University Placement Support

Challenges and Problems

Many times, getting accepted into a prestigious university requires years of committed planning and preparation. Planning for university can be a very stressful experience for the great majority of students and parents who are applying to institutions for the first time. This is due to the fact they often do not have the expertise and up-to-date knowledge necessary to make educated judgments. As they prepare to enter their final year of high school, students often find the process challenging and stressful due to the balancing of their coursework, extracurricular activities, and university applications.

As a university-style high school, we recognize these difficulties encountered by our students and parents and we offer them support during these challenging times.

University Placement Meetings and Customized University Placement Plan

Two of the greatest challenges confronted by students and parents when it comes to university placement are suitability and misconception.

Students and parents often have pre-assumptions about certain schools or majors, but at the same time, they remain uncertain whether the schools or majors they desire are the best choice for a particular student’s future development. 

Students and parents may lack awareness about various schools and programs, sometimes even being unaware of the existence of certain schools or programs that could be highly suitable for a student’s academic and career goals. Additionally, they often do not have sufficient information about important details, such as a university’s entrance requirements, the correct timeline for completing specific academic subjects, and strategies to enhance a student’s competitiveness among other applicants.

In order to address these issues, our school’s experienced academic counsellors lead one or two frequent University Placement Meetings for parents each semester. These meetings are also referred to as counsellor-parents’ meetings, and students are welcome to attend. Our counsellors carefully consider the desires and worries of the attendees during these sessions before developing a Customized University Placement Plan (CUPP) for every student. Parents and students should use this opportunity to ask questions and express any concerns.

The CUPP is a dedicated, individualized plan that summarizes a student’s university planning strategy, incorporating topics like course planning, university placement timeline, goals, and objectives to fulfill at different stages of the timeline, as well as suggestions for extracurricular activities that can strengthen a student’s supplemental portfolio by becoming more engaged within and outside of the school community. The CUPP also provides suggestions on student housing, scholarship opportunities and university life in general.

Our University Placement Meetings begin soon after students receive their first interim report card and continue right up until they graduate, often when students receiving multiple university offers seek for our counsellors’ final piece of advice regarding the school or program they should enter. The CUPP is first designed during the first two University Placement Meetings and it continues to be updated throughout a student’s course of study at St. Regis.