Life Planning & College Counseling
What is Life Planning?
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
2022-23 Vistamar School Profile
2023-23 Curriculum Guide
Class of 2023 College Report
SCOIR
College Representative Resources
Life Planning is a comprehensive advising program that asks students during their high school years to consider what matters to them, what skills, talents and values they are developing, and how they would like to live and work in the future. Just as our curriculum and staffulty prepare Vistamar students for both the joys and challenges of higher education and the world, our Life Planning and College Counseling program offers advising that enhances important personal, emotional and professional growth for students.
Life Planners are assigned in the fall of 9th grade, once their Advisor has helped them adjust to life at Vistamar. Life Planners work with students across all grade levels to help them:
engage in self-reflection
plan their academic trajectory
investigate career paths through research
understand the college admission landscape
prepare for interviews
pursue life-changing experiences (jobs, volunteering, summer programs, and internships)
This exploration leads students to become self-directed and authentic candidates for post-secondary education or alternative pathways, and puts college choice into a larger context. Life Planners also provide a full range of college counseling services. The Life Planning team works extensively with parents/guardians throughout the process so they can support their own student’s efforts, and bring expertise about the world of work to our advising activities. The big question students will examine: How will their high school and post-Vistamar education support pursuit of a life that includes meaningful work, significant relationships, and commitment to community issues, local and global?
Meet the Life Planners
Director
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Associate
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Associate
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Signature Offerings:
12th Grade Summer Application Workshop
12th Grade Parent/Guardian Life Planning Night
12th Grade College Application Seminar (G-Block)
11th Grade Family College List Case Study Night
11th Grade College Admission Seminar (G-Block)
10th Grade Family Application Case Study Night
9th Grade Family Life Planning Night
Multicultural Student College Fair
Student and Parent/Guardian Alumni Panels
Class Meetings for 9-12th Grade
Individual and Family College Planning Meetings
1:1 Personal Statement and Essay Support
College Financial Planning Night
Standardized Testing Night
PSAT, Now What? by Revolution Prep
75-100 College Admission Reps Visiting Vistamar
College Talk with College Admission Officers
Summer Enrichment & GAP Year Fair
Specialized Workshops—Insider’s Guide to HBCUs, Exploring International Universities,
SAT and ACT Practice Testing
Academic Advising
Life Planning is multi-dimensional, and modifies as each student grows through the educational process. Vistamar’s Life Planners approach student advising sessions using relationship-based practices, and find ways to establish rapport and trust with each student. We rely heavily on developmental advising, and advising as teaching theories to help students understand processes; explore opportunities; build confidence; and continually challenge them to develop and grow as global citizens.
Appropriate to our mission, Life Planners begin working with students as early as 9th-grade through the academic advising process, grade-level programming, summer enrichment planning, and continue their partnership through graduation, and often beyond. Life Planners work as a team and collaborate regularly, so students and families benefit from our collective expertise and unique perspectives.
Life Planners are available to support you throughout your time at Vistamar School, guiding your academic experience and helping you flourish creatively as you prepare to transition to the world after graduation. They're here to help you:
Articulate your values and priorities
Select courses
Fulfill graduation requirements
Understand academic policies
Develop tools needed to plan productive summer experiences
Think about majors and potential career pathways
Connect substantively with staffulty in areas of interest to you
Locate the services available for first-generation-student support, services to meet academic needs, learning difference accommodations, health and wellness services, and more.
This innovative approach means students visit one office to embark on and complete their academic and college admission journey.
LIFE PLANNING & COLLEGE COUNSELING SERVICES
Students meet with life planners starting second trimester of 9th grade and partner together through graduation, although we will always remain connected. Leading up to that point, students work with their advisory instructor to ensure their coursework meets their individual needs.
Our Life Planning program offers a variety of opportunities for you and your student to learn about themselves, their “why,” and how to plan a purposeful life while at Vistamar.
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Each student's Life Planner is available to meet with your family to discuss your student’s academic interests, planning a productive summer, exploring academic enrichment opportunities, etc.
Since a student’s academic performance and learning experience are essential, Life Planners meet individually with every student across every grade to provide course selection advising that considers their present interests and long-term goals.
As students progress at Vistamar, Life Planners give comprehensive feedback on college admission applications, planning a GAP year, exploring unique pathways, and preparing for life after Vistamar.
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Starting in Trimester 3 of junior year and continuing through Trimester 1 of senior year, students attend a weekly G-Block seminar where they learn essential skills for becoming savvy college applicants. Time is dedicated to exploring colleges and universities, creating application accounts, establishing organizational systems, and receiving individualized support. The program helps students conduct sound research, make informed decisions using data-driven approaches, and develop as individuals along the way.
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In addition to Scoir, our college counseling platform, Life Planning On Demand is a comprehensive knowledge center designed exclusively for Vistamar families. It features tutorial videos, recorded Life Planning presentations, research guides, monthly checklists, and grade-specific resources to help you navigate your Vistamar academic experience, the college admission process, and to complement our one-on-one meetings.
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Our Life Planning program is designed to prepare students to start identifying and cultivating their interests through exploration, be it visual and performing arts, athletics, social activism, scholarly pursuits or entrepreneurship. The goal is to lean in, build community, and discover what they like to do so that those passions can give them purpose.
At these regular events, you’ll hear from keynote speakers, college admission representative, financial aid experts, and standardized testing gurus, as well as your Life Planners. Families will participate in interactive case study programs that give you a chance to evaluate 3 complete college applications alongside university admission representatives and analyze a real student’s college list before predicting the outcomes they actually received. We also give students a chance to understand the workload that comes with each application and how to prioritize their wellbeing throughout it all.
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Vistamar's Life Planners engage in continuous professional development to stay abreast of the latest information and trends in college admissions. As active members of prestigious organizations such as NACAC, WACAC, ACCIS, and NAIS, our team attends conferences, workshops, and webinars, ensuring they are well-equipped with cutting-edge knowledge. This commitment empowers our Life Planners to provide students and families with the most up-to-date guidance and support throughout the college admission process.
Additionally, we participate in counselor fly-in programs hosted by colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad, sharing our firsthand knowledge and experiences of campuses to better guide and inform our students and their families throughout the college admission process.
College + University Acceptances 2013 - 2023
Check out where Vistamar’s students were admitted and chose to attend!
Enrollments in bold.
American University
Arizona State University
Babson College
Bard College
Baylor University
Bellarmine University
Boise State University
Boston College
Boston University
Bowdoin College
Brandeis University
Brigham Young University, Provo
Brigham Young University, Idaho
Brown University
Bucknell University
Butler University
California Institute of Technology
California Institute of the Arts
California Lutheran University
California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo
California State University, Chico
California State University, Monterey Bay
California State University, Northridge
Carnegie Mellon University
Chapman University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of Charleston
Colorado College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
DePaul University
DePauw University
Drexel University
Elon University
Emerson College
Emory University
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
Fordham University
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Gettysburg College
Gonzaga University
Hampshire College
Harvard University
Haverford College
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hofstra University
Humboldt State University
Indiana University at Bloomington
Ithaca College
James Madison University
Kenyon College
Knox College
Lehigh University
Lewis & Clark College
London School of Economics
London School of EconomicsLoyola Marymount University
Maastricht University (NL)
Macalester College
Maryland Institute College of Art
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Miami University, Oxford
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
New York University
Northeastern University
Northern Arizona University
Occidental College
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University
Pepperdine University
Pratt Institute
Princeton University
Purdue University
Queen Mary University of London (UK)
Reed College
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rhodes College
Rochester Institute of Technology
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
Santa Clara University
Sarah Lawrence College
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle University
Sewanee: The University of the South
Skidmore College
Sonoma State University
Southern Methodist University
Stanford University
Suffolk University
Syracuse University
The American University of Paris (FR)
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art
The George Washington University
The New School
The University of Alabama
The University of Arizona
The University of Georgia
The University of Iowa
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Texas, Austin
Trinity College
Tulane University
United States Air Force Academy
United States Military Academy
United States Naval Academy
University College London
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Merced
University of California, San Diego
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Canterbury (NZ)
University of Chicago
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Edinburgh (UK)
University of Exeter (UK)
University of Florida
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Missouri Columbia
University of New Hampshire
University of Notre Dame
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Portland
University of Puget Sound
University of Reading (UK)
University of Redlands
University of Rhode Island
University of Richmond
University of San Diego
University of San Francisco
University of South Carolina
University of Southern California
University of St. Andrews (UK)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
University of the Pacific
University of Tulsa
University of Utah
University of Virginia
University of Washington, Seattle
University of Washington, Bothell
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Wyoming
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Villanova University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wesleyan University
Whitman College
Willamette University
Williams College
Woodbury University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University