Darien High counseling office summarizes Class of 2025 postsecondary plans and services

Kathy Oster, director of counseling at Darien High School, told the Darien Board of Education on Sept. 9 that the district’s counseling office continued to provide extensive college- and career-planning services for the Class of 2025.

Oster said the counseling office submitted materials for roughly 3,850 college applications on behalf of students to 326 institutions and that the office processed 2,914 completed applications this cycle — an average of about eight applications per student. She also reported that 181 students provided standardized test scores with their applications, a slight increase from prior years.

The presentation emphasized the counseling staff’s experience and outreach. Oster said the school counseling team and administrative assistants have “over a hundred and 65 years of experience in education,” and that about 200 college admissions representatives visit Darien High School each year. She described the department’s program as an “award winning comprehensive school counseling program” that includes small-group meetings for students and individualized junior planning meetings for families.

Board members pressed for measures of postsecondary success after students matriculate. Dennis (board member) asked whether the district can track how many students remain at their first-choice college through the first year. Oster said the district is exploring Naviance’s alumni-tracker features and that staff are “working on that” and “might be able to get that this year.”

Oster and other presenters noted patterns in intended majors and program types. The largest declared category was business/finance/economics, followed by engineering and clustered science majors; a sizable share of students begin college “exploring” rather than declaring a major, the presentation showed. Oster also noted smaller numbers pursuing military academies and a range of vocational or technical programs such as barbering, mechanics and electrical trades.

Board members asked for future reporting refinements. Several asked that the district (1) avoid singling out Ivy League institutions in summary reporting, instead reporting schools by category or as other peer-groupings; (2) return data on geographic patterns and public-versus-private trends; and (3) include alumni retention/transfer metrics if Naviance can provide reliable alumni tracking. Superintendent-level staff said they will work with high school staff to return more-detailed trend reporting next year.

The presentation concluded with board appreciation for the counseling staff and a request to incorporate the additional trend and alumni-tracking metrics into future reports.