On Wednesday September 10, 2025, Mr. Scott Pare, Academic Principal of Tsinghua International School (THIS) opened the meeting between the College Counseling Team and THIS’s Grade 12 parents. The agenda for this meeting was to introduce the consultant that THIS has hired for this school year, time for Ms. Emily-Davis and Ms. Amy Zou to share about their trips to the USA/UK and the latest information from Admission Officers (AOs), advice on timelines for US and global applications, a parent sharing session and finally some time at the end for Q&A.
THIS’s College Counseling office holds parent workshops and meetings throughout the year, and the first one of the year is always with Grade 12 parents. These meetings are important to share information about the college admissions process and what families can do to prepare for the process.Mr. Pare introduced parents to Mr. Mark Donagher. Mr. Donagher has been in China for 26 years working in international schools and has been a Director of College Counseling for the past 16 years. He is a Canadian who has degrees from Carleton University, York University and University of Toronto. He is one of only 3 members in China with the American Institute of Certified Educational Planners certification.
Mr. Donagher will be doing an audit of THIS’s College Counseling program to inform the school of areas where it is strong and areas where it needs to improve. He will also be reviewing reference letters and college essays and assisting students in their application.
Mr. Donagher gave three pieces of advice to parents. The last and most important piece of advice was to love their children, no matter what the outcome of the application process. They could show this by continually supporting their child and telling them it would be okay, and they support whatever schools they get into. Students sometimes feel bad getting a rejection letter because of the hope and expectation of the parent, but when they know that parents will support them no matter what the admission decision, it helps create a stronger bond between families.
He also advised parents to enjoy their time with their children, as it could be the last time that the children live with them, and time goes quickly, so to enjoy those last moments.
Ms. Emily-Davis talked about attending the 2025 International Association of College Admission Counseling conference in Boston, USA in July. A total of 711 Admission Officers were an attendance, and they were able to meet with college counselors for one-on-one meetings. Ms. Emily-Davis attended workshops to gain information on any updates to the university admission processes as well as on the visa process with the changing political landscapes in the USA and Canada.
Ms. Amy Zou talked about her trip to the United Kingdom to do a tour of top schools and meet with THIS alumni and admissions officers. THIS posted about this and you can see it HERE.Ms. Amy Zou went over some of the processes of the admissions process such as how many applications THIS allows seniors to submit, and the differences between the different US application types such as Early Decision, Early Action, Restricted Early Action, Regular Decision, etc.College CounsellingNext, we had words of wisdom shared by mom of Steven Geng, class of 2025. She related how the family trusted their son with knowing which school would be a good fit for him. They supported his decision. Steven had thought about applying to Cornell, but he learned that the environment didn’t match what he was looking for in a school. In talking to his classmates, he learned that no one was applying to Brown, and so he decided to try his luck in applying to Brown for Early Decision.
They went into the application quite late and had to rush to ensure all the documents got submitted on time. They felt because they had made the decision last minute that there was a low chance that Steven would get accepted. On the day of the offer, they didn’t check the offer until later in the day and were really surprised that Steven was offered a spot at Brown. Parents were encouraged to look at reach schools realistically and to be willing to get a denied application.
They were also encouraged to let their children have a say in where they want to go – after all it is four years of their life they will spend at the school, and they should go where they will fit in. Steven Geng’s mom was truly an inspiration for the parents of the class of 2026.
Ms. Amy Zou then reminded parents of deadlines in the application process over the next 6 months. Afterwards, Mr. Pare opened the floor to the Q&A session which was very fruitful as parents asked questions for 40 minutes before individual student questions were brought to individual members of the College Counseling Team.
Mr. Scott Pare, Mr. Sam Han, Ms. Emily-Davis, Ms. Amy Zou and Mr. Reagan Li were on hand to help answer questions from parents. Additionally, the consultant Mr. Mark Donagher also entertained questions parents had about their child’s application process.
It was a great evening in helping parents get closer to their child’s acceptance into university! Thank you to all those who attended.
