A College Visit for High School Counselors

Second year medical student Sara Buhmaid talks with high school
counselors as part of a panel of students from each Education City
campus.

It was off to college for a day Wednesday for 25 high school counselors from the Gulf Region and other countries as Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and its partner universities in Education City showcased their campus, residence halls and other facilities.

“We highlight for counselors the educational opportunities available in Education City,” says Noha Saleh, director of student recruitment. “We want to make it easy for them to talk to their students about WCMC-Q and the other universities here.”

Counselors from the Gulf countries and from Jordan and Palestine were joined for the first time by counselors from Turkey and India who were in Doha for the Model United Nations sponsored by Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. During the day-long event sponsored by Qatar Foundation, the counselors visited the different university buildings for information sessions on the colleges’ courses of study, admissions process and requirements, financial aid and scholarships, and student life.

“We wanted the counselors to hear about the academic experience and student life in Education City from our students and from our faculty,” said Saleh, who moderated a panel discussion by Education City faculty members.

Counselors also heard concrete suggestions about the application process during a panel discussion by admissions officials in Education City. “Our goal is to help the counselors understand how we look at all elements of a student’s application,” said Adrienne Gibbons, director of admissions who participated in the panel discussion of admissions case studies. “We also want to let the counselors know that we welcome visits from their students so they can see our facilities first hand.”

Assistant Dean for Student Affiars Marco Ameduri, PhD, represents
WCMC-Q in a panel of faculty members from across Education City.

“Education City has been in existence for only a little over a decade, and it is setting the standard for higher education worldwide,” Qatar Foundation Vice President for Faculty and Student Services Dennis Roberts told the counselors during an introductory presentation.

“Testing for admission to university wasn’t common in the region,” Roberts said, so Education City offers a full array of standardized tests. “We want to cultivate the idea that it is not a problem to take the ACT or SAT multiple times,” he added.

“The idea of residence halls also is new to the Gulf, “ said Roberts. “We provide residence halls because part of our objective is cultivating students to be good community residents in sustainable living.”

“The buildings are amazing, and I like the lecture rooms,” said Dana Asaad Hinnawi, a counselor from Mashrek International School in Amman. “I especially like the fact that the classes are small, so students are not just a number. They have the opportunity to really interact with faculty.”

The visiting day for counselors is part of on-going student recruitment activities sponsored by the universities in Education City and Qatar Foundation. A similar event was held last fall for counselors from schools throughout Qatar.

Report by Kristina Goodnough