College Counseling
Chart Your Own Course
Northwest empowers you to forge your own direction—here, in college, and throughout your life.
Our college counseling team will work with you to find the right college fit and will support and guide you throughout the application process.
We cannot wait to see you join the ranks of Northwest graduates pursuing their passions and making an impact in communities and industries across the world.
Empowering You Along the Way
Our programming is informed by counselors’ 40+ years of combined experience in the field. You’ll benefit from their relationships with college admission representatives and their deep knowledge of selective university admissions, trends within higher education, and student development.
Our College Counseling Program
Grades 9 and 10
Northwest’s advisory program prepares you for success – today and in the years to come.
Northwest’s advisory program prepares you for success – today and in the years to come. In grades 9 and 10 you will meet weekly with your academic advisor to focus on academic skill development, goal setting, self-awareness, and more. These skills and ways of thinking will be essential for direct engagement with College Counseling.
College Counseling works behind-the-scenes until the spring of 10th grade. Then, you will:
- Learn about the college counseling process at College Preview, an annual information night.
- Take the PreACT, a practice college admissions exam.
Direct and ongoing work with College Counseling begins. In grade 11 you will:
- Meet with college counselors and fellow students to explore your interests and to understand the vast offerings within higher education.
- Interact with some of the 100+ college admissions representatives who visit Northwest’s campus each year.
Take the PSAT, a practice college admissions exam.
- Meet individually with a primary college counselor. You, your counselor, and your parents/ guardians will work as a team in support of your goals.
- Refine your sense of what’s important, who you are, and where you want to go.
- Enroll in College Counseling 11, a College Counseling class that meets bi-weekly from January through May, covering topics such as college research, interviews, and essays.
- Attend college fairs, an admissions case study, and workshops on financial aid, college research, and more.
Your counselor will support you to look forward and to stay present. In grade 12 you will:
- Attend College Jumpstart in August. There, Humanities faculty, college counselors, and college admissions representatives will provide feedback on your application materials.
- Check-in with your primary counselor regularly throughout the fall to finalize your applications list and refine application materials.
- Enroll in College Counseling 12, a College Counseling class that meets bi-weekly from September through November, supporting your individualized application process.
- Learn about financial aid and scholarship opportunities and the ingredients for a successful transition to college.
College Destinations
Class of 2023
| American University | Santa Clara University |
| Barnard College | Scripps College |
| Bowdoin College | Seattle University |
| Brown University | Skidmore College |
| Bryn Mawr College | Syracuse University |
| California Polytechnic University (San Luis Obispo) | The New School |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Trinity College Dublin |
| Case Western Reserve University | Tufts University |
| Cornell University | University of California (San Diego) |
| Culinary Institute of America | University of California (Santa Cruz) |
| Eckerd College | University of Colorado Boulder |
| Kalamazoo College | University of Denver |
| Lehigh University | University of Illinois |
| Lewis & Clark College | University of New Haven |
| Macalester College | University of Oregon |
| Mount Holyoke College | University of San Francisco |
| New York University | University of Southern California |
| Northeastern University | University of Vermont |
| Oberlin College | University of Massachusetts (Amherst) |
| Occidental College | University of Washington |
| Oxford College of Emory University | Vassar College |
| Pitzer College | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Pomona College | Wellesley College |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | Western Washington University |
| Saint Louis University, Madrid | Whitman College |
Classes 2018 - 2022
| American University | Macalester College (4) | University of Arizona |
| Amherst College | Marymount Manhattan College | University of British Columbia (3) |
| Bard College (2) | McDaniel College | University of California, Davis |
| Barnard College (2) | McGill University (2) | University of California, Irvine (5) |
| Bates College | Middlebury College (3) | University of California - Los Angeles (4) |
| Bellevue College | Millsaps College | University of California - Riverside |
| Belmont University | Mount Holyoke College | University of California - San Diego (4) |
| Bentley University (2) | Muhlenberg College (2) | University of California - Santa Cruz (4) |
| Berklee College of Music | New York University - Shanghai | University of Chicago |
| Boston College (2) | New York University (14) | University of Colorado - Boulder (5) |
| Boston University (3) | Northeastern University (3) | University of Hawaii at Manoa |
| Bowdoin College (2) | Oberlin College (3) | University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign (3) |
| Bryn Mawr College (4) | Occidental College (16) | University of Maryland - College Park |
| Carleton College (6) | Oregon State University (4) | University of Massachusetts - Amherst (2) |
| Carnegie Mellon University (2) | Otis College of Art and Design | University of Miami |
| Case Western Reserve University (2) | Pacific University | University of Minnesota - Morris |
| Central Washington University | Parsons School of Design at The New School (2) | University of Minnesota - Twin Cities |
| Champlain College | Pitzer College (15) | University of Notre Dame |
| Chapman University (10) | Pomona College (6) | University of Oregon (2) |
| Claremont McKenna College (4) | Pratt Institute | University of Portland |
| Colorado College (7) | Princeton University | University of Puget Sound (4) |
| Colorado State University - Fort Collins | Purdue University - Main Campus (2) | University of Redlands (3) |
| Columbia University | Reed College (2) | University of Richmond (2) |
| Connecticut College | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | University of San Diego |
| Cornell University (4) | Rhode Island School of Design | University of San Francisco (3) |
| Dartmouth College (2) | Rutgers University - New Brunswick | University of Southern California (5) |
| DigiPen Institute of Technology | Saint Mary's College of California (2) | University of St Andrews |
| Duke University | San Diego City College | University of Sydney |
| Eckerd College | Santa Clara University (11) | University of Toronto |
| Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (AZ) | School of the Art Institute of Chicago | University of Toronto -Mississauga |
| Emerson College | School of Visual Arts | University of Vermont |
| Emory University (3) | Scripps College (8) | University of Victoria (4) |
| George Washington University (3) | Seattle University (9) | University of Virginia |
| Georgetown University | Smith College (4) | University of Washington - Seattle (28) |
| Gonzaga University (3) | St. John's University (NY) | University of Washington -Bothell (2) |
| Grinnell College | St. Olaf College (3) | University of Wisconsin - Madison (2) |
| Harvey Mudd College | Stanford University (2) | Vassar College (5) |
| Haverford College (3) | Swarthmore College (2) | Villanova University |
| Howard University | Syracuse University (4) | Washington State University |
| Kenyon College (4) | Temple University | Washington University in St. Louis (2) |
| Lawrence University | The College of William and Mary | Wesleyan University (4) |
| Lehigh University | The New School (10) | Western Washington University (12) |
| Lewis & Clark College (9) | The University of Edinburgh | Whitman College (15) |
| Loyola Marymount University (5) | The University of Texas - Austin (2) | Whitworth University |
| Loyola University Chicago | Tufts University (5) | Willamette University (5) |
| Loyola University New Orleans (2) | Tulane University of Louisiana (2) | Williams College (2) |
| United States Naval Academy | Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2) |