<p>I go to a large public school and each guidance counselor is responsible for approx. 400 students. I have been so frustrated in my attaempts to see her to ask questions, get advice, or request schedule changes (because shes always so swamped). My parents don't know too much about the college process either as they both attended colleges in our home country (im a US immigrant). We can't afford a private counselor. </p>
<p>Have any of you had sons or daughter sin this situation and how did they deal with the lack of guidance?</p>
<p>teachers in my D school prefer to answer questions by email because then they can do it when they have a block of time- or alternately answer a few at a time while waiting for meetings etc to start.
I suggest making an appt to see your counselor, perhaps at lunch or before school and have a short list of questions.
Our counselors can't do schedule changes, except by hand which is a very time consuming process, so they don't do it except where a very strong reason warrants it.
You can find a lot of ideas and info on your own- through sites like princeton review- CC- and even UsNews.
I suggest you sit down with your parents- have an idea of what sort of college you are looking for-
small ? rural? great dance dept?
some idea of what your grades and scores are
I am assuming you are not more than in 11th gd?
here is a financial aid site
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/</a>
and a college search site
<a href="http://www.petersons.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.petersons.com/</a>
look through these and get some ideas :)</p>
<p>Our guidance counselors also have about 400 students each. While my kids guidance counselor is one of the good ones, with so many kids to deal with, she doesn't have a lot of time to really help with the college process. We picked out the schools and she did her part of the paperwork.</p>
<p>I've been reading and posting on this forum for a few years - My oldest is a Junior in College and middle is a senior in HS - and my best advice has been this bb and several good books, Harvard Schmarvard, Fiske Guide to getting into the Right College, and several others. You might be suprised to find that with many kids, even though their parents went to college, they still don't get a lot of help with the college selection process. For many of us, the choices were the State U or a local community college. It is so much easier to find out information about colleges now.</p>
<p>Lolli:
My daughter attends a HUGE HS in NYC. Her counselor has basically been usless since day 1 Freshman year.
I did a lot of the leg work for my daughter and she did a lot of her own research. There are a lot of immigrant students and students with immigrant parents in my daughter's HS, many of who she is friends with. I offered my help and advice to them, and they took me up on that offer. Maybe a friend's parents can help you out. My daughter's friends have been telling me I should charge...lol!
Also, my daughter also reached out to teachers she knew would help her. She had an English teacher last year, who was also a counselor (not hers, unfortunately), so she gave my daughter quite a bit of advice (and a VERY good letter of reccomendation..lol). Don't be shy, reach out to anyone who may be able to guide you. Remember, there's always the parents on these boards. All the best to you!</p>
<p>My D attends a 30K per year boarding school and the GC has been entirely USELESS! She even had to argue with him about a MISSING PAGE on her honors college app! He insisted that the word "continue" with an arrow at the bottom of page 2 meant NOTHING! When D demanded to see the entire original application, he pulled out a big cardboard box from under his desk and started digging through a massive pile of application packets. He found it, an lo and behold, page 3 and 4 were found! Nothing too important--just a place to list ECs and awards!!!!!! </p>
<p>The college advising and guidance has been most disappointing. Almost disastrous, in fact!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I go to a large public school and each guidance counselor is responsible for approx. 400 students.
[/quote]
Just 400? Count yourself lucky!! In the LA school district, each counselor had more like 800. And they were basically useless because they spent all their time trying to keep the delinquents in school, handling serious problem students, etc. If you were a good student you were seen as a blessing because you kept out of trouble (and their hair). </p>
<p>So accept that you can't do a perfect job, and can't have the guidance and experience at hand of a seasoned pro. But remember this quote from Voltaire: "the perfect is the enemy of the good". Just because you can't do the same job as a private counselor doesn't mean you can't do <em>anything</em> to make better decisions regarding college.</p>
<p>Start by reading a book or two about college admissions. I suggest "Admission Matters" by Springer and Franck, also "Looking Beyond the Ivy League" by Pope. The latter explains the benefits of LACs. </p>
<p>Then using the information you've learned to approach the college search logically. A lot of kids do it ad-hoc; "I'm applying to Columbia, Stanford, and Amherst" isn't uncommon from these kids. Don't do this!! Figure out what type of schools you want (LAC, University, small private, et), and where (part of country, urban/rural, etc). Before the name of a single school passes your lips you should have a concrete list of what you're looking for in a college. Only THEN do you find schools that match what you want.</p>
<p>Spend more time focusing on finding schools that are matches rather than dreaming about the reaches. Find a safety that you'd be HAPPY to attend, and spend time carefully searching to find this school. For most people, major shouldn't be important in the college search (and you'll probably end up changing it anyway). So unless you're interested in film or some other very specialized area, focus on the reps of colleges rather than a dept in them. The key take-away here is FIT -- you want to find a college that's right for you, not one that US News adores. Maybe one of theirs is right for you, but maybe not.</p>
<p>I can understand from the point of recent immigrant- you know nothing about many things people heard most of their life. We were not sure even about dates when one suppose to apply for college- back in a country where I am from you apply to only one school after you finished HS- you take entrance exams- whole process takes about 1-2 month and you done- either in or out.
There are plenty of resourses in your local library, or go to local book store and check their catalogs. This forum has been invaluable for me- besides present conversations, you can look into archives as well. If you are junior- start figuring out what is most important for you- location, size, financial aid, big small, university, LAC, distance from home, possbiel major etc. Sign up for US News report/ $ 15 edition on line/. Check out where your stats will get you- which school is a reach, match or safety. Then start visiting if possbile, with your parents or with friends-spring, summer. Draft several different essays over the summer and prepare resume/ activities list/portfolio. Choose final 6-10 schools early fall of your senior year and apply early. If you choose to apply to any early action/ rolling admission school by the Chrismas next year you will have bunch of admissions in your packet. Make sure you always ahead of deadlines!!!</p>