<p>We have been very pleased with our guidance department at our large suburban public school. The graduating class is over 400, but there are 10 counselors for the school (who handle all four grades using an alphabetic split so the kids tend to stay with the same counselor). I think the college counseling program is excellent - they have several parents' nights and invite adcoms from several schools (from Ivy to less selective and state) to participate. The school also sponsors an interview night at which volunteer adcoms do mock interviews and give feedback. </p>
<p>The counselor meets with each junior and parents in the spring to discuss college planning. Parents complete a feedback form which helps the counselor draft the references. We found our counselor's suggestions and advice right on. The staff at this school is quite familiar with kids going out-of-state, fortunately, because a significant percentage do. Less is known about the "hidden gem" low profile LAC's, I find, but that is my only criticism. Applications are handled via a very organized system, and the guidance office sends postcards to students when the app package has been mailed to the college. That way everyone knows what is where. When acceptances come in, a push pin goes on the location of the college on a wall map in the guidance office.</p>
<p>Every December, recent graduates of the school are invited back to participate in a panel discussion on college life and adjustment for the benefit of the current seniors.</p>
<p>The guidance counselor my D had is the same one my now 9th-grade son has. She has been great with him as well - meeting with him to go over course selection and just to get to know him. Her responsiveness is wonderful. We feel blessed and grateful.</p>
<p>jmmom-I agree. We are very lucky. What's sad is that what we have should be the norm and not the exception. According to this thread, we do seem to be in the minority.</p>
<p>there aren't any guidance counselors at my school. there are four guidance techs for about 2200 students and they basically manage schedules. then there is a college/career/scholarship "specialist"--one person for the whole school with not a lot of qualifications-not an actual counselor. and my school's person is particularly bad. i'm not going to rant because i have before, but since this seems to be the official thread, i thought i'd just throw in my two cents :)</p>
<p>Fair, very little knowledge and not very helpful. Half of my class that even goes to college will go to the local community college, which will take anyone. Very little knowledge of selective school admissions, and a crappy job on forms and recs. Don't get me wrong... I like the guidance department as people (3 counselors for 900 students) but they definitely aren't up to par with really good counselors. I wonder what it would be like to have spectacular counselors who don't send your stuff in late and sloppy.</p>
<p>I'm impressed, Jyber209 - I'd estimate a ratio of one counselor per 200 students at your school. That, combined with an awareness of elite school admissions, is far from typical. Your community is fortunate!</p>
<p>Our GCs are nice but overwhelmed. They each have 400-500 students,many of whom have other issues besides getting into ivy league schools. Our counselors seem to spend most of their time scheduling students for classes. College admissions just seem to be low on their list of priorities. Unfortunately, they do not have the time to seek out bright students who come from families without an awareness of educational opportunities and point them directions other than our local community college. The few students who apply to private colleges and universities must do so with little or no direction or advice from the GCs, though they are happy to help out when they are ASKED. For students with Type A parents like mine have, it is fine. But I worry about the missed opportunities for the other students in the school. Some of us PTSA moms have talked about the possibility of augmenting the work of the counselors to help out the students whose own parents cannot, but I am sure that there will be politics involved.</p>
<p>My kids have gone/go to the same high school that I went to years agol When I was there there I had the worst counselor ever...never met him, except when my parents complained that he had never met with me. Yeah, we met...and he screamed that he was doing everything that he could. My two older kids had one counselor: When he was counseling my son and daughter he did, in no particular order...forgot to send in his rec on time, didn't tell us that there was an appeal process (oldest), wouldn't return our calls to assist in an appeal process for our middle child (we did it without him...and we successful), and generally rested on his tenure. The first time we thought that we had bad luck, the second time we knew that we had a lemon. Our youngest was assaigned to a different counselor...we were THRILLED with this counselor. ....and he quit to go to another high school. My youngest was given a new, sweet, lovely...new...counselor. We will have private counseling for her. BYW, the high school is one of the best, and most famous high schools, in the US.</p>
<p>My GC didnt really know what he was doing. He is a very nice guy but seemed to be confused about colleges. For instance, he told me that Columbia was the easiest Ivy to get into because it is the largest. When I was surprised and questioned it, he looked it up and realized he meant Cornell. He shrugged it off, saying, "oh well, they both begin with C's."</p>
<p>the guidance department as a whole has made many mistakes. My peers complain that wrong recommendations were sent, deadlines were not met, etc. I myself haven't had any of these problems but I made a point to send everything in myself. However, I feel like I missed out on a lot of helpful guidance and expertise that I needed-- basically, I used this site as my own resource and did everything on my own (and I'm very thankful to those who have helped me here!)</p>
<p>BTW, my school is large, around 2000 students</p>
<p>in my school there are about 6 0r 7 counselors and their job is to make sure we get all our credits and pass state examinations in order to graduate, and that's all they do. But there's one college adviser for the whole school, and he's a really great guy. He's been coming to my classes since 9th grade. He made sure that the PSAT was free for 9th and 10th graders and that gave me a lot of experience. He built a college admissions website specifically for our school, and so far he's given me feewaivers for all my SAT and SAT II tests.</p>
<p>I mean guidance officers do a lot of work but to be honest they didn't offer me anything new that I didn't know already. They didn't suggest really any "perfect" schools for me or anything - my officer just ran with what I thought would be good.</p>
<p>HORRIBLE counselors!! They make my blood boil! They all *<strong><em>ed up my schedule every single year and blamed it on the computer. I had to take remedial math and reading because of them. I was even discouraged from taking algebra 2 and instead take math for morons(math & money). Luckily, I had caught on to that bull *</em></strong> and refused to be placed in stupid classes by that time. It's like they put people in stupid classes just to increase the school GPA. Damn I wish the U.S. school system wouldn't cushion people so much by placing them in classes like that.</p>
<p>my counselor recommened i should apply to harvard and umkc in the same sentence...thats when i realized that she didnt know much about individual schools. she had also never heard of pomona(i dont blame her, im from kansas), she also didnt know amherst. at my school pretty much people go to harvard/yale/princeton/mit/caltech or they go to ku. its terrible, they really dont know much, theyre nice, but smiles will only get you so far...</p>
<p>thank goodness for this site, without it i wouldnt have applied to pomona, and dartmouth, my top 2 at this moment. maybe thatll have to change in april when i get more thin envelopes than i expect just so i dont feel totally devastated.</p>
<p>our counseling office is the worst...the people who work in the front refuse to help people get appointments and often make people cry because they are just that rude. The only reason anyone gets anything done is because the students here are really smart and don't see giving up as an option when they refuse to send your transcripts. Also the counselors offer absolutely no assistance in choosing a college so everyone who isn't motivated ends up going to the community college even though our school is one of the best publics in the state.</p>
<p>What an amazing disparity in counseling offices and GCs! My sympathies to those who receive little/no support. Our mid-sized (1400) school's dept. is very good and my d's GC is phenomenal. D lucked out in being assigned to this very dedicated, competent woman - my first d's experience with a different counselor was nowhere near as positive. Serendipity can't be discounted as a factor in anything, I guess.</p>
<p>There are 7 GC's, so each has responsibility for about 200 kids, 50 in each grade. GCs do a seminar each semester with each batch of kids on topics such as adjusting to high school, peer relations, etc. They also do parent info nights on college admissions in spring of junior year and fall of senior year, with lots of handouts about resources. It's made very clear that the responsibility for the search rests with the student, and that the GC is there for support, not steering the process. I'd say that none of the GCs are as well-informed about admissions as I've become in the past few years, certainly not about out-of-state schools, but they can't be all things to all people.</p>
<p>Our counseling center is very hands-on with the apps, though. They used to have each kid turn in the app with $2 to cover postage; the GC would then assemble the teacher recs, transcript, profile, her own rec, and send in the works. Most kids today apply online, so the GC has the kid bring in a hard copy of the already submitted app (to prove it's been done, I guess) and sends in the school-related documents separately. They've had this system in place forever and it really works, with remarkably few errors.</p>
<p>I could never, ever be a GC!!! Such high expectations. In our district, there's little doubt that the worst part of the job are those parents who hound and harrass their kid's GC when things don't go exactly their way and they don't get private school service in a public school reality. After reading this thread, I realize how very fortunate we are.</p>
<p>9th - she was nice
10th - never went to her office unless making program for the next term.
11th - I got to know her well, cuz I hang out in her office during my lunch period
12th - since I got a short program and lunch is my last period, I don't go at all.</p>