Zilch, until we asked for a meeting to discuss how to even move ahead. She said we were so far ahead of the rest (March of Junior year). We couldn’t understand how we were ahead when first round apps were due August. We actually educated her on some things regarding out of state scholarships. To my knowledge the only thing she has made contact with my son on this year, is that he has all his credits for graduation. She did offer to call one of the universities to explain why his GPA was “low” in comparison because they don’t weight AP and honors in their GPA calculations. Metro high school, with 2500 students, and she has about 800 of those 2500 so I get she’s busy. But still frustrating.
By the time S18 had his official college planning meeting at school, he already had decided on his list of schools and we had visited most of them. We were very much on our own - did our own research, used this site and talked to lots of friends who had gone through the process. His teachers were a great resource and were better about sharing information than guidance. The official guidance meeting was in late October of his senior year (sigh…)
Not very helpful for OOS universities, mostly for in state. I recently found out the GC recommended my daughter do two early releases for senior year, which I think is a big no for more selective colleges.
The only thing ours did for DD’17 was give her scholarship apps about 2 days before their due dates (a strategy so they’ll do them right away instead of setting them aside and forgetting!), email her a transcript when requested, and tell me how to send her college the transcript of her college credits. I don’t know if he really helps anyone choose colleges, but I suppose he would try if asked. I didn’t feel like we needed the help I guess.
Also he doesn’t promote taking the ACT or SAT. I think a lot of parents think the school will tell them it’s time to sign up but they don’t.
Catholic private school here and amazing college counselors who start working with kids starting in 9th grade. My daughter compiled her list but he advised every step of the way, wrote a tremendous recommendation (especially since she knew him well by senior year), was one of the editors for her essays, and followed up to make sure everything was submitted for deadlines. We had a parent meeting the day the common app opened over the summer as well as my daughter wanted to have the bulk of her work done before classes started because she knew she was going to be slammed with work. Her counselor totally rocked.
None. D’s school is great in some respects, but the guidance counselor seems very overwhelmed, she didn’t complete D’s NMF application until 3 weeks after it was due, a month after D completed her part of the application. Also, they didn’t hold the parent night college talk until after the application deadline for some nearby states (although they were behind because of the hurricane).
It probably didn’t matter, I think D will attend a school she picked out for herself in the beginning of 10th grade (after applying to 12 more schools in the mean-time, oh well).
About a decade ago, kid went to elite prep boarding school. Received zero assistance other than an offer of admission to a very elite LAC.
I think ours are good if you need help deciding between CC, State flagship and local directional U. Maybe a few local privates. Otherwise your are on your own
I think it’s awful if schools don’t separate out the college counselors from regular counselors. We all know that we desperately need both!
In defense of guidance counselors (we didn’t get much help, but didn’t need it; if my son approached him he would have gotten help), I have a friend who hired someone to guide them through the process. Neither she or her husband applied to college, they have a relatively low income, but their son is a good student and really wanted a 4 year school. He’s been rejected from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, BU, accepted at SUNY Stony Brook (OOS no aid) and Syracuse. Applied to 0 in state schools. He’s now most likely planning on going to community college since his most affordable option is way too expensive. Sometimes I think just doing your own legwork is the best bet.
Medium sized, upper-middle class public high school in California: the counselors were terrific at guiding kids to the in state public universities that were the best matches for them. Acceptance rates for kids who followed their recommendations were ridiculously high. They also did a good job with pointing kids to WUE options.
Counselors were wonderfully supportive of students who applied to private colleges and universities but they didn’t help build the lists.
I didn’t realize until after applications were submitted how badly the counselors failed when it came to helping high achieving, low income kids. Programs like Questbridge just weren’t on their radar.
I think sometimes people forget that public school guidance counselors are there to guide you, not do the work for you. They have a defined role for college admissions (transcripts, recommendations, establishing deadlines, providing resources etc) as well as a role to provide guidance with personal issues (both academic and social). If someone wants 100% attention during the college admissions process, then it’s time to hire a private counselor (or use one of the resources previously mentioned for underserved schools).
Additionally, it seems too many parents wait around to be told what to do when a lot of the information is on the school’s website. Many programs established to educate on the process are poorly attended. When each of my children were finsihed with 8th grade, I scheduled appointments for them to meet their HS counselor. She knew them from the minute they stepped into HS and she appreciated the initiative. It was incredibly helpful all the way around. Just a suggestion.
When I went through the whole college selection process decades ago, I had a very good counselor. Allow me to share a story from 1993. My family was touring Duke and the admissions officer was flipping through the student information cards. He got to mine, asked for me, and asked me how my school’s guidance counselor was doing, by name in front of all of the other families. DAMN. It was an experience I will never forget. I will also never forget the looks of pure envy on many of the other parents. As an aside…I never applied to Duke.
Our school has the GC follow the kid all four years. In theory that gives them a chance to get to know them better than if they only did college counseling.
I didn’t love my kids’ guidance counselor (personality issue, among other things), but one thing that school did very well was to require ALL second semester juniors to take a class called College Advising. And that is literally what it was. They got tutorials in making up their college lists, brainstorming ideas for essays, extra help if they were doing music or art supplements, and their final assignment was to write a draft of their common app essay, which was then read by all of the English faculty. The kids could then use that essay for their common app, or scrap it and start over, but everyone left junior year with a decent essay and a list of schools.
This was a small private school, but I think every high school, especially those in disadvantaged districts, should offer a course like this to all juniors.
@melvin123 D20’s public high school (1800 students) has 4 regular counselors and 1 full-time college counselor. In 9th grade they start discussing a 4 year plan of classes, college night several times a year, Naviance access, etc. I don’t know if this is common but all 10th graders read “Where You Go to College is Not Who’ You’ll Be” and write a report about the book. In general, I think they do a good job of guiding students through the process but you need to also be proactive and take control over your career. As a separate note, we did interview a popular private college counselor this year but they wanted $6,500 to work with our D over the next 1.5 years. We declined but may use them periodically by the hour to review college essays, etc. I just don’t think it’s necessary for most students to spend a lot of money on counseling as there is so much excellent information our there if one takes the time to find it.
No help whatsoever. I think my kid knew more about the application process and choices than the counselor.
Our first kid was a music major…we didn’t expect the GC to be any help…and really, she wasn’t. But the HS music teacher was awesome!
The second kid wanted to go to college on the opposite coast or in the south east. We live in New England. Again, we didn’t expect much help…and got really…none. A former poster here was a HUGE help…actually gave us college suggestions one of which was THE school.
TBH, at our large public HS, we didn’t want the counselor to do anything other than certify the curriculum and courses that our children took. We only counted him on facilitating the mandatory paperwork.
None, for us. We live in a wealthy district with a small low income population and a small middle class population it’s unspoken but if you are wealthy and not applying for aid because your EFC is at full pay you are expected to use a private college counselor. The counselors devote their time and energy to the others which was fine with us. We loved our PCC.