About the Role
The College Advisor is a member of the College Advising Department. The College Advisor will organize, consult, and advise students in a comprehensive college selection program that supports and encourages all students to live up to their academic, personal-social, and career development potential.
The College Advisor is a 10-month position that is a direct report to the College Advising Department Chair at St. Xavier High School.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Educating students and parents about colleges, the college admissions process, financial aid, scholarships, trends, procedures, and testing; advising and supporting an assigned student portfolio of seniors and juniors and their families as they go through the process; providing general advisement to sophomore and freshman students via workshops, and helping students and families aspire realistically and choose wisely.
Meeting with juniors and seniors, individually and in small groups, to discuss process and individual college choices.
Meeting with college admissions representatives who visit St. Xavier and facilitating meetings between representative and students. The College Advisor also serves as a liaison to college admissions offices throughout the year, including traveling to visit college campuses and serving on Advisory Boards.
Gathering and analyzing data related to course offerings, grade distributions, and college admissions trends to support program evaluation and decision-making.
Working with the Registrar to maintain records of students, including grade point averages and transcripts.
Writing an official school recommendation for each senior. To do so, the Advisor gathers information from parents, faculty and staff, school records, and students themselves. The College Advisor also completes all report forms requested by colleges, including evaluations of students.
Plans and delivers evening informational sessions for parents and collaborates on the design and implementation of school-day programming that engages students across all grade levels.
Assist junior students with the senior course schedule request process.
Being aware of trends in college admission, higher education, testing, as well as keeping up-to-date about specific colleges and maintaining membership in professional organizations: the College Board, the National Association of College Admission Counselors, Ohio Association of College Admission Counselors and Jesuit High School College Counselors Association.
Maintaining and disseminating information about standardized tests and helping to administer the perfecting of standardized exams.
Skills and Other Required Competencies:
Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills
Strong command of technology use skills; familiarity with college planning software, especially Scoir
Familiarity with the goals, objectives, and mission of an independent college preparatory school
The ability to respond effectively to the needs of a diverse and demanding student and parent population
Knowledge of colleges, their academic programs, admission policies, and financial policies and procedures.
Necessary skills include excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong organizational ability and the ability to meet deadlines.
Requirements
Five years’ experience in college admissions or high school college advising is preferred. A Bachelor’s Degree is required, Master’s Degree preferred.
St. Xavier High School, founded in 1831 and the oldest high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, is an all-male Catholic college preparatory school sponsored by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). With an enrollment of about 1400 young men from 3 states and more than 100 grade schools, St. Xavier takes pride in having educated more than 21,000 living alumni in the Jesuit tradition.