Building Strong University Pathways for Every WAB Student

WAB's High School Counseling team regularly conduct university visits each school year to meet with admissions representatives, explore campuses, and ask the questions students want to ask: What does this university offer in the subjects I want to study? What kind of student thrives here? What opportunities exist beyond the classroom? 

Just as importantly, our counselors introduce universities to WAB: who we are, the academic learning our students undertake, and the wider experiences, competencies and perspectives they bring. 

"When we visit a campus, we have a vision of the student on that campus," says Counselor Michelle. "We're picturing who would be a good fit and we do that with more confidence if we've been there ourselves." 

Building University Knowledge Around Our Students

In June, our counselors visited five universities in South Korea: Yonsei University, Seoul National University, KAIST, Ewha University, Sogang University. As WAB students consider an increasingly diverse range of university pathways across Asia and around the world, the team has also visited NYU Shanghai, Westlake University in Hangzhou, and universities across Hong Kong and Beijing, alongside visits to the US, UK, Netherlands and Qatar, to name a few. 

Each visit builds the team's first-hand knowledge of different universities, academic programs and admissions processes. Combined with how well counselors know individual WAB students, their academic strengths, interests, aspirations and experiences, this allows them to give families informed, individualized guidance about where each student might thrive and be appropriately challenged. 

The travel runs both ways. Between 60 and 80 universities visit WAB each year to meet our students, while our counselors also contribute to international university counseling conferences, including International ACAC each July and the CIS University Forum in Europe. 

Together, these connections keep the counseling team closely informed about changing admissions expectations, emerging university pathways and what institutions around the world are looking for in applicants. 

"These relationships help because at any given time, we can write to a university rep and ask them to take another look at an application. We advocate for our students inside school and outside school. That's our job." Michelle Chow-Liu, HS Counselor 

University Admissions Series for Students and Parents 

To further support students and families this year, the counseling team is offering a university admissions education series, with visiting university representatives leading sessions on application systems, timelines, requirements and different approaches to admissions around the world. You can find the full calendar of university visits and sessions on the HS Counselor's Corner page, or on MaiaLearning via the WAB website under Parent Link.