<p>When my son was a junior in high school, his guidance counselor sat down with him to discuss which colleges were of interest to him. My son said the only college he wanted to attend was the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The counselor looked at his grades (above average but not 4.0), looked at the classes he took (college prep but not AP) and then turned to him and told him he had absolutely no chance of getting accepted. When we walked out of the office, I turned to my son and said "he doesn't know you very well, does he?". I'm proud to say my son graduated on May 23rd from the US Naval Academy. He was not top in his class but he graduated! I recently spoke to the mother of one of his high school classmates who had a similar story. The guidance counselor told him he could not get into Johns Hopkins. He did and graduated in the top of his class. While at Hopkins, they told him he should not bother to apply to medical schools. Do you think he'll listen? Don't let other people make decisions for you. If it was all about grades and SAT scores, we could easily figure out who will get accepted to which college. I'm sure there are high school students who have dreams of going to college who have been told they won't make it. Look at it as your first challenge. Prove them wrong. Go Navy!</p>
<p>They told someone who was top of class at Hopkins not to apply to med school?</p>
<p>Yes. Apparently, med school now is extremely competitive.</p>
<p>Yeah but it isn't that competitive. I think your friend might have been over exaggerating, because the average applicant from JHU with a GPA of 3.6 and an MCAT of 30+ will most likely make it into a decent med school.</p>
<p>great story, thanks for sharing</p>
<p>I hope you shoved the acceptance letter in the guidance counselor's face. </p>
<p>Med school is very competitive, but not as competitive as it was 10-20 years ago because of malpractice lawsuits and personal injury lawyers.</p>
<p>I don't disagree with your post but it's incredibly hard to believe a top student at JHU, THE pre med school, would be discouraged from applying to med school unless there's a huge part of the story we don't know.</p>
<p>I know a number of other horror stories about GCs who have misguided students and given misinformation. It does happen. Incompetence occurs in all professions. I have also heard horror stories about GCs that were not exactly true. The story gets embellished in the telling to the point that it is no longer what happened.
A few years ago, I spoke often to a mom whose son was applying to colleges at the same time as my son. He apparently went to the GC with his college list of all reaches, which his GC told him was unrealistic. He was told to look for some less selective colleges to round out the list. The parents were outraged and upset about the situation, as he was a good student with good test scores, and a respectable candidate for the schools he had chosen. Since the young man and my son shared the same GC, I had a pretty good idea how the GC operated. I doubt very, very much that the GC told the kid and his parents that he had no chance at getting into any of those schools. Which is now the story at large. He begrudgingly added safeties and matches to his college list and got into some of his original choices as well. However the GC, in my opinion, would not have been doing his job had he not insisted on some schools that were less selective.<br>
I have heard of cases where kids did not pick safeties or did not spend time or thought on the safeties, with GCs that did not stress the importance of having some sure shots on the list that the student likes. That to me is negligence as much as a GC who tells kids they don't have a chance at a school. As long as there are some likely acceptances on the list, anyone can take a chance on a long shot, but should realize that it is a long shot.</p>
<p>All I can say is -- it depends on the guidance counselor. Obviously, yours sold your son short.</p>
<p>My son's GC is the opposite. He is realistic. He has spoken with my son about his choices for schools, and my son walked away feeling pretty good about his chances with any school on his list, and that list numbers 11. No, he did not say he was a shoo-in. He told him that he should go for the top step of the ladder or he would sit back 20 years from now and wonder ...</p>
<p>Yes, there are some not-so-great counselors out there. Fortunately, your son had you as his cheerleader.</p>