<p>My daughter is a junior. We just learnt that her current counselor, who's also her 2nd counselor, is leaving. We don't know who will be my D's new counselor next academic year. Needless to say, I am so worried. My D had her first counselor in her freshman/sophomore years. Then the counselor got promoted to Guidance Program Advisor position. And my D has had her 2nd counselor since last fall. It took my D's quite an effort to get the 2nd counselor to know her. And now, she's leaving.</p>
<p>What can we do? What should we do? Should I request a meeting with the Guidance Program Advisor who was my D's first counselor for the first two years at the high school? Or should I talk to the principal? What can I say besides showing my concerns?</p>
<p>p.s. I grew up overseas so I am not familiar how the school system works here. I just know counselors play important roles in kids college applications. I just don't see how a new counselor coming in kid's senior year could help the kids in college applications.</p>
<p>We went through three counselors in three years when D1 was a soph/junior/senior. I doubt showing your concern will do much good – you need to get to know the new counselor as soon as possible in the fall. Meanwhile, don’t count on the counselor to lead your kid’s college search. Honestly, that is not a very good idea anyway. You know your kid and your financial situation far better than anyone else could, and those are the two biggest factors in selecting a college. I’d suggest that you start spending time out here on CC and familiarize yourself with the application process. I assume your D has been working on her standardized testing already as a junior, right?</p>
<p>My D’s counselor left at the beginning of her senior year. The new one did not seem overly interested in anything. So we just took care of everything ourselves. We researched, visited, applied, and accepted all without her help. I think she probably did the counselor rec. forms, but they were pretty generic. The secretary of guidance was a friend of ours and offered to send the transcripts and expedite anything we needed. So that certainly helped. I have found that my gc in hs plus the gc’s my kids had were really no help in the college search and application process. I remember meeting with D’s retiring counselor to discuss colleges. He gave her the name of exactly one college to look at - the one HE graduated from. So we just did it ourselves - and I don’t think the gc’s minded as that was less work and involvement for them.</p>
<p>Our (public school) GC did nothing other than make sure the transcripts got sent, etc. I suppose she wrote some sort of letter, but we “fed” her the information on the parent survey that was requested. As far as recommending colleges, that is laughable. She gave us the incredibly deep advice of applying to “reaches, matches, and safeties” without specifying what sort of schools fit those categories for our kid. We got more help from an employer-paid counselor who spoke with us for half an hour or so, got our kids’ stats and what they were looking for in a school, and recommended schools in each of those ranges. I think they were quite accurate in fact. </p>
<p>The guidance counselor did not play much of a role in the application process for our three children. </p>
<p>(In fact, our counselor did not seem to understand private college financial aid at all and recommended state colleges to everyone. Nor did he understand applying with interest in any of the arts.)</p>
<p>In our school college counseling is a well-oiled process where a new GC can easily step in and take over. They use a parental questionnaire and ask for in house teacher recommendations to help them write their letters. They use Naviance to help them spit out lists of college suggestions. And they have various small group meetings to help kids with the process. Most colleges understand that public school GCs don’t usually know the kids well, they count on them for the school report and some indication of where your kid stands in relation to the rest of the student body. (i.e. top ranked student, or charismatic leader, or star of school plays, or the AV person no one could live without, or regular kid that is no standout but hasn’t gotten in trouble like the vast majority of kids.) I think the most useful thing a GC can do is put some context for your grades and scores. I.e. knowing that from your school no one with your kid’s grades and score has never or always gotten into X school, is an incredibly useful piece of info.</p>
<p>My daughter’s guidance counselor at a large public school (over 2,000 students) .who she actually had somewhat of a rapport with having known her since freshman year, left on maternity leave the start of my daughter’s senior year. She did all of her student’s recommendation letters over the summer. Any chance you can have the leaving gc do your letter before she goes?</p>
<p>For us, the substitute gc did not play much of a role - she was responsible for the clerical stuff - sending grades, scores, letters, etc. (with the help of naviance) and she did that fine. Anybody who spends time here on cc knows that you have to do your own research etc. (which is why you are here) and that the gc is not really going to play a significant role.</p>
<p>I actually concern less about choosing schools. My D has already done lots of research by herself and made up her mind. What I concern is the recommendation letter. As @mathmom said:</p>
<h1>quot.</h1>
<h1>I think the most useful thing a GC can do is put some context for your grades and scores. I.e. knowing that from your school no one with your kid’s grades and score has never or always gotten into X school, is an incredibly useful piece of info. </h1>
<p>unquot.</p>
<p>My D has a good relationship with her current GC. And we were expecting a very good recommendation letter from her. Now she’s leaving in July. We don’t know what kind of recommendation letter to expect from the future GC. I am also worried about that it would be too much to ask the leaving GC to write a recommendation letter for my daughter.</p>
<p>You honestly don’t really need a guidance counselor if your daughter is independent and does her own research. Mine was pretty much useless, he tried to help I guess but he really made me feel insecure when he suggested mostly schools when I frankly had the ability to get into much better schools. And I did: I was accepted early decision to my top choice and won many very prestigious awards while I was there.
I did show him my essays, but his advice wasn’t all that useful and in my common app essay I actually stood my ground and did not take some of his advice.</p>
<p>I think good teacher recommendations are more important. Teachers are with your student everyday for years. They can attest to what your student is like in the classroom. I wouldn’t worry about the counselor rec.</p>
<p>My kids have had the same GC the entire time they’ve been at this school (2.5 years). She has done nothing. If we want a transcript sent to a school, the department secretary takes care of it. The GC did not suggest any schools, and has no idea where my kids are going because they aren’t going to big state schools or to the community colleges. The GC did not suggest any courses to take because they have no idea what the kids are interested in or need. They know the deadlines for the big state schools, they know the requirements for state scholarships and grants, and that’s it.</p>
<p>They each have about 600 kids to advise, and most of the attention goes to those who are failing or in danger of not graduating. They do schedule changes and that’s about it.</p>
<p>My son had the same situation. The old counselor (who was basically asleep at the wheel) left at the end of 11th and the new counselor (who was good but very green) came in at the beginning of 12th. Net result, no effective counseling at all.</p>
<p>First, as others have mentioned, take ownership of the logistics of the process. Make sure transcripts and recommendations are sent when and where they should be. Trust, but verify.</p>
<p>Second, get involved in the counselor’s recommendation. I agree that teachers’ recommendations take precedence over counselors’, but still the counselors’ recommendations can be helpful to set the context and highlight specific accomplishments or challenges.</p>
<p>If your daughter has a special situation – either positive or negative – that you’d like the counselor to address, make sure the counselor knows about it. Some schools ask for parent and student input ion writing. Some are less organized.</p>
<p>If after meeting the new counselor, you get the impression that s/he will not be up to the task, you could draft a recommendation yourselves or at least provide “talking points”. Some counselors may be offended by this level of involvement; some will be thankful. You’ll get an idea when you meet.</p>
<p>Your daughter could also ask the departing counselor to write her recommendation before she leaves, or at least leave a suggestion for her successor.</p>
<p>I would put off contacting the guidance program head (or the principal) until after you’ve had at least one meeting with the new counselor. See how s/he reacts to your concerns first. Actually, I’d say complaining about the counselor is a no win situation. If, after meeting, you’re still worried, then take proactive steps yourself, but refrain from criticizing the counselor directly. If your approach is too aggressive, it could backfire.</p>
<p>Be sure your daughter’s schools are affordable. Sometimes in the spring we get parents posting out here who let their kids choose where to apply, then find there are no affordable options on the list (or the only affordable options are schools the kid does not want to attend). If you haven’t yet, look at the net price calculators on the financial aid website page for each college. Plug in your information to see what kind of aid your daughter might get and what her total cost of attendance might be. Note that if you are divorce, own rental property, or own a small business, the calculators will overestimate the amount of aid.</p>
<p>Again, thank you all for your inputs. And special thanks go to @momrath. I’ll have my D to try your suggestions, such as “ask the departing counselor to write her recommendation before she leaves, or at least leave a suggestion for her successor.”</p>
<p>As I said before, my D is doing the research by her own. And actually, my D does not need her GC’s help in choosing schools. However, my D does expect her GC write a glowing recommendation for her.</p>
<p>As some of you have already pointed it out, teachers’ recommendations have more weight. And I heard this before, too. However, I also heard some other people said that GC’s recommendation is the most important. Let me elaborate a little more with regarding to this claim.</p>
<p>Someone told me that GC’s recommendation is kind of generic to most kids, because a GC simply does not know every kid that well. However, if a GC could write a personal recommendation for one or two kids, then this kind of recommendation would weigh the most in the eyes of college admission officer. And this sounds reasonable to me. That’s why we feel a great loss when we learnt of the GC is leaving. </p>
<p>BTW, after having read some responses in this thread, I am thinking to open a new thread to discuss who’s recommendation weigh more, teachers’ or GC’s? Is this a good idea?</p>
<p>How would a school know if the GC had written 1-2 glowing letters of recommendation or 45? Some people have no problem writing letters and can just whip off 45 ‘glowing’ ones while others struggle to write the 1 or 2. At our school, GC are assigned based on the alphabet, so I wouldn’t like to think our chances of a better recommendation rest on whether our last name is Brown and not Green or White. </p>
<p>I know a college professor who thought teachers should spend 3-4 hours writing a letter of recommendation for his daughter because that’s what he spends. Only problem is he writes one or two a year, not the 50 that some high school English teachers are asked to write. Colleges can only put so much stock into a letter from a GC, especially since some have 60 kids assigned and others have 600.</p>
<p>"Someone told me that GC’s recommendation is kind of generic to most kids, because a GC simply does not know every kid that well. However, if a GC could write a personal recommendation for one or two kids, then this kind of recommendation would weigh the most in the eyes of college admission officer. "</p>
<p>How is an adcom supposed to know that “Susie is a natural leader and very talented in math” is the generic boilerplate letter when the GC wouldn’t know Susie if she tripped over her - or whether she knows Susie intimately?</p>
<p>Look, if it’s a reasonably average size public school, it’s mostly boilerplate anyway. </p>
<p>My kids’ GC went on maternity leave. They made some effort to get to know the new one but really, what’s the point? They’re kind of like ATMs for transcripts. They couldn’t possibly have been “involved” in our kids’ decision process in the least. </p>
<p>D was reassigned to a new GC at the beginning of junior year. The second GC was far better than the original one.
So you never know.
That said the college search process, etc. was done by us. We really required very little from the GC.</p>