<ol>
<li><p>We had enough other sources, never used them</p></li>
<li><p>We got some input from them, they were pretty good</p></li>
<li><p>we got some input from them, they were excellent</p></li>
<li><p>We got lots of input from them, they were pretty good</p></li>
<li><p>We got lots of input from them, they were excellent</p></li>
<li><p>They were idiots, absolutely useless, or worse than useless</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> She wasn’t an idiot, it just wasn’t in her job description to help kids with their college search. She referred everyone to the College & Career Center, which is very well-stocked with books but the director is useless in helping kids identify colleges that might fit them.</li>
</ol>
<p>Hate her with a passion</p>
<p>She was irrelevant. </p>
<p>We managed the whole process on our own (with help from CC). The GC never even called Son to the office for a discussion at the beginning of Sr. year. I don’t really blame her. Public school GCs are completely overwhelmed. Her main focus has to be getting the at-risk kids to graduation…not holding the hands of high-achievers.</p>
<ol>
<li>The only thing I really cared about was that she was excellent at getting all the paperwork in on time, and the whole guidance office was really well organized. S didn’t need college advice from her, since he had me (and thereby CC!)</li>
</ol>
<p>1 or 6. Let me be very clear: I really like my GC, she is not an idiot, and she has been a tremendous help to me this year pulling off some great scheduling magic.</p>
<p>However, it is not her job to recommend me a college. Between managing the schedules of about 350 students, keeping at-risk kids from dropping out, and listening to the personal problems of about 350 students, she does not have time. I don’t attend a school where this is a job for the GC. She provides some help with scheduling standardized tests; that’s it.</p>
<ol>
<li>We got lots of input from them, they were excellent.</li>
</ol>
<p>My son attended a private school and I our college counselors are amazing. They start informal meetings with students in 9th grade. In 10th they take the students on tours of 3 local colleges. In 11th they meet individually with students and help them begin the journey and in 12th they are there whenever you need them. They also have separate parent night time meetings and have invited college admissions’ counselors come in to talk with us.</p>
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</p>
<p>Yes, same here. I should have added that to my earlier post.</p>
<p>My son attended a public middle-school. The principal arranged for the entire “gifted and talented” section (about 45 8th graders) to go on a field trip to the local flagship’s honors college. The University had pizza for them and took them on a tour the dorms and library. thought that was above and beyond.</p>
<ol>
<li>she was an idiot.Worse than useless. Even though she knew nothing about music schools, she kept telling D…“You won’t get into THAT school in a million years!”</li>
</ol>
<p>However D enjoyed throwing acceptance letters on her desk. “Here’s another school that you said that I wouldn’t get into in a million years.”</p>
<p>I need a different number. I love ds’s GC, but she didn’t help him in any way craft his list. I’m sure she would have if we’d asked, but we didn’t. But she went above and beyond with the LORs, timing of paper work, even reviewing our FA packages and telling us what to follow up about/questions to ask. The one thing I ran by her that she didn’t do is inquiring whether she saw it as within her job duties to call a school on behalf of a student. That’s the only e-mail that went unanswered. SO I took that as my answer.</p>
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<p>Exactly. Zero input whatsoever so far, with two kids.</p>
<p>I am going to answer my own q - 2 - modest input, generally pretty good. (this at TJ)</p>
<p>Speaking of the GC herself, she spend some time with DD talking about college choices. Only a couple of minutes with DW and me. She also gave DD a copy of Fiske (it was some kind of reward for showing up at a session on the college process I think). Most of her time is spent on crises, just as at other schools, and most of her college time on managing the paperwork, etc. But what time she did spend on college suggestions, her suggestions were good. One of them was RPI, which is where DD is now headed. She said CMU was reachy, DW is now thinking that was wrong, but I am not sure. RPI a better choice for her IMO anyway.</p>
<p>DD SHOULD have used the college counseling center more, but didn’t.</p>
<p>Oh, the other thing the guidance center provided re college search, was arranging college visits to the HS, which were helpful.</p>
<ol>
<li>I go to a public school in the country 
A lot of people act like rural schools are just as good as all the others- well, they’re not. We have one guidance counselor for all four grades. He really can’t be concerned- AT ALL- with those of us who want to go to college. Too busy trying to work with those failing, fighting, bringing weapons to school, selling drugs at school, getting pregnant in sophomore year, or just not showing up, period.
I don’t hate him or anything, it’s really not in his job description. I’ll just be thankful if his recommendation is okay and the official transcript is sent in on time.</li>
</ol>
<p>[also, TJ? You referring to Thomas Jefferson in Northern VA? I live in southern VA, I can’t imagine counselors at TJ to be anything less than excellent.]</p>
<p>Our own counselor was pretty good. For opinions of the counseling office overall, PM me.</p>
<p>Our experience was much like that of the other public school parents, with a few nuances. Our kids’ GC – they had the same last name, so they had the same GC, since they were assigned alphabetically – was a well-meaning, intensely bureaucratic guy. His main jobs, in order, were (a) to make certain about 100 seniors each applied somewhere that would accept him or her with 100% certainty, (b) to get their paperwork in on time, (c) to handle various educational, disciplinary and psychological crises for about 450 kids, (d) to serve as a clearinghouse for outside scholarship opportunities, and (e) to give actual college advice if he had time left over and anyone asked. He maintained a small library of out-of-date college guides, and if given the chance would earnestly promote well-known LACs. HIS kid went to Wesleyan. But by and large ambitious, top-of-the-class students were left to self-counsel and to counsel each other – which they did with dedication and gusto.</p>
<p>GC from our daughter’s priviate high school was not an active part of the college search. While GC met with our daughter periodically, seemed more to ensure the search process was underway. If it hadn’t been, I’m under the impression she’d have inserted herself. GC was however, an integral part of ensuring the high school schedule included classes appropriate for our daughter’s intended major.</p>
<p>GC at our private school does an informative college search series each fall and presents a booklet he has compiled about the process. At one session, he brings in admissions officers from a couple of local colleges. At another, he has a panel of parents who have gone through the process come talk about their experiences in the college search. After that, families are on their own though he would answer any questions anyone had to the best of his ability.</p>
<p>GCs at our public HS are responsible for keeping kids on the time table for the college process - taking tests, getting LORs, requesting transcripts, and having meetings with the college/career center. The college/career center is where you go for help with what you’re looking for, putting together a list, and having your list “ranked” (in CC terms as safety, match, or reach, though they use different terms). GCs did a good job of keeping my fairly diligent kids on track, don’t know how they would have done with other kids. We used college center only to rank the list we’d put together. I don’t know how good they would have been at helping to put together a list from scratch.</p>
<p>A solid #5 for D’s college counselor! </p>
<p>QLM</p>