From 2005: Your Guidance Counselor may be steering you wrong

Parents Forum
21

<p>ditto mamabear1234...our son was repeatedly chastised for doing a mere seven applications..three to clear Reach schools. He was admitted to two of his reaches, to his surprise. However, he broke the norm where we live and some locals were very vocal that he shouldn't "apply all over tarnation and to every school in the country?" </p>

<p>Blossom is speaking of major social ills destroying the futures of young people. However, I agree with Blossom in this respect: it is indeed the responsibility of the family unit and parent units to not go MIA duing the high school years and to work with their own child to get the lay of the land. Ceding over this search to anyone but those rare and often private high schools equipped with knowledgable GCs is foolish and unrealistic. </p>

<p>Although my kids are independent of me in terms of their academic and outside jobs in high school-- it is because the work ethic and habits are laid down early...and even though the last one leaves in a short year and a half..I find that we are still putting a lot of thought into our son's futures and opportunities and choices. This world is not the world we entered in the mid 70s, although the ecomony in 08 is starting to look like it. </p>

<p>The state of our GC system locally is deplorable, but that does not mean I don't see they are trying and even willing if you give them big assists and do most of the leg work yourself.</p>

22

<p>We were very lucky to had a great college counselor. She always considered our daughter's view first, not her parents. The counselor told us that she often witnessed disagreements between parents at meetings, and sometimes they were outright embarrassing. Our counselor went the extra mile for her students to get them into their waitlisted schools. Our school also had enough budget that counselors visited every school kids applied to. The counselors were able to give students realistic picture of each school. Even with all those attention, many parents still blamed counselor for not getting their kids into their top choice. No matter how good a counselor is, it is still our own responsibility to do the research and make decisions on which schools to apply.</p>

23

<p>wow, oldfort, that sounds like Guidance Heaven to me! How very fortunate for the students at your D's school.</p>