<p>The one thing I learned, and from being on CC, was that it is very important to get to know one’s guidance counselor. My son, after transferring schools, and I went into our college counselor for an informational session. He immediately hit it off with the counselor, who understood his interest in a big, OOS university. She has been a wonderful resource, and she will be the one to write his rec. Needless to say, he is very happy.</p>
<p>I think all our parent packet type stuff was done through Naviance. I have to sort of spell things out for our GC and ask things really clearly. I don’t usually trust that she will know the right answer off the bat. All three kids have her… ugh…</p>
<p>Sorry, I did not mean to imply that all large publics had guidance counselors that are too overwhelmed to know the kids. I have read here on CC about some that do. The workloads of some counselors are just overwhelming.</p>
<p>^That would be the case at our public. Four counselors, one working with 100 or so kids at high risk not to graduate, the other three cover the remaining students. I think it works out to close to 500 kids per counselor. They do absolutely NO college planning. Class of 2014 is in a Gear Up cohort, but their goal is college attendence . . . anywhere. It’s agreat program and comes with a grant for all participants, but it’s aim is really to get kids thinking about college who otherwise wouldn’t. Obviously, that means our high school qualified for the grant by having a pretty low college matriculation. Anyway, the guidance counselor has never spoken to d about college. Never will, either. He’s too busy putting out fires.</p>
<p>DS’s public high school is ranked bronze on US News ranking. We have never heard of junior packet of any sort. DS and I made an effort to get to know his GC and we have really good relationship with her. Even with that, she has never had a meeting with us regarding college. All DS’s friends at school can’t even name their GC. I just got the word that our GC is leaving after this year. I am loosing even the little bit of help I currently receive.</p>
<p>Our school is running fundraisers to be able to keep our College Counselor… They need to raise 22K or he won’t be able to stay (matching funds will do the rest). He’s done a great job at the school.</p>
<p>The GCs do well, but they have oodles of students to work with at all levels. It’s been nice having a “college” counselor to assist the kids who are interested in more.</p>
<p>No junior packet or anything of the sort at our school.</p>
<p>I will once again recommend mytonomy dot com as a great resource for those who might feel they are not getting what they need from their guidance counselor. </p>
<p>It gives video advice from students, counselors, admissions staff, etc . about the educational process, from how to succeed in high school, the college app process, and how to get a job after college. </p>
<p>Under the college app process for example, there are videos on writing application essays, how to get a good recommendation letter, how to find the right school, getting off the wait list, tips on the interview, etc. </p>
<p>There is a section for first generation students and not just about the nuts and bolts. There are discussions there about the other pressures first generation students might face, like perhaps family pressure “to be a success,” staying connected with family while being away, being a minority for the first time in college, and many more. </p>
<p>I have no affiliation with this site, other than knowing one of the founders, who happens to be a GC at my DS’s school.</p>
<p>Good morning! Just jumping in to vent, as I’m pretty sure I’m not alone! It’s a rainy day here in DC and the weather matches my mood. :(</p>
<p>Cheergirl seems to have a bad case of Junior-itis. I keep telling her she’s not entitled but she doesn’t seem to be listening (no surprise there). Depending on my energy level, I cycle between (1) feeling like I should just shut my mouth and she’ll end up “where she belongs” for better or for worse; and (2) nagging incessantly about time running out to get some grades up, study for June SATs, etc.</p>
<p>UGH…not having fun.</p>
<p>CHeermom…maybe its in the water?</p>
<p>Just posted this elsewhere…</p>
<p>Been one of those days…</p>
<p>For sale cheap/obo…1 rising sr high school student
Eats healthy (generally)
Braces completed. Nice smile. Dimples.
In need of attitude adjustment and if lucky, a college education.
No expressed warranty on follow through or following house rules .</p>
<p>Back to you regularly scheduled programming
haha</p>
<p>Really fascinating how different our experiences have been! I’m torn between being irked that our GC’s are basically useless, and really not caring because it’s not like I could miss work and go meet with one anyway! Not sure how anyone meets with them. But like I said, an email once in a while with a planning timeline or something would be nice. </p>
<p>Thank goodness for CC and all of you – It has been the best resource so far!</p>
<p>@2014novamom - That site looks great! Going to recommend it to my DS.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading this thread for months now. The talk about high school gcs has prompted me to finally comment. I live in the northern suburbs of Atlanta and my kids attend a well-regarded public hs. My DS14 is a science kid who really seems to possess some natural aptitiude for Chemistry (thx college board for putting some of the most obscure frqs in recent history on yesterday’s AP Chem exam). He is interested in studying either chemical or material secience engineering andh is top choice school is GA Tech. We spent an entire day at GT at “Preview Tech” and all (myself, DH, and DS) fell in love with the school.</p>
<p>So here is where the rant concerning gcs comes into play. DS took the February ACT and did extremely well. He wants to be “one and done”. He’s not the type to continue to take tests to see how high he can get his score. I attempted to get some advice from our high school counseling staff concerning his strength as a GT candidate. (I was basically trying to determine if my son needed to take the ACT again). I was schocked at how little his guidance counselor knew about admissions to GT. For example, he doesn’t even know that GT doesn’t care about your ACT composite. He also couldn’t tell me the average SAT or ACTs for GT students. When I asked what kind of test scores my son needed to make him a strong candidate, his response was “high, very high.” Seriously? I wasn’t asking him about the details for the admission process at U Mich. I was asking him about the top ranked public school in our state. </p>
<p>I asked the principal if there was another counselor with whom I could speak. He sent me to the head counselor who is their “expert” on college admissions. He didn’t know much more than our counselor. I really was in utter disbelief. During our conversation, he was looking at my son’s transcript and made the comment that he had plenty of AP classes. GT likes to see 5 AP classes. Thats what he is telling people? For GT admitted students this year, average number of AP classes was 8.</p>
<p>Out of desperation, I called the GT admissions office and spoke with someone who was very helpful. I mentioned the comment that our hs’s head counselor made about GT wanting 5 APs. His reply? If your hs is offering 20+ AP classes (which it does), you better be taking more than 5. I really believe our gcs are incompetant.</p>
<p>Good morning everyone…haven’t posted here in a while, but this “talk” about GC’s always hits a nerve with me. Yes, often GCs are overworked, have too many students etc…that is true of many people in the work place. I certainly have been in that situation and been sleep deprived to boot working 24+ hour shifts…it can be an excuse or a challenge to overcome. I am well aware of the limitations in many cases. Nonetheless our situation begins with lack of common courtesy such as not returning emails or phone calls. Sadly we are on our second go round and feel completely helpless to do anything about it as our college counseling dept is a small tight knit group of people. I have literally taken it upon myself to make the college thing a full time job so to speak to get as much information as possible on my own. It’s how I found CC. I still felt we made many mistakes last time and I am still learning new things this second go around. Iam shocked on a regular basis how much I am still learning and it is not my profession. How is it that information I have easily gathered online or through books is not known by HS GC or at least not shared with parents? I have pretty much given up on our GC, feel like we will simply remain polite ( we have no choice, he will be writing a letter for our S), and try to remain as calm as possible when we are reminded how useless he is…I can think of 2 situations in the last month that have made me furious already and S is a Junior - more annoying moments to come no doubt next year.
As I have expressed on CC in the past, if schools cared at all about their GC performance they should have an annonymous means by which one could provide feedback on their performance.
rant over for now;)</p>
<p>fogfog–OUCH! Just fell off my chair laughing! At least you’ve managed to hold onto your sense of humor! :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Agreed…I also think this should hold true for teachers. There are some teachers who really give it their all, some are mediocre, and there are some that just shouldn’t be “teaching”! Who would keep track of all of that though? Another person would have to be hired to analyze all the data!</p>
<p>fogfog - I loved that…</p>
<p>Eeeyyiiikkkesss!! I am so sorry many are having such a difficult time with their GCs!! We are at a large suburban public, do not have a specialized college counselor, the students are assigned their GC via last name in 9th grade and stay there all four years. There was slight shifting with rezoning that lowered each class size from about 700 students to about 630. We have been lucky to have had the same GC for all three of our boys, since 2005. She knows our family, and I have made it a point through the years to ask about hers. We do have what’s being referred to as the Jr packet, however it’s turned in fall of Sr. year as I said earlier. We have met with the GC & son but only because we requested it and it was regarding a very messy scheduling situation for Sr. year. I really do like her a great deal, feel she responds to emails, and is helpful to the kids, etc. Having said that, because I enjoy research, resources such as cc, etc., I don’t bother her with the little things (I am in NO way insinuating anyone here is! I think people without resources sometimes do). Now, a question like H2BGTMom’s, I would ask and expect an intelligent answer… “What do students from OUR high school within the last two years look like that are being accepted to X?”, X being one of our top state schools. I would not be asking this for every school on S3’s list, but the top two, you bet. When I am contacting her about something I tend to update her quickly on schools S3 has looked at and reactions so she knows what direction/type of schools he’s gravitating to. I know that we are very fortunate to have a competent and responsive GC. She has helped with gifted/special ed issues with S1, long-term absence due to surgery with S2, and messy scheduling issues for two years with S3 who is in a specialty program. If we were to relocate, or had a new GC each year, I’d be singing the same song many of you are. I do let our GC know on a regular basis how much I appreciate her.</p>
<p>fog - you crack me up!!</p>
<p>Thought you all might enjoy a break with the May Checklist for Juniors…</p>
<p>[May</a> College Checklist for Juniors - NYTimes.com](<a href=“May College Checklist for Juniors - The New York Times”>May College Checklist for Juniors - The New York Times)</p>
<p>No AP stress or GC stress here. Glad to report S got a summer job (and D’11 has an internship). Both of my kids will be doing something other than their usual routine: sleep late, marinate, caffeinate.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say we have a difficult time with the gc. He’s pretty responsive if I email him I may be nuts, but I don’t think finding each kid the right college fit is his job. I know, considering where I am, saying that is practically blasphemy. But, hear me out.</p>
<p>My kids do not go to a private prep school. If they did, I’d expect something different.</p>
<p>The high school is a public one. It does not need to sell itself by puffing up it’s metaphorical chest and crowing about who gets into which school. Enrollment doesn’t depend on it. </p>
<p>This is not a bad, scary, school. Seems pretty typical of mainstream America.
But, of it’s students, close to 60% are free and reduced lunch, we have our own police liason office in the building during school hours every day, sometimes the dogs come in to check for drugs. We have a gang presence. We have a lot of racial diversity and new immigrants. In other words, there are more important issues for the school to deal with, i.e. providing a safe environment for learning and addressing problems, many associated with poverty, that keep students from graduating. </p>
<p>So, I consider my gc’s job (and the district’s) to get as many of these kids through basic learning and into adult life as they can. Yes, there are some great college prep opportunites, and every year a number of kids do get into the schools mentioned on CC. There are many kids who continue at the local cc, the local colleges, and the state u’s. There are also some great vo-tech pathways for kids not interested in further education. </p>
<p>If my high school’s counseling dept does the basics, I feel like I can take it from there. I feel I can and should take it from there OR pay the huge sticker price of a private boarding school (because the only privates here are parochial).</p>
<p>Oh, and summer plans looking good here, too. Both d’s have jobs. (D’11 could have 3, but I’m pushing for just 2).</p>
<p>DS also has a job lined up - the quintessential summer lifefuarding job. I wanted him to do something low key and local so he could focus on apps, especially since he plays a fall sport that will start daily practices in August. That really only leaves him six weeks over the summer to work on essays. </p>
<p>Between the job and swim team he should be plenty busy. Younger kid is only 13 so she won’t be working except for occasional babysitting. But she too will have swim team and she’s also taking a couple of enrichment classes - a forensic science class and a geometry class (to give her a good foundation for the next school year). </p>
<p>We will also try to get away the last week of July for a family vacation, destination still unknown. I just know it will involve sun, probably sand, and definitely margaritas.</p>