<p>At my son's high school, the counselors are there mainly to help people through high school, not with their college applications. We hired a private consultant and still feel we have gotten more useful information here than from the consultant or the HS. Only time will tell if we actually made good use of the information on this site or not.</p>
<p>yeah.... at least you guys have a counsellor... our school doesn't have one... or if they do no one knows who it is =( and I just found out about CC like a couple of weeks ago...sooo.....</p>
<p>They who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym. Those can't teach gym are guidance counselors.</p>
<p>Yeah, the older generations are usually out of style because of the technological age. That is why I can learn more from the CC forum than from my counselor who has had her job for about 12 years. lol.</p>
<p>My counselor wrote a great letter of recommendation for me; she's wasn't very helpful the other four years though...lol</p>
<p>my counselor didn't know what the common app was.</p>
<p>"unless u go to private schools, school counselors are pretty much nonhelpful."</p>
<p>i beg to differ...</p>
<p>My school switches my guidance counselor every year. I'm not even sure who my current on is.</p>
<p>I've met with my GC a total of 5 times over the past 4 years.</p>
<p>Ok, I'll admit it, I'm a private school college counselor. It's probably accurate to say that private schools cater more to students applying to highly selective colleges.
I have to do very little pastoral work, and my student load is only 180. Public school counselors spend most of their time with other obligations and often have 400+ students.
Guidance counselors do not come away from their degree program with any knowledge of college admissions. Counseling degrees almost entirely focus on personal counseling.
Many of us private school counselors are ex-admissions reps. I have never worked in admissions, but college admissions is my passion, so I spend a great deal of time learning. I attend conferences with admissions reps twice per year (one in the States and one in Europe - a benefit of working in a school with money), visit campuses whenever I can and read about it constantly.
I personally went to a public school and had a great counselor who knew plently about admission, but the time factor was definitely there. I met with him maybe 3-4 times during my senior year. Currently, I see 90% of my students several times per week. </p>
<p>Re CC: It's a good site. I don't come here for information - some of it is definitely inaccurate or uninformed - but it is an excellent site and a good alternative for most students.</p>
<p>As a homeschool mom, I have to be parent, teacher <em>and</em> guidance counselor. CC has been a lifesaver!</p>
<p>There are two yahoogroups that have also been a help: homeschool2college and conservativehs2c.</p>