College Counseling

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Our College Counseling Promise:

Sacramento Country Day School provides unparalleled one-to-one college counseling to each student in our High School.

Our individualized approach matched with Country Day’s respected academic preparation, makes us a “known quantity” across the country. Selective colleges know that Country Day graduates are well-prepared to succeed in college and beyond.

Our college counseling program inspires our students to take ownership over their abundance of opportunities in the classroom, around campus, and in the greater community. With our intentionally small class sizes, our college counselor provides personal attention to students, encouraging them to engage their creativity, critical thinking, and compassion to identify the colleges that meet their needs, match their values, and provide a myriad of opportunities to pursue their aspirations.

Our unique and mission-centered approach leads to an extraordinary record of college placement. By focusing on the individual student, we intentionally counter societal pressure to pursue external markers of “success” and instead focus on each student’s authentic passions and goals.

Being College Ready

College Acceptances
2021-2025

Gallery of Graduates

Alicia Perla

Director of College Counseling

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The Road to College Starts Here

At Country Day, the college counseling journey begins well before senior year. Through grade-level programming that begins in middle school and spans all four years of high school, students receive timely guidance, personalized support, and opportunities to explore what lies ahead. Learn more about the plan for each year.

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Colleges on Campus

Every fall, 30 to 40 colleges and universities from across the United States and abroad visit Country Day, actively recruiting our students. This gives all of our students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with colleges and universities, meet the admission officers for our region, and understand the unique values of each institution.

Gap Years—Why? What? How?

A possibility for all students exists to take a year between high school and college, known as a “gap year,” to explore, travel, work, and grow. We provide resources to families seeking this opportunity.

Another option, frequently due to the financial benefits, is for students to attend 2-year community colleges and transfer to the University of California or California State University systems.

Get to Know Us

What sets Country Day’s college counseling program apart from others in Sacramento?

With small class sizes, Ms. Perla is able to know students very well by the time they apply to college. She meets one-on-one and in college counseling classes, throughout the junior and senior years, educating students about colleges, helping compile college lists, reading applications and essays, and writing personalized recommendation letters, among other things. She wants students to have multiple options they are excited about when it comes time to choose a college. With close guidance, one hundred percent of our graduates who apply are accepted to four-year institutions of higher learning.

Beyond getting into great colleges, how does your program help students discover the right fit and path for their future?

While the “formal” college counseling program begins in junior year, the “informal” program begins when students start high school. Ms. Perla regularly meets with students at every grade level, helping them choose classes, connecting them with students and groups on campus based on their interests, and suggesting extracurricular activities that would help them further explore those interests.

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