Academics

College Counseling

The goal of the College Counseling Office is to support, inform and encourage students and their families as they navigate the exciting, complex and ever-changing process of college admissions.
Lawrenceville’s college counseling program is designed to be an extension of the overall education taking place in the classroom, in the Houses, on the athletic fields, and in each venue on-campus where active learning takes place. Lawrenceville’s college counselors offer the Lawrenceville community decades of professional experience both as secondary school counselors and as college admissions officers. This degree of experience from both sides of the admission process enables the counseling staff to provide valuable and timely advice to families as the process unfolds and to help students effectively present their abilities, talents, and experiences to the colleges. Over the course of their Lawrenceville careers, families and students receive information through Form specific newsletters, class-wide meetings, Parent Weekend programming, publications such as “The Underformer’s Guide to College Counseling" and other communications designed to maximize a student’s Lawrenceville Experience.  The College Counseling Office designs these materials to ensure that students and their families are well prepared to embrace the college counseling process in all its complexities when students are officially assigned to individual counselors in the middle of their Fourth Form year.
 
As Fourth Formers, students begin a series of college related standardized testing and launch a self-reflective process with their counselor in preparation for college research. Students visit colleges during spring and summer vacations, attend on-campus college fairs with over 100 colleges represented, and meet individually with college counselors to discuss their goals and aspirations. Students and their counselors work together to develop a list of college options for active research and consideration while keeping an eye on the realities of their college admissions prospects.
 
In the Fifth Form students work with their counselors to develop final lists with an eye for fit and selectivity balance and begin to focus on the final details of the application process. College admissions counselors visit the School to meet with groups of interested students and/or to conduct individual interviews during the fall term, while counselors work closely with Fifth Formers on their essays in order to refine their self-presentation. Counselors and students then work in concert through November and December to finalize a college list that comprehensively connects to students’ personal attributes, supports their intellectual endeavors, and provides them with exciting options for their undergraduate study.
 
When the college search concludes in the spring, Fifth Formers leave Lawrenceville with a sense of satisfaction for what they have accomplished, a healthy dose of enthusiasm for advanced study and community engagement in college, and the individual resources necessary to have a superlative experience in colleges and universities around the world.  

Colleges/Universities Attended by Five or More Graduates of the Classes of 2016, 2017, and 2018

Princeton University 34
New York University 28
Cornell University 22
University of Chicago 21
Georgetown University 21
University of Pennsylvania 19
Yale University 18
University of Virginia 18
Columbia University 16
Brown University 16
Boston College 14
Tufts University 13
Harvard University 12
Davidson College 12
University of Michigan 11
Vanderbilt University 11
University of Southern California 10
Duke University 10
Bucknell University 9
Colby College 9
Northeastern University 9
Trinity College 9
Southern Methodist University 9

Carnegie Mellon University 8 
Dartmouth College 8 
University of Richmond 9 
Lehigh University 7 
College of William and Mary 7
Northwestern University 6
Colgate University 6
Hamilton College - NY 6
Syracuse University 6
Villanova University 6
Boston University 6
The George Washington University 6
Washington and Lee University 6
Franklin & Marshall College 5
Haverford College 5
Lafayette College 5
Amherst College 5
Babson College 5
Bowdoin College 5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5
Middlebury College 5
Stanford University 5
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 5 University of St Andrews 5

Contact Information

List of 9 members.

College Representative Information

Parking

There is visitor parking available in back of the Mackenzie Administration Building.

What to Expect

  • Most visits are scheduled in half-hour time blocks
  • Our students are not permitted to miss class to visit with colleges
  • One of our counselors will meet with each college representative
  • If interested, interview days with potential applicants can be arranged

Visit Hours

As school policy prohibits students from missing class to meet with college representatives, we have organized our visit times during common free periods or periods which tend to have a higher number of students without a class. Given our daily schedule, the available 2018-19 dates fall between September 11 and October 26.
  • Monday: 9:45 -10:15 a.m. and 10:15 -10:45 a.m.
  • Tuesday: 9:45 -10:15 a.m. and 10:15 -10:45 a.m.
  • Wednesday: 8:30 - 9:00 a.m., 9:00 -9:30 a.m., 12:45 -1:15 p.m., and 1:15 -1:45 p.m.
  • Thursday: No Visits
  • Friday: 9:45 -10:15 a.m. and 10:15 -10:45 a.m.
All the counselors at Lawrenceville have worked in college admission so we know how complex travel planning can become, but we hope one of these visit times works for you this fall.

Direction to Campus

The College Counseling Office is located in the main Admissions/Administrative Building (Mackenzie) on the 2nd floor.

Other Schools in the Area

  • Hun School of Princeton - 8 minutes away
  • Lawrence High School - 5 minutes away
  • Notre Dame High School - 7 minutes away
  • Peddie School - 24 minutes away
  • Pennington School - 10 minutes away
  • Princeton Day School - 12 minutes away
  • Princeton High School - 12 minutes away
  • Stuart Country Day School - 13 minutes away
  • West Windsor High School - 13 minutes away
Through House and Harkness, Lawrenceville challenges a diverse community of promising young people to lead lives of learning, integrity, and high purpose.  Our mission is to inspire the best in each to seek the best for all.