@ucbalumnus I agree that many who could benefit the most from private college counseling often cannot afford it. However, you mention high achieving first generation to college students and I have some clients who are exactly that.
This seems really not great to me. The local public school I attend is better than that. Each CC has 30 kids max. 
Seems off to spend 70k a year on private school if thatās the case.
Let me mention, I donāt know about the other guidance counselors in my school, but mine is great. Sometimes it isnāt about private or public. Itās just about a good person, good worker, and good fit.
2 Likes
Seems like an unusual public school. When I was in high school, it seemed like each counselor handled about 100 students per class (about 400 students each over all four classes), and for all counselor type issues (not just college planning and application issues).
1 Like
Small and well funded school. T100ish nationally, so maybe thatās why.
Around 120 kids in my entire grade and 4 counselors that pretty much only handle college/scheduling. We have a few social workers and psychologists for the other stuff.
1 Like
Yes, at our LPS, it was 1 for every 200. And they handled everything from college counseling to addiction to āmy dad was deportedā¦ā
They went thru the 4 years with their class so did get to know some of the kids but only did CC once every 4 years. Tough trade.
But the football program was top notch!
1 Like
Really? At Lville we had 6 CCs for ~220 seniors, so the ratio was 36~37:1 (although it might be a bit lower in practice given the number of athletic recruits who were mostly finished by the end of junior year). I never found any issues with availability, and our grade did quite well.
2 Likes
I guess my public school is the exception 
We did well this year. About 5 kids going to Cornell (none recruits) and one to Princeton(not a recruit). We have quite a lot of Northeastern commits, BU, some Georgia Tech also. We also have quite a lot going to NYU (we are pretty local). Many acceptances to colleges like Michigan Ann Arbor, UNC, and Georgetown.
I think you might need an outside counselor if your school has an unhelpful admissions philosophy. I know my local day schools have had policies in place that could be destructive. One elite day school limited college apps to 10 total. I have heard a few kids got no colleges at all this last year. Another top day school refuses to give direction to any student or parent on possible colleges. Other schools may strongly prefer kids get in ED somewhere, rather than trying for reach colleges.
So school politics may make an outside counselor helpful.
1 Like
I am surprised these schools have survived as long as they have with that attitude.
1 Like
Why would they still be seen as āeliteā or ātopā if their college counseling results in shutouts or is otherwise unsatisfactory?
This seems unsurprising, since it reduces the risk of shutouts.
2 Likes
This intrigues me. What brought you to College Confidential?
1 Like
Iād say Iām in a large city with extremely limited land for any competing schools. Commutes are terrible. As a result schools in the best locations will never face any competition.
The Binge Watching recommendations? Bonding with other Wordle-lovers? Vicarious pleasure from watching smart knowledgable people squabble/pontificate over educational issues, college majors, and the career prospects of college graduates?
No, just kidding. I originally found CC through a web search when my oldest was considering boarding schools for ninth grade. However, I rarely logged on until four years later when I asked advice here because she was trying to decide between several colleges. It was a tough decision and reading other postersā opinions about those colleges was helpful to me even though she had already been admitted (and frankly didnāt ask for my advice until late April after she narrowing it down to two schools). But D22 is super independent and she would have bristled at too much parental involvement. She is definitely bull-headed enough that if I had told her where to apply, she would have run as fast as possible in the other direction! If I had real objections about any place on her initial list, I would have told her, but the list seemed fine with exception of some that came off due to their NPC.
My current rising senior cares more about what I think plus I suspect fit is going to be a bit more complicated for her than her older sister. So I may be more involved in her process. Plus I know a lot more now that I have been reading this forum regularly compared to 2 years ago. I do feel as if I could offer a more informed opinion to D24. Nevertheless, Iād still prefer to chime in when asked instead of trying to manage her process from afar especially since I think her boarding school advisor seems great so far.
4 Likes
You didnāt ask me, but I came here 8 years ago when Google linked to a CC thread in response to a search on how many kids were deferred by a school that had deferred my kid an hour before.
After getting my answe, I was poking around and saw questions from BS applicants that I could answer ā but could not have 4 years earlier ā so decided to pay it forward and maybe spare folks some of my floundering.
Overall, there are few resources out there for BS families, and most of us lack the "neighborhood network " weād have relied on if weād picked LPS or day schools. This community is very supportive and helpful, especially with issues that tend to be unique to BS.
Some folks here avail themselves of the college resources, but I got here too late for that. Otoh, I have found the book recommendations to be particularly excellent!
4 Likes
Our LPS is a bit worse (1 GC per 250), across grades 9 - 12, and Iām not even certain that includes all the Vo-Tech kids. Our kids made an appointment with the GC as soon as they started 9th grade to begin that relationship. Turned out their GC had recently come from a small local private school and was clearly the best in the office. This GC was always available for my kids over their HS career. The other GCs were dedicated also, but definitely not as informed on highly selective college admissions. We never spent $ on outside counseling since we had a former private school counselor at the LPS.
1 Like
We have a similar situation in our LPS. Nine counselors for ~3000 kids assigned alphabetically by student last name - A-C gets this counselor, D-F this one, and so on. It turns out that most of them (ours included) donāt offer any assistance with college admissions and thus appointments arenāt even helpfulā¦but the counselor for names T-Z is fantastic. So all the Tuckers, Williamses, and Zimmermans out there are getting very good college advising. Sounds like your kids were also in that position - Iām jealous. 
1 Like