<p>Dylanaud, I'll second the support. My son's counselor assisted when specifically asked for assistance. Nothing beyond the ordinary, recommendation letter for schools, meeting with all parents each year to go over deadlines, college requirements. Like most CA high school guidance counselors she was most familiar with the UC system and it's particular requirements.
As a parent, I was very aware of how many students each counselor was responsible for. Those students include the gamut of those with no parental support who are just barely going to graduate to those with over involved parents who are shooting for high level four year schools.
The students who managed their own college application process, asking for help when needed but not expecting it to be done for them were successful. Those same students went on to colleges where they registered for classes online, etc. etc. and where they were expected to function as adults who took care of their own stuff.</p>
<p>People often forget the size of the caseloads and the myriad of other duties public school counselors are assigned in addition to college advising. It is understandable that many counselors don't have time to cruise the message boards, too.</p>
<p>Mr. Dooley, what is the impact of a GC rec for a public school class of 700? My DD GC does not know anything about her other than the couple of times that we have gone into her office and had 95% of the knowledge ourselves, and DD attends a school where the "flagship state school" is G//D and the GC says "why go anywhere else!" So I guess my question is how much weight will be put on her evaluation, or is it mostly just the stats of the school she gives them! (Teacher rec's will be outstanding) Thank you sir.</p>
<p>GA...I am not Mr. Dooley but perhaps I can interject. My son was at a fairly large high school with the same state school stuff. The guidance office had a form for parents and kids to fill out. You put in all kinds of information about your kid which the GC then used to write a rec. If your school does not have this, then I suggest you make up your own. List your child's achievements, after school activities which the school may not know about, personality traits, etc.
For instance, my son had helped a lot of other kids on the wrestling team with their school work so that they could maintain eligibility for sports. The GC would have no way of knowing this if we didn't put it down on the form.</p>
<p>I found out on CC that 2 schools my daughter was waitlisted at were going to their waitlists before her counselor did. The counselor thought it would be another week. She called one of those schools as soon as I told her. The college first denied it, then called her back an hour later to offer a spot to my D. She never thought much of CC before, until I scooped her. We were very lucky that the counselor knew admission officers well - she knew which schools my D was accepted/rejected before "the DAY."</p>
<p>^^^ (oldfort)...Sorry for the off-topic, but my sons were waitlisted at several schools...to get "off" the waitlist and onto the "yes" list, does it typically require some kind of intervention? We thought you just sent in the little postcard and wait for some word. Do applicants who do something extra besides just turning in the card get any advantage?
It's too late for my kids, but I've become sort of a repository of experiential information for my friends who are going through the process this year.</p>
<p>It took a lot of investment. My Ds, with advise from her counselor, wrote another essay, her counselor sent in an updated profile about her (grades and more recommendation letters). Her counselor asked us if we wanted her to represent to "the school" that our D would definitely go if accepted. She said that she would only do it if we were committed. I told her to go ahead. I also told the school that we would forego another school's full merit scholarship if accepted. Our theory was that those adcom wanted to be done with the process, they would rather offer those few spots to kids that would accept. We think it worked well. She also got off Duke's waitlist and turned it down, even though we were not as aggressive with them.</p>
<p>WOW. It would have been nice to know that...</p>