<p>Wondered about the importance of having an experienced, savvy guidance counselor? And would one ever request a switch from one counselor to another? </p>
<p>My son is entering 9th grade and his counselor is about 28 yrs old, very sweet and caring. But, she's the type that advised us on parents' night--"Don't have your student take more than 2 honors courses! They need to have <em>fun</em>!". My son is now taking 5 honors courses--he wasn't challenged much at all in middle school.</p>
<p>I know guidance counselors are important for direction & recommendations. We've got a listserve from the dept about deadlines, etc. Didn't know how major an issue it was to have an inexperienced GC?</p>
<p>i love my guidance counselor so much, shes encouraging and reassuring while still recommending that i challenge myself. its DEFINITELY worth getting close with your guidance counselor...i know i'm going to have a great recc from mine and while shes super-busy and has like 100-200 students, shes willing to spend an hour in the middle of the day if i have a free just talking about what colleges i want to go to.</p>
<p>I wouldn't rely on a public school quidance counselor because they are so overworked in most districts. Use the internet and library to get as savy as possible early on.... look for a GC that has some experience with a range of private as well as public colleges. Too many of them are limited to the local community and state colleges.</p>
<p>You do want a good relationship with the GC to faciliate various aspects of application development and to make sure a good recommendation will be available. If you find out that another guidance counselor is clearly more appropriate for your S, I'd make some discrete inquiries about how to make a switch. Otherwise per the post above, get as savvy as you can on your own.</p>
<p>My daughter also has a sweet and caring guidance counselor...who doesn't seem to recognize most of the schools on my daughter's college list because they're outside of our state. </p>
<p>No problem, I've learned enough here on CC and through my own research to be able to recognize which schools are probably a good fit for my daughter. But, we have maintained a very, very positive relationship with the guidance counselor who will, after all, be writing my daughter's school recommendation. It seems to be working: the GC and my daughter have a warm friendship, the GC is becomming more enthusiastic about my daughter's college list now that daughter has "educated" her (politely) about why she likes the schools on her list, and, based on the recommendation for a summer program that she shared with my daughter, I believe that the GC will write her a nice college recommendation and make sure all of her application materials go out on time and in correct form. The rest is up to my daughter and I, and frankly, probably would be at 98% of the schools in the country.</p>
<p>Since your son is only in 9th grade, I can assure you that you have plenty of time to learn the in's and out's of college applications and various colleges as they relate to your son's needs and desires much better than any guidance counselor will. </p>
<p>If you feel more is called for, and don't mind spending some money, you might think about hiring a private college counselor as your son nears his junior year. If you need help finding one, let me know and I can point you in the direction of some resources to help you find one in your area.</p>
<p>I see our guidance counselor like the main points of an outline. She sets the timeline, informs students of the main steps in the college search process, invites speakers, organizes the paperwork, writes recommendations. The details can be worked out right here. It is important to have a good relationship with your GC. Most are overworked especially around the time that applications are due.</p>
<p>People like to blame poor GCs for everything.. and they end up using that as a crutch. My GC wasn't particuarily savvy about elite college admissions, though he was very helpful in other areas. </p>
<p>Moral of the story: Play off of your GCs strengths and do the rest yourself!</p>
<p>You want to "try" to have a good relationship with the GC. BUT in my opinion you should not count on them to give you very significant guidance with regards to college choices. I agree....know your GCs strengths AND weaknesses. If you have that knowledge, you will be very able to fill in the blanks yourself. My experience (and the experience of many) is that "if you want the job done right, do it yourself.".</p>
<p>We've tried to educate our GC on the differences between the state school admissions (which she knows a great deal about) and out of state admissions. She has been very receptive, but really does not have a lot of time because she also handles kids that need to pick up extra credits to graduate, kids that are transferred to the alternative school, schedules, AP exams, etc...</p>
<p>I did the research, my son got the applications organized so that the GC knew what to do and when, and I made sure I reminded the GC when important deadlines were approaching. </p>
<p>When it comes down to it, the person who cares the most about your child is you. It doesn't matter if the GC is very savvy, or very green....you will have to take on the bulk of the responsibility.</p>
<p>Of the three GCs at my high school, every single one is new to the district this year. I think I'm doing okay on my own and with my parents' help, and I imagine that your son will be fine too. Keep researching and stay on top of things!</p>
<p>The one thing no one else, but the GC can do is write that GC recommendation.
You son should try to get to know his counselor (and hope she's still there when he's a senior!). If she is at the beginning of her career, she might even want to know about CC :).</p>
<p>Otherwise, he can learn all he needs to do through CC, books, even an outside counselor if necessary - but only the GC can write that letter.</p>
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<p>The one thing no one else, but the GC can do is write that GC recommendation.>></p>
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<p>At our school, they give the students a sheet to fill out which details all in and out of school accomplishments including academic, EC and community service. The GCs use that sheet to write the counselor recommendation. For DS, we gave them a very detailed info sheet and a resume (he had a lot that he did outside of school pertaining to his major) so that the GC could at least sound like she was well informed (she was basically clueless...). Fortunately only one school DS applied to required a counselor recommendation. The others allowed teacher recommendations which is what he used. Note that the school he is enrolled at was the one that required the counselor rec...The GC told him not to bother applying there "because he would never get accepted". Enough said. Since we know the format, we have been keeping DD's info on the computer since 9th grade. Every time she does something, we add it to the list. She does not have the same GC that DS had...thank goodness...although hers isn't much better. We have all the info and we will give it to him BEFORE the end of school this year.</p>
<p>Very experienced and savvy GCs can make all the difference in your satisfaction with both the process and the outcome. </p>
<p>That being said, I suppose it's not too common to find a GC of this caliber.</p>
<p>Even those parents and students with top GCs should stay on their toes. You have to provide the GC with the type of student needed to accomplish the goal.....whatever that is.</p>
<p>We used a private college counselor for S1 and will be doing so for S2. We received a glowing recommendation from my brother-in-law, who is on one of the local boards of education and has also used her for my two nieces. The counselor provided a timeline of activities, suggested schools, gave feedback on essays, and was there for last minute questions/issues. Since S1 didn't need any counselor recommendations, he didn't really engage at all with the school counselor.</p>
<p>Having a wonderful GC would have been helpful, but this year, as a senior I had a GC new to the district and quite possibly new to the job (she seemed in her early 20s). Prior to that I had one or two; they didn't even speak to me until my junior year where my GC called me into her office with another girl, gave me a file folder with scholarship info and in-state college info, read parts of it to me, and sent me away.</p>
<p>Similarly, senior year she had one talk with me where she asked where I intended on applying, I told her I had filled out first parts of applications to Rice and MIT, she looked at my GPA and class rank, then handed me another folder of info. Later, when I needed her to write recommendations, I gave her a resume and filled out a questionaire she provided about my interests. The one time I had a question, she sent me to a different GC.</p>
<p>If you or your son is wililng to research everything that needs to be, you should be fine. I suppose having more personal interaction with my counselor would have been better, but with 5 GCs in a school of 2500, she didn't need me in her office keeping her from writing recs that needed to be written. I suppose my mom somewhat acted like a GC, researching possible schools and bothering me about deadlines.</p>
<p>Don't think the poster meant it that way, Raven. They recieved the glowing recommendation about engaging the counselor from the BIL. In hiring outside counselor, that is an important factor. It is so difficult to find a good college counselor--like finding a good psychologist, attorney, tutor, and word of mouth from someone in the field is essential unless you plain luck out. </p>
<p>You are pretty much stuck with the school counselor, since he is usually the point contact person with the colleges and his rec carries alot of weight as he is in position to compare all of the students in the school whereas the teachers who are recommending are selected by the students. It behooves you to have a good relationship with this person and make his job as easy as possible by providing the information that you want transmitted in the rec to him instead of relying on what he gathers about your student. He is also valuable in assessing chances in many of the state and local schools where kids from that highschool have tended to go, and some might even have a couple of schools where they have an "in" of sorts (the admcom is a former roommate, a friend, they worked together, etc) It is valuable to have that information as it can be helpful if your student is interested in any of those venues. It is also possible in many schools that the GCs simply have too many kids and issues to be able to adequately address each kid's college rec and placement. In any case, it is important for the student and family to be informed and active in the process, because,ultimately even with the most involved counselor that is where the buck stops. With you.</p>
<p>We always found our son's GC to be somewhat superfluous. He knew which classes he wanted/needed to take and just met with his GC to work out the schedule details. He did all of his own college research and asked for no advice pertaining to that jr or sr year. Our family found the entire process quite easy, painless and enjoyable. And frankly, I have been very puzzled by this MB and the media reports on the stress associated with the college admissions process.</p>
<p>That being said, our son's GC was a very nice man and he really went to bat for him during the selection process for his HS's Rensselaer Medal. That effort put $60k in our pocket. In addition he was very well prepared during the college application period. He had a form which he gave all his students which asked for personal info regarding in school activities, out of school activities, personal info, future goals, talents, challenges(family, personal) which he used to prepare his personal recommendation letter. In addition he had a system which enabled him to assemble all application info and get it in the mail in one day! The student merely had to give him 2 copies of the application, the application fee check, a list of items to be included, a preaddressed envelope to the college admissions office and presto it was in the mail in a matter of hours. BTW, all teacher recs went to the GC and he sent copies of the one(s) he deemed most appropriate or the "best".</p>
<p>The bottom line? I believe that your child and family can easily negotiate the next 4 years by using common sense and doing a little research. Being new, the GC may be a little overwhelmed by her workload, so help her out by getting the applications in early, providing your own check lists and envelopes. She won't know very many college admissions officers but I have always considered that over rated unless there is something highly unusual about the applicant that the admission office needs to know about.</p>