour, get to it from the college’s website. There are a lot of campus tours on YouTube that are not sanctioned by those institutions and may or may not have good information or up-to-date information.”
The misconception that UCs do not admit Bishop’s students was also directly challenged. Counselors shared data showing Bishop’s applicants to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California, Berkeley have, in recent years, been admitted at rates higher than the overall applicant pool. Mr. Sargent shared, “In the last five years, the acceptance rate of bishop’s applicants to UCLA 16%. The acceptance rate at UCLA is 9%. At Berkeley, our applicants have gotten in about 19% of the time; overall, the applicant pool gets in about 11% of the time.” However, there are other UCs where this pattern does not always stay true. Mr. Sargent said, “[UC] San Diego has an acceptance rate of 28%. Our applicants get in about 22% of the time.”
The panel also pushed back on the idea that selectivity equals quality, reminding families that rankings rely on limited metrics and that the college counseling department’s view of “ quality” is “the fit of that school for you,” explained Mr. Jezierski.
After the mythbusting activity, Ms. Setzer urged students to “trust the process. I know it’s a little cliche, it’s hard to do with everything else going on, but we really do want you to find that next educational home that is going to serve you in the way that, hopefully, Bishop’s has.”
Families who couldn’t attend can expect the same takeaway that the counselors repeated throughout the night. The goal isn’t to “win” college admissions, but instead it’s to build an honest and manageable process that leads to a place that truly is the right fit for you
Mr. Sargent ended the night pumped up with: “ Class of 2027, Let’s do this thing!”
