<p>My couselor has been so helpful...I guess that's one of the benefits of small, private schools. It's been really great though because I moved away last summer but my guidance couselor was still so helpful, on-time, etc...</p>
<p>Actually most colleges insist on receiving these from the schools, not from the applicant </p>
<p>Thats not true. ;) My daughter applied to numerous top LACs, an Ivy, and a few safeties. Not one admission office didnt accept her application packet (compiled and sent by us)-which included /sealed/ transcript and recs, essays, GC report, h/s profile, etc. </p>
<p>If an admission officer has a question they don't hesitate to call the h/s to verify the info.</p>
<p>Fwiw-She was accepted to a substantial number of her colleges.</p>
<p>My schools colleg office is quite well organized and well run. But the level of helpfulness really depends on you're counselor. Some are effective, others are lazy; some are nice people others are mean.</p>
<p>I only applied to one school, but the process went smoothly for me. I had to fill out a personal information packet in order to get the conselor recommendation form and letter. She answered my questions about the application, and put all my stuff together and had the transcript sent with it two days after I gave her my info. It couldn't have gone much easier. I did have the head of the department as my conselor though, and have heard others at school aren't as good.</p>
<p>My GC is the best!</p>
<p>After reading these stories, my GC is an angel, and registar, too.</p>
<p>When I was applying to schools, she would come and look over my essays. She would simulate an Adcoms response and tell me: No, you're not gettting in.</p>
<p>Basically, she said I sucked! But that was a good thing because we worked and worked and worked and I wrote wonderful essays.</p>
<p>Although we have 48 graduates--with 10 or so going to college(special program where we earn 60 credit hours in our 5th year)--she has been helpful. </p>
<p>I'm just so excitied. She has contacts with Ivys, other schools. When admissions rep come and visit, we have one on one talks--some have even lasted for 2 hours--about the school(s) and such. I think she has been wonderful. Those Admin reps have helped me in the process; I think I got in because of one.</p>
<p>My children attend an "elite" medium-sized public high school in an affluent town. My daughter had three counselors in four years, and the last one who assisted with the college process was totally useless. She was completely ignorant about any schools that were not local (she attended a community college herself, and had visited few schools at that time). Though well-meaning, she was overwhelmed with daily work, and really didn't know my child at all. The good news is that parents now have Naviance to look at (history at their fingertips). But the bottom line is that any family not willing to do all the research themselves in our town ends up hiring an expensive private counselor. In fact, I think the counseling office is pleased that so many do hire one. We didn't use a private counselor, and we were definetely in the minority.</p>
<p>oh i also forgot to mention that my GC has contacts with the schools that most applicants in my school go to. that means no ivys, no tops (e.g. Stanford, MIT, University of Chicago, Duke, U of C Berkley).</p>
<p>What's Naviance? From what I hear, it seems like a database that lists stats and where students were accepted, but I don't know anything else about it or how to use it.</p>
<p>Ummmm our GC's are incompetent.</p>
<p>Last year, one of them sent a girl's application to the wrong college. Yeah.</p>
<p>Thankfully, I got I new one this year, and she seems to be a lot more on top of things than my old one.</p>
<p>i find my guidance counselors to be quite helpful, but actually the college secretary is the best! I know that the college counselor writes our recs, but i have more interaction with the secretary. </p>
<p>I also feel that my school really likes when students try to go to top tier schools. So that said, I think my guidance counselors can put more effort into the 70 or so kids who won't go to a public state University.</p>
<p>The guidance counselors at my school were great. There were 2 counselors for 40 kids and they would read over essays, generate lists of schools for you, listen to your questions, do mock interviews, and send out as many transcripts as you wanted. My counselor even called my top choice to tell them how serious I was about wanting to attend.</p>
<p>you are lucky!</p>
<p>The college counselors at my school are alright. 2 counselors = 90 kids. They will help us if we ask for it, but most of the time everything is up to the student (no check-ups on sending anything - we give them materials to send and address, and they will (most of the time) send it). </p>
<p>They can be a bit arrogant, however - more than they should be allowed to be; we are not encouraged to ask questions that have "obvious answers", etc. (unfortunately, this means about half of the kids at my school pay outside college counselors to do their apps) </p>
<p>But I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing - this "do it yourself" attitude. I mean, seniors are typically adults or almost adults - we ought to be able to figure out the college process with or without outside help. </p>
<p>Plus, we have CC! : )</p>
<p>My GC is great too. But this thread makes me wonder if the college admissions departments realize how much influence the GCs have over this whole proces. My GC does not allow online apps, and she insists we attach and submit a resume (I left things off of my resume to shorten it and she insisted that I include everything I have been involved in in high school so it ended up being 5 pages long - we even had to repeat test scores, etc. on our resume), some other quirky things....In a way I would like to have had more control over my own app, but doesn't matter, she has been nice and encouraging and is doing her job the way she feels is best. She looks over each app for missing spaces. I just have to hope that the colleges overlook my 5 page resume. She works very late each night taking care of any apps people have brought to her that day..... She has also called schools for me when it was their webpages that contained misinformation. All in all, it has been a great experience.</p>
<p>the guidance department in my school honestly sucks. each guidance counselor is assigned probably 300 students or so.</p>
<p>not one single guidance counselor in my school has EVER heard of Washington University in St. Louis, my ED school. They are all encouraging me to go to some place with a name that they have heard of. they tell me that i won't be able to get a good job and pursue my ambition by going to a no-name school. hence, they pressure me into going to the University of Maine. Ironic, yes?</p>
<p>At my school, we mail the transcripts, counselor recs, forms and coversheet all together. The guidance people stick it all together, seem it, stamp it with an official thing, then we send it off ourselves.</p>
<p>Doesn't allow online apps? That's a little controlling.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor(although completely nice) is notorious for being hella-lazy. It took her 3 weeks to fix my schedule, and that's after harrassing her before and after classes. </p>
<p>So I wasn't surprised when I asked her 2 weeks after I told her to send in all my stuff if she had actually done it, and to which she said "I may have forgotten 1 or 2 things"</p>
<p>Yeah, not cool, especially since it's Early Decision and it's due Dec.1st. I'm going to have to haunt her the next 2 days we go back to school before the deadline.</p>
<p>i've been out of high school for awhile. but the guidance office when i was in high school was a joke. when i transferred in he put me in all the wrong classes (college prep rather than APs) and by the time i got an appointment to see him about it, it was too late in the semester to switch. when i wanted to apply for college it again took him a couple of weeks to keep an appointment with me....and he encouraged me to look into trade school rather than four year schools....he wouldn't write me a recommendation because i hadn't been a student of his long enough.....then i had to harrass him to fill out my secondary school reports.....it was a nightmare. i'm sure there are some great guidance counselors out there, but most of them...are a nightmare.</p>
<p>When mistakes are made and you have done all of the work, you have only yourself to blame. </p>
<p>When you add the guidance dept into the mix, you have your mistakes along with theirs. In my experience, the apps went out via the guidance office's secretary, who merely added the transcripts and the school rec to whatever the student gave them. Perhaps a cursory check to make sure that the check was included and that the app matched the school name on the envelope. With the volume that went through that guidance office, there was no proofreading or checking of the app. </p>
<p>My sons' school's counselors will look over apps and essays with the student before it goes out, but not right before it is handed over to the secretary. If there is any time lapse at all and any additional handling, the chances of the mistakes occurring are still in the picture. It's is not as though each app is scrutinized and proofed before it is sent on. We shall probably go over the essays and some apps with the counselors, but then send out the app on our own with the school sending out the transcripts and rec, and individual teachers and other recs going out separately as well. There are some schools that want an all in one package, and in such a case the teachers will submit the recs to the guidance office or in a sealed envelope to the student to stick into a master envelope with all other applicant related info from the school and of course, the app. The only time a sealed transcrip situation occurs in our school is if there is some extenuating situation. Only unofficial transcripts are given to the student. The official ones go straight out from the guidance office, as do the school recs.</p>
<p>Our guidance office has been great, although as noted above the secretary is totally overworked. One guidance secretary for a school with 1500+ kids! Guidance wants you to bring everything to them and they mail it all in one envelope. They even pay for postage. This makes me nervous, though -- big school, lots of kids applying lots of places, too easy for stuff to get lost. GC's are supposed to put entire packet together, then secretary just adds transcript. We have to provide addressed envelope. DS's GC has been great, very helpful. She knows I'm nervous and told me I could come in and put the packet together in the envelope if it would make me feel better (makes her job easier, too), then the secretary would just add the transcript. </p>
<p>Another horror - we had teacher conferences this week (11/21). Son's AP Econ teacher mentioned DS had given him the teacher rec form (back in SEPT), and said, "He hasn't said anything else to me... does he have a deadline?" UH - YES! DS is applying RD but guidance's deadline is 12/15!</p>
<p>So I'm thinking DS will apply online, then we'll provide the addressed envelope with a note that says the app went in online and what paperwork they need to add (teacher recs, transcript). Even if he applies online, GC still wants him to print out app and review it with her first so she can double check it.</p>