<p>^ But then whose shoulder will your dampen if things go wrong?</p>
<p>unfortunately i dont pay my credit card bills so my parents found out i was applying and started talking to other parents. pretty soon it was all over the family and community. where would i be without my mom and dad?</p>
<p>^a fellow chicagoan! they seem to be so rare on these boards...</p>
<p>goldenratiophi #54: And with counselors like those, nobody ever will! It's a cop out to say ignorance is an immutable and allowable condition in inner city or disadvantaged school environments. A guidance counselor gets paid to do many things, and one of those things is to know about college admissions. Even admission to Ivies, especially when one of their students has applied this year to an Ivy. Having your old aunt at the cookout hound you about whether you have heard is a far cry from having a paid professional counselor doing it. Although I can agree with what I think your assertion is -- that counselors in disadvantaged schools likely have less experience in dealing with elite school applications -- that's no excuse for failure to acquire the knowledge (free for the asking on school websites) when it becomes necessary to know it. I stand by my original statement: Those counselors are sub-par and do their students a disservice.</p>
<p>I know what you mean. My counselor is absolutely dreadful.</p>
<p>She doesn't give any advice or know anything about Ivy League admissions for that matter. I scheduled an appointment to talk about it- and all she knew how to say was "ok yeah".</p>
<p>My GC is a cool guy and knows his stuff, which I'm thankful for because I'm one of those obsessed people that worries about every little thing. :) </p>
<p>24 days, 18 hours, 34 minutes, 20 seconds.</p>
<p>I've been fortunate to have a good counselor, she's a no-BS type person and tells me how it is. She's been nothing but helpful, and what I like the most is that she's not fake and that she doesn't tell me things that are untrue.
Yeah for my counselor!
(Public school counselor btw)</p>
<p>yeah with people I don't know all that well or someone I've just met, I don't even mention that I'm applying to Ivy leagues i'll just respond by saying "oh a couple UC schools." Only my closer friends know but it has seemed to get around the campus....for my school though getting accepted to a school Notre Dame or GTOWN level up is a BIG deal, so we shall see</p>
<p>
[quote]
"Those counselors are sub-par and do their students a disservice."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My mom is a high school counselor (although not guidance) and I have to tell you that the counselors at inner city schools have BIGGER problems to deal with than trying to help someone get into an ivy league school. With people getting pregnant, drugs, gangs, and poverty just going to ANY school is considered a success. The counselors are probably there to help those who are struggling not the ones who are obviously capable of doing things themselves (since they already applied).
I mean it is the students future, I attend a public suburban school and I never once asked my counselor anything about the process except when it came to her reccomendation and the transcript. So it is very possible to function with out a knowledgable counselor.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"24 days, 18 hours, 34 minutes, 20 seconds."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wow we are in the twenties T_T so close. Charleston anyone?</p>
<p>haha so soon...</p>
<p>I feel ill ):</p>
<p>hear, hear, IndiaRubber :( The worst thing is when you get suddenly nervous while lying in bed - then it's impossible to get to sleep :(</p>
<p>So true, Sev.</p>
<p>^ Lily Potter.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think I'm slowly going nuts from not knowing!
But I have to say that the worst is when you have a dream you got accepted to Williams, and then wake up realizing that A) you have school tomorrow and B) not only do you have school tomorrow, but you have a Linear Algebra test.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My mom is a high school counselor (although not guidance) and I have to tell you that the counselors at inner city schools have BIGGER problems to deal with than trying to help someone get into an ivy league school. With people getting pregnant, drugs, gangs, and poverty just going to ANY school is considered a success. The counselors are probably there to help those who are struggling not the ones who are obviously capable of doing things themselves (since they already applied).
I mean it is the students future, I attend a public suburban school and I never once asked my counselor anything about the process except when it came to her reccomendation and the transcript. So it is very possible to function with out a knowledgable counselor.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well put, I agree 100%.</p>
<p>^^ I had a really really really really ignorant counselor who knew nothing about any Ivy League admissions or ANYTHING, (thought Penn was a state school) and I had to take care of everything myself... constantly reminding her to send my transcripts to the schools I wanted to apply to, constantly reminding her that she has to write me a recommendation... constantly reminding her to sign my ED Contract (god knows how hard it is to just sign your name on a dotted line of a paper thats been sitting in your office for 2+ weeks). But anyways, I don't totally agree with the quote above because schools should be fostering their gifted and dedicated students not leaving them out to dry like they do at my school. And, as an inner city school, we have the same problems of pregnancies, drugs, gangs, poverty... but these are issues parents should be tackling moreso than counselors at a high school. In that case, they should just change the job description from being a high school counselor to being a rehab attendant. Most of the kids at our school would have never planned to go to college to begin with so there comes a point where you really can't do any more to encourage "academic growth" when it's so heavily embedded into a population's culture that college is for "yuppies"</p>
<p>maybe if more attention and respect was given to the more academically-minded students in high schools, people would be more apt to follow their example of wanting to go to college...</p>