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
Institutions in boldface denote attendance by at least one member of the Class of 2024. Numbers in parentheses indicate how many Northwest graduates (2020-2024) attend each school; no number indicates just one graduate in attendance.
| American University (2) | Art Center College of Design | Bard College (2) |
| Barnard College (2) | Bates College | Bellevue College |
| Belmont University (2) | Beloit College | Bentley University (3) |
| Berklee College of Music | Boston College (2) | Boston University (2) |
| Bowdoin College (2) | Brown University | Bryn Mawr College (3) |
| California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo | Carleton College (6) | Carnegie Mellon University (4) |
| Case Western Reserve University (2) | Central Washington University | Champlain College |
| Chapman University (4) | Claremont McKenna College (3) | Colorado State University (Fort Collins) (2) |
| Connecticut College | Cornell University (3) | Culinary Institute of America |
| Dartmouth College | DigiPen Institute of Technology (2) | Duke University |
| Eckerd College (2) | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott | Emerson College |
| Emory University (4) | Fordham University | George Washington University (2) |
| Georgetown University | Goldsmiths, University of London | Gonzaga University |
| Hamilton College | Haverford College (2) | Hawai'i Pacific University |
| Howard University | Kalamazoo College | Kenyon College (2) |
| Lawrence University | Lehigh University | Lewis & Clark College (4) |
| Loyola Marymount University (5) | Loyola University Chicago | Loyola University New Orleans |
| Macalester College (4) | Marymount Manhattan College | McDaniel College |
| McGill University (2) | Middlebury College (4) | Millsaps College |
| Montana State University | Mount Holyoke College (2) | Muhlenberg College (2) |
| New York University (13) | Northeastern University (4) | Northwestern University |
| Oberlin College (3) | Occidental College (14) | Oregon State University (4) |
| Otis College of Art and Design | Oxford College of Emory University (2) | Parsons School of Design at The New School (2) |
| Pepperdine University | Pitzer College (11) | Pomona College (5) |
| Pratt Institute | Princeton University | Purdue University (Main Campus) (2) |
| Reed College (2) | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Rhode Island School of Design |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | Saint Louis University, Madrid | Saint Mary's College of California |
| San Diego State University | Santa Clara University (10) | Savannah College of Art and Design |
| School of Visual Arts | Sciences Po Paris | Scripps College (5) |
| Seattle University (9) | Skidmore College (2) | St. Olaf College |
| Stanford University | Swarthmore College (2) | Syracuse University (2) |
| Temple University | The New School (7) | The Ohio State University |
| The University of Edinburgh | The University of Texas at Austin (2) | Trinity College Dublin (2) |
| Tufts University (5) | Tulane University of Louisiana | Union College (2) |
| United States Naval Academy | University College Dublin (2) | University of Arizona |
| University of British Columbia (3) | University of California, Berkeley | University of California, Davis (3) |
| University of California, Irvine (5) | University of California, Los Angeles (3) | University of California, Riverside (2) |
| University of California, San Diego (9) | University of California, Santa Cruz (3) | University of Chicago |
| University of Colorado Boulder (4) | University of Denver | University of Hawaii at Manoa |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (3) | University of Maryland, College Park | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| University of Miami | University of New Haven | University of Notre Dame |
| University of Oregon (4) | University of Portland | University of Puget Sound |
| University of Puget Sound (2) | University of Richmond (2) | University of San Diego |
| University of San Francisco (2) | University of Southern California (9) | University of St Andrews |
| University of Toronto (2) | University of Vermont | University of Virginia |
| University of Washington Bothell (2) | University of Washington (30) | University of Wisconsin-Madison (2) |
| University of Wyoming | Vanderbilt University (2) | Vassar College (8) |
| Villanova University | Washington University in St. Louis (2) | Wellesley College |
| Wesleyan University (4) | Western Washington University (5) | Whitman College (12) |
| Willamette University (5) | Williams College (2) | Worcester Polytechnic Institute |