University and Careers 

Counselling

ISNS's University and Careers Counsellors(UCC) are vital mentors for both students and their families when it comes to planning for their post-secondary education. These counsellors provide comprehensive assistance to students in navigating the challenging and demanding process of applying to universities worldwide. They assess students' personality traits and career interests, compile transcripts and letters of recommendation, and collaborate with each student to create a customized path through high school and into their best-fit university. 

ISNS's counselling process begins early, with students in grade 6, and continues until grade 11, which provides an in-depth understanding of their strengths, interests, and hobbies, leading to better guidance and support for their future plans. 

What UCC is working on before the university application stage

From grade 6 to grade 8 we are working with the students during the MYP hours. It's roughly like six hours per year and from grade 9 to 10 we do monthly meetings with the students. When it gets to DP, from grade 11 to grade 12, we are working with them more and more.

For students in Grades 6 to 8, we focus on developing their interests, personality traits, strengths, and hobbies. This is an exploration of what they enjoy and where their passions lie.  

In Grades 9 and 10, we focus more on the academic potential of students, their interests, strengths and hobbies, and how they can be combined to form a pathway to university. We further investigate the requirements for university programs, as well as what DP or high school courses students need to meet all of the requirements. 

Tailored lessons from G6 helping students to identify their career path

It is actually hard for the students and maybe for parents as well to identify what they really want to study at university when they are in grade 6 to 8. So during the class we are more working on their personality interests, the career profiles. We are using UniFrog and also before we were using BridgeU to introduce certain kinds of quiz for students for their references. For example, their personality type and possible career path. The quizzes like that can help students get a general idea of what might fit you. 

Since grade 9, the focus has shifted to career pathways.  

• What do students want to achieve in the future?  

• How does everything we’ve done in the past work?  

• Learning about skills; strengths; interests; academics;  

• how do these skills and interests relate to different careers? 

Then, in grade 10, we’re looking at those careers, university programs, and making sure they’re on the right track to achieving their goals. They’re really focused on university prerequisites for their program courses and picking their DP courses during grade 10.  

Typically, we’ll have a Parents’ Workshop to inform parents about the application process. We’ll have one for the end of grade 10 and the start of grade 11, and we’ll also have more one-on-one family sessions when they’re entering their second half of grade 11 and in grade 12. 

All the preparation documents will be initiated and finished on one drive. This is a shared drive only for the counselors and students just to make sure all the work the students produce is authentic. The counselors usually need to sign the recommendation letters to universities to make sure all the application documents are authentic. 

One of our key points at ISNS is academic integrity. We believe the students are capable of doing their own work; they're capable of doing it to a university level standard. We follow the same process with UCC and their university applications. So when they're writing their essays; when they're preparing their resumes, everything is held to that stained level or the same standard of academic integrity. 

At the beginning of grade 11, one of the things that we do with parents and with students is sign a UCC contract. Within that it provides parents with a complete outline of everything we do; an overview of all of our policies around confidentiality. Making sure that official school documents like predicted grade reports, transcripts, letters of reference, those things go directly from UCC to the university the students are applying to. 

Strong Reputation and Trusted Relationships with Universities 

around the world