Hi,
My daughter is going to high school this year (freshman). She is a straight A+ student. took AMC8 and got 90 percentile, got 28 on ACT when she took it in 7th grade for DUKE. Going to a math summer camp this year (awesome math). We are new to the country and to the education system here. We don’t know much about how to prep her for colleges here as myself or my husband didn’t go to school here. I am looking for some help on how to prep her for college. Can someone recommend any good private counselor or private advisors ? I don’t know where and how to look for them. Thank you.
I do respect cultural differences and experiences so I am only going to present my own view.
Many people in this country might say they feel that 9th grade is too early to start thinking about college, and that spending those years packaging one’s child (or oneself) can kind of distort high school in a negative way. Encourage your daughter to work hard (enough), make friends, and follow interests that she develops, which may be varied at first but then focus a little more toward the end of high school.
If you do want a private counselor (and this forum can serve well instead!), I hope you will wait until junior year.
Also does she really want to go to math camp this summer? I hate to see kids that age doing school all year, but there are exceptions in terms of some young people who genuinely enjoy it. Down time is important for health and mental health!
One big factor that can be overlooked especially by people unfamiliar with the American system is the importance of extra curricular activities for admissions to top colleges. If you hire a counselor I’m sure they will discuss that. But if you don’t you should probably seek advice here or elsewhere on that aspect of her high school experience.
OP, sign up for NextDoor.com.
It is like a neighborhood bulletin board where you can ask questions, such as “does anyone have a local HS college counselor that they can recommend?”
She is a freshman… I really don’t think you need to scare her with the college talk yet. High school should be a time of exploration and fun. Encourage her to join new clubs, try new things, talk to new people. I just think tutoring as a freshman is a bit too much, especially if she is already an A student.
I think the summer before junior year is a great time to look more into tutoring for standardized testing. She already sounds like a bright student and seems to put enough pressure on herself to work hard and perform well in school. I also don’t think tutoring freshman year will be that beneficial because by the time she takes the ACT junior or senior year, tutoring will have been so long ago.