<p>Hi parents, I would like to know when is your first appointment with your counsellor when you child becomes a hs junior? In our public high school, it seems that if you donnot ask, nobody will contact you. Thank you</p>
<p>Counseling seems to be widely variable among schools. We saw our counselor in Jan of Junior year to discuss PSAT results. We saw the counselor again in April to discuss senior year course scheduling. That was the last time I ever saw the counselor, although my daughter saw/contacted her a few times for recommendation letters and other issues. Our counselors run large meetings in the auditorium where they present general information about colleges to families, but they don’t do routine college counseling for individual students.</p>
<p>I, as a parent, never had a formal meeting with my D’s '11 counselor. D met with the counselor as she needed to and brought things home for my signature and that was it.</p>
<p>I have only seen my S’s '16 counselor once, and that was when he transferred schools between 9th and 10th grades, so we met with her to handle the transfer.</p>
<p>I never had an appt with DS13’s counselor during high school(public). They had large meetings once a year. When I had a question during Senior year I just sent an email. The kids do see the counselor at certain times during the school year but unless you have a student that needs special help they don’t have meetings with the parents.</p>
<p>Our school has over 1600 kids. They have 4 counselors. So I think it would be impossible to have individual meetings with each students parents. </p>
<p>I never met with my two oldest boys’ counselors. There was a parent meeting junior year to go over college needs in terms of testing and the boys met independently each year with their counselor. My third had an IEP so it was mandatory that we meet with the counselor each year. Senior fall the counselors met with the each senior early in September prior to any meetings with underclass kids and the kids were expected to go over their college list with the counselor at that time and if they hadn’t started they were expected to spend a couple hours in the guidance office doing research and putting something together. Our counselors required all in-state apps to be completed by end of October (UofM’s early michigan deadline) and they chased the kids down making sure they got that accomplished. They were always interested in the kids’ out of state schools and were open and willing to do whatever needed to be done. They have absolutely no knowledge of detailed financial situations unless the kids share that and they are not college counselors per se. They are capable of pointing kids (or parents if asked) toward additional outside resources if needed. I found if I had a very specific question - and I did occasionally, Each counselor has about 50 kids from each class 9-12 so around 200 kids total, 50 seniors. I sent an e-mail to the counselor and it was promptly answered or the question was addressed during the meeting with my son(s). </p>
<p>In our high school there is a required parent meeting with student and guidance counselor. I would think it was late winter or early spring of Junior Year following PSAT results. We met to review kinds of schools, what her thoughts were, what our thoughts were, basic information about SAT scheduling/AP’s . We were not entirely clueless about the whole process but he also laid out what our responsibilities were in getting faculty recommendations, the specific details about how the application packets are prepared and sent from the high school to admissions ofices/deadlines during senior year for doing so, since she wasn’t applying ED anywhere. There were also several large all junior parent meetings in the spring, all senior parent meetings in the fall plus the six high school college planning fair that is held in the area in late spring of junior year. She attended several college rep school visits in fall of senior year. We did not have a follow-up meeting but could have if we chose to and he was also available by phone. As he did not have a great reputation for follow-through I was relieved it all went well. There was one issue that was concerning to me. D said she did not want a large school and did not want to go too far from home. He then suggested she apply early to University of Michigan which at the time had rolling admissions and so she would hear early and was a likely candidate for honors. Since she did not want a big school or a school quite that far away, I felt that either he didn’t listen or possibly if she did choose that route, and was accepted and decided that would work… it would have saved him a lot of work in preparing packets for other schools.
With younger d, he was on medical leave during junior year so she met with a another counselor who seemed very well prepared when discussing daughter’s interests in conservatory as she had done her research. When he was back senior year she was applying to BU as she had already passed her vocal audition at BUTI (Tanglewood summer program). He suggested that she apply as presidential scholar which I knew was not likely and would have been a major reach but in order to apply she had to write a research paper on nuclear energy or a similar specific topic. Not only was she not especially interested in the topic, when would she have had the time to do so? She had a full load of academic courses in school, was the lead in the high school show, was working on her essays, rehearsing and scheduling auditions. It would have caused a lot of stress and drama.</p>
<p>My son and I met with his counselor twice toward the beginning of his senior year to discuss college and scholarship ideas. I also communicated with her a few times by email and he had a few individual meetings as well. In addition they had several meetings with the whole senior class (for example where they worked on essays together). It was an academic public charter school with less than a hundred students in the graduating class. Guess I’m glad to have had so much help before I was aware of CC!</p>
<p>Our school recommends a yearly meeting with the GC starting freshman year around January/Feb. The school has about 400-500 students per counselor. But, there is a wide range of students, so the number taking advantage of GC meetings for academics is probably smaller. We did a freshman meeting with her last January and email her with questions now and then. It turned out that our GC has a son in the same sport as DS, so we see her frequently. </p>
<p>Ours are pretty good. I think it was sophomore year for my kids.</p>
<p>I do not remember. However, these meetings were pretty much irrelelvant and had no influence on my D’s college list. But they mnay be a requirement for the LOR?
“In our public high school, it seems that if you donnot ask, nobody will contact you” - not sure what are you asking here. If this is the case, then ask. </p>
<p>For my D’s school, there are 5 counselors for over 1600 students (400+ per grade). There is no one on one meeting between parent and student unless it is absolutely necessary and it would be hard to schedule one. Most of the time, the student can make appointment and meet with the counselor for whatever question they have. There are, however, town hall style meeting at least once or twice per year for the parents about college applications, standardized tests, and financial aids. After the presentation, there is time for parents to ask questions. If there is any follow up question later on, one may e-mail the counselor. They would not have time to meet with each parent individually. They probably don’t even have time to meet each student individually. Once it is in the college application season, they are all crazy filling up forms and writing recommendations. Considering this, I would not bother them unless you really have a reason. For my D’s school, there is even a 3 weeks in advance notice for counselor recommendation request and only for schools that the students have already submitted applications. You can tell the workload is really high so that they need to have this policy.</p>
<p>Small school here. At the start of junior year I emailed D’s counselor a bunch of college app questions and she set up a meeting with me & D.</p>
<p>Our experience was the same as mathyone. We got more information from CC posts and our own research. One caveat, with as many kids as each GC has, follow up on the recommendation and sending of transcripts. We lost out on the full tuition scholarship at University of Alabama due to the GC office not sending by deadline. D2’s GC was very responsive but given the volume, you’ve got to stay on top of the paperwork.</p>
<p>In any case, one should stay on top of the paperwork as it does matter to the student. I won’t hesitate to keep bugging the GC if it is near the deadline but anything not submitted.</p>