<p>What is your guidance counselor like? I am curious to know what other ones are like in relation to mine.</p>
<p>I strongly dislike my guidance counselor. She is conceited and condescending in a snobby and elitist manner. Whenever I ask her about something I want to do, she finds some way to try to make it not possible for me. There are some exciting experiences that I want to participate in during high school yet my counselor looks down upon them just because it means I'm not going to be like every other high school student. I told her once that I'm interested in becoming a National Merit Semifinalist next year (I'm a sophomore right now) but she thinks I am incapable of doing so because my score this year wasn't good (181). I even told her that I've been practicing really hard with official College Board PSAT practice tests and my scores have been coming into the 220-230 range, thinking that would evoke a happy and favorable response. And her response to that? She says that she finds it hard to believe that my score would have gone up so high (yeah, basically she doesn't believe me) and that scores in the 220-230 range aren't even close to good enough to become a National Merit Semifinalist. Additionally when I talk to her about colleges, she basically says that I will have a very tough time getting into any of the colleges I am looking into, even my state school which basically anyone can get into and has an acceptance rate of 51%, even though I've only had 1 B throughout high school, have the most rigorous courseload possible, and have many leadership positions and ECs. Whenever I ask her what colleges are looking for, she shrugs at her shoulders and looks at me with a dumbfounded expression as if I asked her if I could marry her. I forgot to add, she seems to enjoy giving me piercing, witch-like glares which really make it seem as if she is staring into my soul.</p>
<p>whenever I talk to mine, she says things that I have figured out using CC or google searches. Sometimes I wonder if I know more about the college than my GC.</p>
<p>Generally, CC students or research intensive students will know even more than guidance counselors. We all know CC Students can skip college and just go straight into counseling. Make some good side money lol.</p>
<p>My guidance counsellor is the opposite. He’s an incredibly nice but he doesn’t give you an opinion. I go to him not really because I want to know my options but I want some advice or a valid opinion but all he does is tell me what I already know. I might as well come on here and ask questions.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor sucks. I was choosing classes for senior year all she said was “you’re in good shape” without discussing what’s good/not good for me. Apparently I was missing credit for an art course and she didn’t say anything. The laziest counselor I know!</p>
<p>Mine told my sister (we’re Ugandan) that she could only ever make it to our local community college. About a month later, she got accepted into Columbia and Cornell.</p>
<p>Now she hates me.
She never lets me DO ANYTHING I want to do.</p>
<p>& I asked the principal, he refuses to let me switch.</p>
<p>Guess I’ll have to pave my own way through high school.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor is kinda the head counselor of the school so she’s really knowledgeable. I mean, there are certain little things she doesn’t know (like specifics of the admissions process that are well known on CC) but she’s deals with quite a few Ivy applicants each year so she’s pretty familiar with the process. I’m realllllllllly glad I have her. She’s always busy, but she’s SO nice. And she’s VERY knowledgeable about recommendations and mid-year reports, transcript info, SATs/ACTs…etc. She even gave me advice on which teachers write better recommendations, which ones I should get, what they might say…etc. It’s just hard to get to talk to her for more than 5-10 min. Big public school…
lots of ppl just trying to graduate high school…for the second or third time haha.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor’s nice but he’s not very helpful at times. But what kind of ticks me off is that at my school, there’s a counselor for “high potential” students which they supposedly help get into top schools–IMO, I don’t think it’s very fair to the student body. Plus, a lot of the students probably don’t want to go to HYPSM and I have a feeling that that counselor will write better recommendations than the other counselors since it’s more personalized and there’s more one-on-one time.</p>
<p>My guidance counselors all have good intentions, but both of the ones I work with can get kind of annoying sometimes. I have entered into 15-20 minute conversations with them only to walk out without having my usually very simple question answered. They don’t seem to know much about class registration, and I often have to go talk to my IB coordinator or various department chairs to get things sorted. Also, it really annoys me that their level of expertise doesn’t seem to go beyond the flagship state schools because that’s where the vast majority of students go. I have gotten absolutely zero advice from them about Ivies and other top schools thus far - I’d go as far to say that the information that I’ve picked up from CC and other places makes me more knowledgeable than my counselors in some areas.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone who said that CC is more useful than a guidance counselor. If I always listened to my guidance counselor, I would have gotten nowhere and would have missed out on so many things. My guidance counselor seems to say the opposite of what every person on CC says.</p>
<p>I try to stay on good terms with her by pretending to actually listen to what she says even though I consider it all BS. I’m kind of using her though because I want her to write me a good recommendation letter when I apply for college.</p>
<p>My guidance counselors are complete morons. My sister who was accepted ED at Columbia was told she could not count our state school as a match where both parents attended plus she had NMSF, straight A’s, rigorous schedule, weird EC’s, etc etc. Now the guidance counselor who I have has decided that since my sister got into an ivy and they both thought she wouldn’t that I probably know more about college than she does so she just lets me do everything I want (we need our schedules approved by counselors which they are very picky). The other counselor wouldn’t let me apply to governor’s school because I had a 3.98 GPA and she would only allow students to apply who had a 4.0 despite the state requirement being a 3.0. So basically, I hate my counselors, they’re stupid, they don’t seem to know much of anything, and it irritates me that I’m forced to sign up for counseling appointments every month and waste my time.</p>
<p>raiderade, that’s awful that your sister’s guidance counselor told her that she couldn’t count on her state school as a match.</p>
<p>Do you ever think that maybe some of these guidance counselors are bitter and jealous of some of our accomplishments? I mean that in the most non-arrogant way but I am getting to do some pretty awesome things and getting really good grades in rigorous courses, so there is no other reason that I can think of.</p>
<p>I really like my counselor. She’s really helpful to me, easy going, we get along really well. I don’t know how much she knows about college yet, but she’s helped me on a few applications for summer things and has been really good. I’m not too worried about whether she can help me choose a college because both my sisters were also competitive students so they can help and so can my parents, who are both quite knowledgeable. She’s good at applications, so I’m happy. I also know she’s advocated for me to get cetain stuff and I feel like I know her pretty well so that’s nice. I know her a lot better than most of my friends know their counselors.</p>
<p>My counselor is pretty good. There are three counselors for juniors and seniors, but generally, during the time they’re concentrating on the seniors, they’re not concentrating on juniors, so they only deal with about 120 students at a time (but really have approx 240).</p>
<p>You have to make an effort to get to know your counselor, but if you do, they’re great, and the one I have (assigned alphabetically by last name ) is generally considered the best. All students have an hour long meeting with their counselor and parents to go over all their stuff when the students are juniors and besides that, you just have to go in to talk to them sometimes.</p>
<p>Oh god, I’d never trust her with anything. She doesn’t know ANYTHING about colleges that aren’t in North Dakota.
All the juniors had to have a 10 minute meeting with her in February to talk about what we wanted to do after high school, and mine was dreadful. It started like this:</p>
<p>Her: So what are you planning to do when you graduate?
Me: I’m going to college.
Her: Oh, that’s fabulous! Do you have any idea where you might like to go?
Me: I’m planning to go to Indiana University.
Her: Purdue!
Me: No, I said Indiana University. Purdue’s Rival.
Her: Ohhhhhh okay. I’ve never heard of that school before, silly! But now I know it!</p>
<p>I was like ***ff. And the entire conversation went nowhere.</p>
<p>They actually give you guys time to talk to your counselor? Man, I wish they made us do that because at my school, the only way to talk to your counselor is fill out this request form and wait until they call you out of class. And that’s usually like a week later. Plus, you have to wait forEVEr until you actually get to talk to her. You seriously sit there for another hour waiting for the person in front of you to get out. And then I talk to her for 10 min…she’s just got so much other kids to handle (ones that have discplinary problems, need to know whether they can graduate, how to get into a community college…etc)</p>
<p>You have to make a BIG effort to know your counselor. Some people have asked for recommendations from their counselors without ever meeting them before. It’s just so hard to make time. Ohhh public schools…
I wish we had special college advisors or something.</p>
<p>I agree with the rest of you that I think I know more about elite schools than my counselor. All she ever tells me is that it’s all a lottery.</p>
<p>Regardless, she’s a nice person to chat with and she’s definitely helped me through some rough times dealing with college rejections, decisions, and what not.</p>
We all know CC Students can skip college and just go straight into counseling. Make some good side money lol.</p>