Lead / Create / Contribute
235 Hope Road, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724  /  732.542.4777

More Stories

List of 10 news stories.

My College Journey, A Junior’s Perspective by Tessa Payer, Class of 2016

College. At the end of my sophomore year, I had a lot of feelings attached to this word; worry about the future and stress due to the pressure of the decision, to name a few. This one word conjured up images of SAT booklets, endless research on schools, and the writing of persuasive emails and letters. All I could think of when hearing the “college” word was having to grow up and make big decisions that would affect my entire future, and I was pretty freaked. In school, we began to have meetings with the College Guidance Office that spoke on how to choose the right classes for the rest of high school and what was important to college admissions officers. Even though I knew that Ms. Myra Simpson and Mr. Adam Materasso, the Co-Directors of the College Guidance Office, weren’t scary—having known them since Middle School, I was still terrified by the whole college process and the work that it would entail.

My outlook on the process began to change over the summer, thanks to my mother. She’s the sort of person who likes to plan everything in advance and start early; I can’t thank her enough for encouraging me to take this approach with my college search. My junior year, now almost half-way through, is a packed one and I wasn’t sure how I could continue to participate in all the college-related activities I had engaged in over the summer, such as attending open houses, info sessions and campus tours.

When my mother, noticing my love of history, suggested I research colleges near historical areas to get things started, I was happy to come across William and Mary, located right in Williamsburg, VA, and known for Colonial Williamsburg. I immediately fell in love because I have been a volunteer at Allaire Village since 9th grade, where I recreate life in the 1830s in costume. However, knowing that I couldn’t put all my eggs in one basket, I set out to explore other schools in historical areas—and suddenly, the college search process became fun. I could look up historical areas, find schools next to them, and then picture myself in those areas, spending four happy years. Of course, the area surrounding a school isn’t my only priority for choosing a school—this is where Ranney’s College Guidance Office came in.

I have had a lot of help from Mr. Materasso and Ms. Simpson already through in-person discussions and several Q&A sessions. For example, I have approached Mr. Materasso many times to tell him about the schools I’d been thinking about, and he’s readily given me his opinion on the school as well as important details that I hadn’t picked up at the college’s informational session or from the website. Thanks to the College Guidance team, I also got started early on Naviance as recommended by Ranney. The online platform aims to connect academic achievement to post-secondary goals and the site’s advanced search tools have helped me to look for more colleges.

I also took the quintessential “college road trip” this past summer, starting in Baltimore, heading south and wrapping back to North Carolina. The week-long experience was wonderful. Besides looking at colleges and asking “all the right questions” based on advice from Mr. Materasso and Ms. Simpson, I got to spend more time with my family and have important discussions about the future, job opportunities and so forth—all this between loud sing-alongs to the soundtrack of Les Miserables and the typical bickering that comes with long car drives. All in all, I went on about six college tours. I took pictures of the scenery, buildings and basically everything, while my mother hurriedly scrawled down notes in her trusty notepad and my father asked questions of the tour guides. We braved all sorts of conditions; cicadas dive-bombed us at one school and we sweated in the heat at another. Some schools even gave us free ice cream and lunch, much to the delight of myself and my father.

This year, on the Ranney junior retreat, I also got to visit two colleges. It was a different experience with my classmates versus being with my parents, but I still enjoyed the trip very much. Another college trip is being hosted by the College Guidance Office in the spring of 2015, which I look forward to attending. I think it will be an excellent opportunity not only to see some great schools but also to bond with Mr. Materasso and Ms. Simpson.

During my junior year, thus far, I have realized that the college process isn’t so scary; it can actually be a fun, enjoyable experience. Even though I was, and still am, nervous about the road ahead, I’ve got a whole year to continue brainstorming and I’ve got all the support I could ask for; between the College Guidance Office and my parents, I think I’m set.

Junior Tessa Payer, who began attending Ranney in 2001 as an age-3 Beginner, will be writing about her colleg
Back

Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.