New Trier’s Post High School Counseling department hired two new Counselors for this school year. One of these new arrivals is Heather Ecklund. Counseling at Warren Township High School in Gurnee, IL for eighteen years, Ecklund is excited about her new position and advance in her career as a post high school counselor.

While Warren Township and New Trier have a similar class sizes, they are very different schools, especially in the college search process.

“They start earlier [at New Trier]. I know a lot of the students here started at the end of junior year,” Ecklund said.
Ecklund adds that it’s not too late to start the college process, and that students shouldn’t get too overwhelmed and think they are behind because they are not. New Trier makes it easier to start the college process earlier by introducing juniors to their college counselor and scheduling meetings.

Students attending New Trier are more likely to apply and attend more out-of-state colleges.

 “A lot of students at my previous schools would look mostly in the Midwest, while students here are more likely to look on the east coast or the west coast,” Ecklund said.

New Trier has been known to pride itself on its advisery system that allows for student bonding, but the advisery system is also beneficial for the college process.

“What New Trier’s advisery system does is allows for expertise in particular areas. An adviser really has an expertise with those students,” Ecklund said.

An adviser connection allows for better recommendations from counselors because they have had the ability to get to know the student for about two years.

Ecklund decided to apply for the position because she was familiar with the counselors here throughout her time at Warren, and all the opportunities the school had to offer.

She wanted to grow from her last position and saw New Trier as a great opportunity.

“I know I will be growing both professionally and emotionally as a person,” Ecklund said.

So far Ecklund has had a very positive experience on campus and has felt accepted.

“I have very nice impressions; the students have been very welcoming, the staff has been very welcoming, as well as the parents,” Ecklund said.

She adds that New Trier students have a lot more freedoms than students at her old school.

‘I have very nice impressions;the students  have been very welcoming.’

 “At my old school, if you didn’t have class, you were somewhere accounted for. You [had] study hall or off campus doing something else. Here, when you don’t have class, you have a free period. It’s really nice to see that students are making good use of their free time,  [such as] getting homework done or taking a mental break that [they] need.”

As the Nov. 1 college application deadlines creeps closer, seniors are as
stressed as ever, but Ecklund wants to remind students to listen to their gut.

“It’s really important to find the fit, not just the name of the college, not just because that’s where your friends are going, or because that’s where mom and dad said that’s where you should go, but because that’s where you want to go,” Ecklund
said.