Guidance and College Counseling

Guidance

The Guidance department plays an active role in the course selection process by assisting students, advisors, and parents. There is a direct relationship between a student’s course sequence throughout high school and their post-secondary options, and we recognize the importance of course selection and long-range academic planning.

 

In addition to academic counseling, the Guidance Department offers a variety of services to assist students in reaching their full potential. Personal counseling, educational testing, career education, and college and financial aid counseling are some of its many functions.

 

Course Selection

The 220+ available courses at St. Johnsbury Academy require a disciplined approach to course selection and the help of experienced counselors. Our semester-based schedule allows ample time to try new things, and we encourage students to follow their interests while at the same time keeping in mind graduation requirements and future plans.

Graduation Requirements

In order to be granted a diploma by St. Johnsbury Academy, a student must complete four years of study, and accumulate 26 credits.


COURSE

CREDITS

Senior Capstone

1 credit

English

4 credits

Science

3 credits

Mathematics

3 credits

Social Studies

3 credits

Physical Education

2 credits

Health

 1 credit

Electives

 9 credit


Underclassmen must take eight blocks of study for the year. Seniors must take seven.

St. Johnsbury Academy will not accelerate graduation. Students must achieve four calendar years of resident study in a high school in order to qualify for graduation.

 

Grade Progression

The Academy is a four-year institution. Students normally progress from the ninth through the twelfth grades and finally to graduation by accumulating credits through successfully passing courses of study. The age of a student does not determine grade placement; the number of credits that the student has accumulated is the determining factor. Students enrolling after grade nine will receive a credit evaluation which will include the specific classes and number of credits needed to meet graduation requirements. At any point in the student’s progression through the Academy, if the student does not accumulate the requisite number of credits to advance to the next class, he will remain in the same class until accumulating enough credits to be promoted to the next class. Some students who fall behind are able to make up missed credits and graduate in four years.

Ability Grouping

Because we are a comprehensive school, we admit students whose intellectual capacities and abilities span a wide range. We believe that students learn best when the material that they are required to learn is presented in a form and at a degree of difficulty matched to their abilities. In nearly all of our academic departments, students are homogeneously grouped; that is, they are placed in instructional sections with students of similar abilities and academic preparation.

 

All of our academic departments offer courses at four levels of instruction: basic, standard, accelerated, and Advanced Placement. Students who are placed at the basic level have demonstrated a need for instruction in the basic skills required to learn the material of the course. Further, they frequently possess less information than their peers. Students who are placed at the standard level of a course have demonstrated average ability and skills. They possess threshold skills and are sufficiently versed in requisite information to be successful in this college preparatory curriculum.

 

Students who are placed in the accelerated level of a course have demonstrated advanced skills and possess considerably more information than most students. They have also demonstrated the ability to learn more quickly than their peers. Students are placed in various levels of instruction after careful study of standardized tests they have taken, recommendations of teachers and guidance personnel in the schools from which they came to us, and consultations with each Academy department chair. Students are not placed automatically at a given level of instruction in any department simply because they are in that level of instruction in another department. It is quite common at the Academy for students to be placed at different levels of instruction within different departments. Further, it is the aim of the basic courses at the Academy to equip the students to move to standard levels of instruction as soon as possible.

 

Department personnel meet regularly to make sure that students are appropriately placed.

SNHU in the High School Dual Enrollment Program

Southern New Hampshire University in the High School’s dual enrollment program with St. Johnsbury Academy, allows qualified high school students (sophomores, juniors or seniors) the opportunity to earn early college credits while in high school. At St. Johnsbury Academy designated courses have been aligned to meet the same content, rigor and learning outcomes as that of the University. The high school teachers instructing these courses meet the University’s adjunct faculty requirement and have been approved by the University. Students will have the opportunity to take advantage of the dual credit opportunities at the beginning of the courses by completing an application and submitting the course registration fee for each class. Once the registration period closes, students will not be allowed to register for college credit. Since these courses are college courses, credit will be awarded by St. Johnsbury Academy and Southern New Hampshire University.  SNHU credits portability and transferability rests solely with individual colleges and universities as they have varying policies on accepting transfer credits; thus, it is the students’ responsibility to obtain a transcript from SNHU and to consult with higher educational institutions to determine whether the SNHU course(s) can be transferred. Additional information regarding the program can be directed to the Director of Guidance. In order for dual enrollment course to run, a minimum of six students must enrolled.

 

Current St. Johnsbury Academy courses offered for dual credit include:

St. Johnsbury Academy Course

Studies in Rhetoric and Composition ACC

Studies in Literature and Composition ACC

Creative Writing ACC/Advanced Creative Writing

United States History ACC

World Civilization Post 1500 ACC

AP European History

AP Microeconomics

Applied Statistics ACC

Applied Calculus ACC

AP Biology

AP Biology Prep

AP Physics C: E & M

Anatomy & Physiology ACC

Chemistry ACC

French I ACC

French II ACC

French III ACC

*French IV ACC

Spanish I ACC

*Spanish II ACC

*Spanish III ACC

*Spanish IV ACC

SNHU Course

College Composition I

Introduction to Literature

Introduction to Creative Writing

U.S. History II: 1865-Present

World Civilizations: 1500-Present

Western Civilization Since 1500

Microeconomics 201

Applied Statistics

Calculus I: Single Variable

General Biology I

General Biology II

Physics I with Lab

Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology with Lab

Fundamentals of Chemistry with Lab

Beginning French I

Beginning French II

*Intermediate French I

*Intermediate French II

Beginning Spanish I

Beginning Spanish II

*Intermediate Spanish I

*Intermediate Spanish II

*SNHU dual enrollment in French and Spanish languages courses, requires beginning with Beginning French I/Beginning Spanish I.

 

Additional course are being considered for the 21-22 school year.

College Counseling

Because of the very diverse group of students at St. Johnsbury Academy, our approach to College Counseling is student-based, thorough, and wide-ranging. Each year, we place students at top universities and liberal arts colleges, culinary schools, fashion design schools, fine arts schools, engineering schools, technical colleges, and an array of other 2- and 4-year institutions.

Colleges Attended by the Class of 2023

American University

Babson College

Berkeley City College

Berklee College of Music

Brandeis University

California College of Art

Calvin University

Centro University

Champlain College

Chapman University

Colby Sawyer College

Colorado Mesa University

Colorado State University

Community College of Vermont

Connecticut College

Courtauld Institute of Art

CUNY Hunter

Curry College

Davis and Elkins College

Elon University

Emerson College

Emory University

Endicott College

Florida Gulf Coast University

Florida Institute of Technology

Florida International University

Florida Polytechnic University

Gordon College

Husson University

IE University (Spain)

Keene State College

Louisiana State University

Loyola University Maryland

Lynn University

McGill University

New York University

Norwich University

Paul Smith’s College

Plymouth State University

Providence College

Rhodes College

Rochester Institute of Technology

Saint Michael’s College

Santa Clara University

Savannah College of Art and Design

Seton Hall University

Simmons University

Skidmore College

Spelman College

Southern Methodist University

St. John’s College

SUNY Cobleskill

SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry

Texas Christian University

Trinity College

Tufts University

Tulane University

UDEM Monterrey (Mexico)

United States Naval Academy

University of California – Davis

University Center for Technology and Digital Art (Mexico)

University of Edinburgh (Scotland)

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

University of Maine

University of Massachusetts-Boston

University of Northern Iowa

University of North Florida

University of Pittsburgh

University of Richmond

University of South Carolina

University of Southern Maine

Stellenbosch University (South Africa)

University of Tampa

University of Toronto

University of Utah

University of Vermont

University of Victoria

Vermont State University

Warren Wilson College

Washington and Lee University

Wentworth Institute of Technology

Westminster College

White Mountain Community College

Whittier College

Colleges Attended the Past Five Years

St. Johnsbury Academy graduates attend a wide range of colleges and universities each year. This is a representative list of schools SJA graduates have enrolled in over the past five years.

 

American University

Art Institute Chicago

Bard College

Baylor University

Bentley University

Berklee College of Music

Boston University

Bowdoin College

Brandeis University

Brown University

Bucknell University

Business School Lausanne

California College of the Arts

Carnegie Mellon University

Clark University

Clarkson University

Colorado School of Mines

Columbia University

Concordia University (Montreal)

Cornell University

Culinary Institute of America

Dartmouth College

Davidson College

Denison University

Dickinson College

Elon University

Emory University

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (Los Angeles)

Fashion Institute of Technology

Flagler College

Fordham University

Franklin and Marshall College

George Washington University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Hamilton College

Harvard University

Haverford College

Imperial College London

Indiana University at Bloomington 

Johns Hopkins University
Keio University (Japan)

Kent State University

King’s College (London)

Lander University

Lehigh University

Loyola University (New Orleans)

Macalester College

Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

McGill University

Miami University (Oxford)

Michigan State University

Middlebury College

Mount Holyoke College

New York University

Northeastern University

Parsons The New School for Design

Pennsylvania State University

Pratt Institute

Princeton University

Providence College

Purdue University

Reed College

Regent’s University (London)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rhode Island School of Design

Rochester Institute of Technology

Rutgers University (New Brunswick)

Sarah Lawrence College

Savannah College of Art and Design

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

School of Visual Arts

Skidmore College

Smith College

St. Lawrence University

St. Olaf College

Syracuse University

Temple University

Trinity College 

Trinity College (Dublin)

TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Union College

U.S. Airforce Academy

University of Arizona

University of British Columbia

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Irvine

University of California, San Diego

University of Chicago

University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Connecticut

University of Florida

University of Illinois at Urbana —   Champaign

University of Iowa

University of Maine

University of Maryland, College Park

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of Montana, Missoula

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

University of New Hampshire

University of Nottingham (UK)

University of Oregon

University of Redlands

University of Rhode Island

University of Rochester

University of Southern California

University of St. Andrews (UK)

University of Texas Dallas

University of the West of England, Bristol (UK)

University of Vermont

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Vassar College

Villanova University

Washington University in St. Louis

Wellesley College

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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