Neither of my kids’ guidance counselors said anything one way or the other. Which was fine with me, after my own experience with my GC in high school. I applied to a school I could afford. He asked me why on earth I would go to a school that didn’t have sports teams. (He was the basketball coach, by the way.) He also was aware that we had 4 kids that would be in college at one time, but never once did he tell me - a top student with a really good SAT score - anything about financial aid. As a 1st-generation-in-college kid, I had no clue. Probably why I work in financial aid now.
@kelsmom your experience and mine back in the day…almost identical. I was the first in my family to attend college. One parent was a displaced German after WW2. My family was low income.
My HS counselor was a former physical education teacher who was a piece of work. Frankly, her idea of “college counseling” was to point to a bookshelf with a huge number of college catalogues shelved…and telling us to look and see if there was anything we liked. Seriously.
My kids really didn’t have a lot more help…except they both had some teachers who really cared, and THEY helped!
D1’s GC was well meaning, but honestly couldn’t have picked my D out of a police lineup.
Every time D or I sat down with her, it was like starting from scratch because she had so many kids on her roster, she didn’t know one kid from another. I mean, it was funny to see her become delighted looking over D’s transcript time and time again, but also frustrating because her recommendations were never going to be anything but generic. It’s fortunate that I’m self employed, so was able to put in the time to fill in the gaps for my D. She never would have found the school she is attending if all we had to go by was the GC for advice.
Terrible. We fired the college counselor. Reassigned to the head of college counseling. Offered admission to an elite LAC. We declined & proceeded on our own. Easy to do with two acceptances via rolling admissions (one was a full ride = tuition, travel & dorm room) already in hand. Also had other attractive options. I do not recall using the college counseling offices for anything at all. Only complied with required submissions.
If I recall correctly, each college advisor was assigned about 35 senior students.
Many large public HS kids like mine use a private college counselor who they pay on an hourly basis, as needed. Ours has been very helpful in letting D20 know where she was deficient in her class schedule and what she needed to do over her junior/senior years to give her the best chance to be successful in college admissions. With a HS of around 1600 kids, there is 1 counselor for every 400 students which is insufficient to expect them to really know your kid and to give any meaningful advice. With so much at stake for each kid and their family, I would not leave it up to chance with an administrative employee who is overworked and under paid.
Fantastic and spot on. I guess we were really lucky, both my kids and I had close relationships with all of them - gave them a nice present as thank you after applications were all done around winter break. GCs held workshops over summer with kids to start their essays, had to turn in a rough draft first day of school. They were on it. If you wanted her to review your essay, the students left it in a basket on her door and she would make edits and return it, and do this as many times as student sent it in to her.
I still remember the confidence of the first GC we worked with. Looking at his list she said you have plenty of acceptances here then asked, “Of these four schools, which one would you attend?” Son replied, “Definitely school xyz.” She said ok then, you will get into all of those so you don’t need to apply to them all, take them off the list. You are making too much work for yourself." Being new to the process I wasn’t sure to believe that, so he removed one of them rather than three. He got large scholarship offers from the three we left (but didn’t attend any of those). She was right. Seems obvious now having been through this four times, but that first one it is hard to know how it works and believe a safety is actually a safety. But a good GC knows.
Another GC got us to expand our choices with some good suggestions - she really knew her students and what they were looking for/would fit. A good GC can make it a great experience and a lot less terrifying. Even just knowing they are gonna get things turned in on time (recs, grade reports, transcripts, etc) is a huge stress reliever.
I think it can be luck of the draw. We have an amazing counselor at a public school. I think one has to get to know their counselor starting in the beginning of 9th grade. Some people don’t believe this, but the relationship starts as soon as you walk thru the door! As far as getting to know my child, yes, it is hard. I think it takes more effort on the part of the child. I think with the way the college process is these days, kids need to take more initiative (with their parents) to drive this process. As hard as that sounds, I think it is true. We did not ask for advice on my child’s list as I (we) have done so much research and have done college visits, and had another child go through this already. We found common data sets, freshman profiles, campus visits and Naviance a very helpful tool.
I have nothing but positives for my son’s GC. Old timers on CC have heard this story before, o just skip. Anyway, on Wednesday before winter break, son, a junior, was called into a meeting with GC, principal, VP, and head of dual enrollment at local college. They were upset that he had used up all paid for courses at local U ( where he took math, science, Latin) classes, 5 courses that first semester in junior year, and I don’t recall how many in sophomore year. Honestly, I don’t think any child should have to face such. Meeting without a parent present.
So, GC spoke to him after meeting. She pointed out that he only needed English 4 to graduate, so why not apply to college Now? So, I get home from work, hear about all this, and we begin thinking of where he could go. Each of us called colleges to find out what would happen if he attended the local U full time. We were up until 2:00 am downloading recommendation forms. The next day, son asks teachers who could have recommendation letters ready by next morning. The GC got everything out to a dozen colleges by the next day. What a winner.
“I think one has to get to know their counselor starting in the beginning of 9th grade.”
I think your advice is absolutely right, @LvMyKids2. DD indeed tried this. GC called her in for a “meet the freshman” meeting, which I thought sounded like a good start. It did not go as well as it probably could have, though. He sat typing on his computer the whole time, and someone else did all the talking and asking her questions. They meant well and she said the “someone else” was nice, but, because she had very little advance notice and had to miss her lunch unexpectedly, she felt unsettled, unprepared, and ignored by her actual GC.
I do feel like these folks would be there if she really needed them. For sure all my emails asking questions have been answered promptly. Seeing as it is a large public high school, this may be all I can hope for.
We didn’t find either of the kids GC’s particularly helpful. D’s just said “great” to every school on her list. S’s didn’t never said anything to him until after acceptances were in.
My daughters’ guidance counselors weren’t very involved with the college lists themselves, but I think they did make sure that all info from the school went out when necessary, which is more than can be said for my nephew’s GC. On the other hand, he went to a high school at which the majority of students probably don’t even go on to college, so the staff and GCs were probably more concerned with other issues for students.
This is pretty much what we got, plus any schools we’d mentioned being interested in on the Parent Brag Sheet. They were sorted. My older son’s matches were all reach for anyone schools and the GC made sure that we were aware that he was not going to be a shoe-in for them. I liked her even though she kept calling MIT an Ivy League school. She liked my son because he would come in and work out his own schedule after their computer program produced one with only three of the courses he needed sophomore year - she was knew that year. We’d hated the one he’d had as a freshman so did the happy dance when she retired. (In our school kids have the same counselor all four years.)
I don’t think they tried to do too much predicting not wanting their predictions to backfire.
GC enables students undergoing certain difficulties in their lives, to ask questions and clarify them through guiding and counselling. Therefore, counselling helps them ask without any fear since the person in charge is willing to help.
Not allowed at our public. The GC’s spend too much time fighting fires (keeping kids in school) to spend time on a Frosh kid’s college dreams.
Instead, there is one/two General open meeting nights each year. A bunch of handouts, and see you next year. It actually works reasonably well since the vast majority of kids go to a UC or Cal State, neither of which requires a rec…
And for those desiring a private, most private schools know that the GC rec will be perfunctory.
Huh. So some of you are saying that your school’s guidance counselors actually provide college guidance?!
I actually like my kids’ counselor when I’ve had to deal with her on some issues lately. She is there to assist with high school issues. She will dutifuly submit the school profile and make sure to meet deadlines, but she provides no guidance on college choices.
Not good. He dwelled on the first set of Act scores not the last Act scores. To be fair he was trying to match kids with schools that would give good merit. But these were like my son’s back up or backups to his backup. He ended up going to his reach school that the counselor gave warning he most likely wouldn’t get in, with good merit…) :
At my kid’s school you aren’t required to meet with the college/guidance counselor until the summer before junior year. But you are welcome to talk to them earlier if you want. I would say they were pretty helpful and very honest when they needed to be. They never stopped a kid from applying to any school but they would let the kid know if their GPA and scores were in the right range for that school. That said, I do think we lucked out. I remember the guidance counselors at my school weren’t terrible, but they were just so overworked!
Our kid’s public school GC moonlights as a private college counselor for one of the local companies. I don’t know how this is even ethical, but here we are. She gives very basic info, and does the minimal paperwork to get the process moving. I guess her paid clients are getting the real advice. Meanwhile, she is getting a taxpayer supported salary , 2 paid maternity leaves and all other benefits. After DS2 graduates, this is going on my (growing) list of grievances to the school board .
“Our kid’s public school GC moonlights as a private college counselor for one of the local companies. I don’t know how this is even ethical, but here we are. She gives very basic info, and does the minimal paperwork to get the process moving.”
Wow, a lot of potential issues there (as you know.) Does she do paid consulting for students at the school where she works? Does she ever refer students to the local consulting company even if she doesn’t help them? If her school students ask her college consulting type questions at school, does she help them or just refuse to answer?
One of the local private school guidance counselors does some consulting on the side, but he only does it for students who are not attending the school where he works and he’s scrupulous about only doing the consulting on weekends.
DD’s gc was fabulous and he agreed with the assessment of her balanced list. We were fortunate that her parochial HS has designated college counselors who started working with student very early in the process. Basically meetings, workshops, and checklists with parents and students starting freshman year.