College Counseling and Advocacy

As a result of their hard work and diligence, the 109 St. Joseph Hill Academy graduates of the Class of 2024 were accepted into 219 universities and colleges throughout the United States. They are attending colleges in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware. Others will be traveling to Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Virginia for college. And some will be venturing much further away to Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Thirteen members of this class made commitments to accelerated master’s and doctorate programs in various fields of study, including Business, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, Physician Assistant Studies, and Physical Therapy. Seventeen members of this class will also be participating in Honors and Scholars programs.

This year was also a wonderful year for our athletes. One student in the class accepted an NCAA Division I scholarship in Track, another accepted a Division II scholarship in Bowling and two others made commitments to participate in Division III softball, and Varsity Cheerleading at the Division I level.

Finally, this year’s class of 109 gifted women amassed academic scholarship monies exceeding $54.3 million dollars. The scholarships earned by these talented young women are so essential in this challenging economic environment when the cost of some private universities has risen above the $85,000 per year mark.

We offer personalized student and family college guidance in junior year.  All students are programmed for College Guidance where they work on career searches/development, college resume writing, essay preparation; they also receive training on Naviance and other college admissions platforms.  In addition, the College Counseling team meets with each student (with their parents) to offer advice concerning college selections, visits, interviews, and optimum standardized testing schedules.  Special scholarships (ethnic, financial, service, athletic, music, theatre, and art), enrichment and pre-college programs are identified early for each student. 

More than 60 colleges visit our campus in the fall to meet with our students individually, not in a college fair setting.  They range in competitiveness and geographical distance (University of Notre Dame (IN), University of Miami, High Point University (NC), American University (DC), University of Maryland (College Park), Boston University (MA), Providence College (RI), and numerous colleges from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.  Most of the visitors are the decision-makers for these colleges (the representatives who will read our applications) and they often remark how poised and well-prepared our students are during these sessions—typically Hill.  The Jesuit Academic Excellence Tour visits Hill every spring and provides a college fair to our students.   

The College Counseling team personally advises each student based upon her individual profile and no preferential treatment is given to a student on the basis of GPA.  The team advocates for each Hill senior equally throughout the process.  In senior year, all students are also programmed for College Guidance to aid them with individual questions during the college application process.

We host a financial aid seminar for all senior students and the College Counseling team distributes detailed scholarship information to the senior students throughout the year.  Advocacy in pursuing scholarships for our students yields great results for our students. 

In the past four years, every senior received academic merit scholarship, and the total figures for each class were:

• Class of 2020—119 graduates—$42.3 million dollars,
• Class of 2021—141 graduates—$59.2 million dollars,
• Class of 2022—99 graduates—$34.7 million dollars,
• Class of 2023—103 graduates—$39.7 million dollars
• Class of 2024—109 graduates—$54.3 million dollars

Kerry S. Sullivan ‘81, Director of College Counseling