Susan Weingartner

Ms. Weingartner is the head of the College Counseling department at Parker. She has a wonderful smile, and a lot of the seniors want to come to her office just to hang out. She respects the students’ choices on what colleges they want to go to or think they can get into.

“Whenever I feel down, I go into my office and the kids who are sitting there always make me feel better.”

In her everyday life at Parker, Ms. Weingartner deals with students that start worrying about college when they are too young. She is always happy to help the students that need emotional support about college. Even though Ms. Weingartner’s job is hard, she is always nice to everyone and makes sure that everyone is happy. Ms. Weingartner is not afraid to show the grades of the students who got into the school and the grades of the students who didn’t so that applicants can have a better idea of what it takes to get into that specific college.

Ms. Weingartner loves her current job as the head of the Upper School College Counseling department. She has been helping students find the right college since 1979. She has also had many other jobs. Ms. Weingartner worked as a congressional intern, a waitress, a bartender, and clerk at a sports store, where she sold ammunition for firearms. Ms. Weingartner went to college in Baltimore and got certifications in teaching and psychology. She majored in art. Even though Ms. Weingartner is very busy, she still makes time for some of her many hobbies, including pottery, bike riding, and art. She enjoys making art out of scrap materials that she finds.

“The most fun part of my job is seeing the students I work with get into the colleges that they apply to.”

At Parker, Ms. Weingartner helps high schoolers apply to colleges. 120 colleges visit Parker every year to scout out students who would be a good part of the college’s community. The students write essays to tell colleges more about themselves. One common essay question is, “What extracurricular activities do you do?” Colleges ask this question not because they want to know what you have done, but because they want to know more about you as a student and as a human being.

One thing Ms. Weingartner expressed to us very clearly is how most people see Ivy league schools as better than other schools, and she explained why. She taught us about how the Ivy League started as an athletic conference. Then, when the schools in the conference changed, the title didn’t evolve with them. One example Ms. Weingartner gave us is that Stanford, which is not an Ivy League school, is actually harder to get into than half the Ivy League schools combined.

When asked about advantages of Parker, Ms. Weingartner explained how being in a big city like Chicago can actually help because college scouts have an easier time coming and interacting with the students. Also, a private school like Parker has fewer students than some other big schools, so the teachers can write more detailed and focused recommendations.

When students are applying for colleges, sports have a big impact on what schools they want to attend, Ms. Weingartner explained. For example, more students want to go to schools that have good sports teams because those are the schools that are more well-known. Another reason students go to schools with sports is because they can get athletic scholarships. College scouts sometimes go to high schools and look for student athletes that would fit in on their sports teams.

When she came to Parker, almost all of the students wanted to go to the same 25 schools. Some schools that were popular were the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois, and the University of Indiana. Ms. Weingartner has worked hard to create more diversity in the schools that students attend, and now students from Parker are going to schools all over the U.S.A. and even Europe. When Parker students go abroad, they usually attend schools like St. Andrews in Scotland, McGill in Canada, and Oxford in England. The college counseling department recommends that students visit all kinds of schools that are big and small. They want them to get a good idea of which college would be right for them, personally.

“If I get into the hole, I can't get out. If I’m out of the hole, I can try and help get the others out.”

When Ms. Weingartner is going through the application process, she often runs into bumps in the road. As the College Counseling Head here at Parker, she has to deal with students who are upset, disappointed, or even mad about the results from colleges they applied to. Ms. Weingartner likes to remind her staff and herself that if she falls into the hole of sadness and disappointment with a student, she won’t be able to get herself out, but if she stays out of the hole in the first place, then she can help others get out too. When students apply, Ms. Weingartner recommends that students visit a college they would want to go to, even if they don’t think they’ll get in. One of her students got accepted into Harvard and Oxford. She had to make the decision between the two, and in the end it came down to the social aspect. She chose Oxford.

In some instances, students don’t want to go to college. Ms. Weingartner helps them come to a reason why they don’t want to and if it’s logical. She asks them if they have a plan, like working for a family business. She thinks that the most common reason why students don’t want to go to college is because they’re afraid that they won’t get in. When students are applying for colleges, Ms. Weingartner also has to tell them when she doesn’t think they’ll get in. Instead of saying that they don’t have a great chance of getting in, Ms. Weingartner shows them the grades of people who have gotten in, people on the waitlist, and people who didn’t get in, compared to their own grades.

Ms. Weingartner was born and raised in Baltimore. She was one of six students from her high school to get into college. Her four elder siblings didn’t go to college, making Ms. Weingartner the first of her siblings to go to college. “School wasn't very easy,” she told us, “[but] college changed my life [by] getting me into the art of helping people find their path.”

Though Ms. Weingartner loves coming to her job and seeing the students, she tries to work from home once every two weeks, just for a change. She lives for the experience that someone gets when they get accepted into a college. It’s a joy that cannot be felt anywhere else, and she wants to be a part of it.

To some people Ms. Weingartner isn’t just the head of the college counseling department, she’s a teacher and psychologist, an art major, and a friend. Ms. Weingartner is a big part of Parker. We thank her for all the hard work she’s put into this school.