<p>I have a great counselor. I asked her about a certain scholarship and she got excited about it and sent out my information immediately. She is always willing to help. Our 4 counselors do a great job with the 1190 students at my school.</p>
<p>that reminds me...i (and my fam) made sure to send in everything ourselves. there have been quite a few times in the past where counselors have missed deadlines, sending in transcripts, etc...most of our counselors are nice, but, as i was saying before...with a case load of over 500 students each, something's gotta suffer, and it shouldn't be our futures!</p>
<p>my counselor is awesome, but i can't say the same about the other counselors at my school. there are approximately 1300 students per class, which makes it very difficult for the counselors during college app season. nevertheless, my counselor has never missed a deadline (heck, she sent everything a month in advance!) and she's very accessible as well. once she sat down and chatted with me for an hour about my college choices/plans.</p>
<p>Our counselour turnover rate is appaling. I'm glad the secretary knows what's going on.</p>
<p>Mine is good, I can't say the same thing about all the others. I've been lucky that my counselor is the only one who hasn't retired or left over my HS career; plus she's very knowledgable. Never really meet the counselor...she's always in meetings, or so it seems. When I finally do meet her, she knows me by my full name and everything, she's really nice and is quick to help if I even start to ask a question. She is knowledgable in liberal arts colleges and in my HS's classes. But I am not a liberal arts type, I could care less about liberal arts. Which makes her information less valuable for me.</p>
<p>
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once she sat down and chatted with me for an hour about my college choices/plans.
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It's because of people like you that I can never get to my counselor about important stuff like fixing a messed up schedule or the like!! Hhahaha.</p>
<p>Now for the secretaries. There are two. One of the ladies is EXTREMELY NICE, she is probably the nicest secretary I have ever met. And the other is extremely moody, I tend to catch her on the bad days. And par for course, the nice lady is usually away from her desk and I have to deal with the PMS woman.</p>
<p>Overall, my counselor is knowledgable for general information and helpful if I have class scheduling conflicts; but they tend to cater to the needs of the majory of the school--liberal arts. Because of this, they tend not to know much about my particular major (engineering).</p>
<p>Just a side note, the office secretaries are terrible, they are the most disgruntled people I have ever met.</p>
<p>Terrible, my counselor somehow mis-sent two of my Secondary School Reports so they didn't get there.</p>
<p>Also my school messed up my grades and I had to be late on my mid-year reports by two weeks because I had to get my grade fixed.</p>
<p>Our counselors are great people who seem to take interest in the students; however, their case load is absurd! They probably have a case load or 400 to 500 students each, and probably about 100 of them are seniors who require additional guidance services. I honestly don't know how they manage to do the amount of work that they do. When the budget axe falls, parents and students should stand up and speak in favor of guidance counselors who have a very important job to do.</p>
<p>I have had the same guidance counselor since I was in my freshman year, and my opinion has not changed: my counselor is terrible. Aside from barely speaking English in any productive way, she sees us only about once in every three blue moons (granted there are about 600 of us on a grade), but when she does see us, she has nothing of interest to say. It makes me wonder what she gets paid to do all day...</p>
<p>Yeah my counselors only know about the UC system it sucks because UC's are crap</p>
<p>I'm on my 6th counselor in 3 1/2 years! I like to call him number six as it's easier than remembering his name. We have a low rate of students that go on to college at my school. The guidance department is more concerned in convincing students to go to college than in getting them into decent colleges. One student had their counselor add a 1 in front of their class rank so they were 100 places worse than actual. I had my grades sent out wrong, and they almost forgot to send one of my applications. Basically, I have become my own counselor. I do still have to monitor them to make sure they dont mess up my midyear reports, but this is what you get with a public education. I can't complain, it's free and i'm sure there are much worse guidance departments out there.</p>
<p>The thing I don't like about my guidance department is they cater to two types of students: super good students aiming for the ivys, and those going to public state schools. If you fit somewhere inbetween (like me), than you are you're own counselor basically.</p>
<p>I HATE my counseling office. They seem to be very organized and they have a good record with SOME advice they give, but their policies on class scedules SUCK because they differ from counselor to counselor. Some counselors have been letting sophomores take AP's when my counselor absolutely FORBID me from taking even AP Psych as a sophomore. Also, they blatantly organized college meetings by GPA, which completely insulted the kids with lower class standings as they were continually placed at the end of the pack, as if they were somehow less important!
Also- two years ago my guidance counselor neglected to send out this kid's applications and he had to wait a year before going to college! And she WASN'T FIRED for some reason...very scary.</p>
<p>get this: my school has about 1600 students. we have ONE college counselor, whom most people don't even meet until their junior or senior year. most of the people who apply to private schools have to get recommendations from her, or find an administrator who will write them, which is difficult since I don't know many people who talk very often with the principal or vice-principals. although she is a great counselor and really knows her college stuff and has good advice, she has to deal with a lot of people and i'm sure the recommendations she writes aren't exactly the most personal since she barely knows most of the students. which may be why so many of the high achieving students end up going to top UCs, and there are only a handful who go to top privates.</p>
<p>My guidane couselor is awesome. I've had her my entire high school life. She's hard to get to sometimes, and did send my sister's application to my college, but she's good when you can get her. I'll overhear her talking with other people and she's just really friendly, helpful and supportive with everyone.</p>
<p>If you look at qtpie's comment two posts up, you will see the problem. What can one counselor do for 1600 students?! Case loads are too large! Most counselors are doing their best and care about the students, and most could be more helpful IF they had the time, but they are simply overburdened with too many students and additional responsibilities such as testing, gifted and special ed activities, technical school programs, etc. I am talking about public school systems. I wonder if private schools have this problem?</p>
<p>My counseling office is pretty good with school related things and college issues. What they seriously lack is the knowledge about good extracurricular opportunities and internships and such in the area.</p>
<p>why is this only for public high schools? just wondering. is that private high schools are supposedly better?</p>
<p>Yeah private schools are better
But you get what you pay for...</p>
<p>okay well i have 3000 plus students- and there is only one college counselor.
from freshmen to junior year i was never able to talk with him, because he was so busy with senior college apps, and stuff, but when it came time for senior year....i actually talked with him, and he was awesome.....i mean i step into his office like every few days, and ask him about scholarships and stuff, and he is always willing to take out the scholarship flyer notices and stuff....(i mean he could just tell me to go online but he doesnt)...on top of that, i give him serious credit, because with the type of kids that go to my school- one college counselor to 3000 students is crazy work.....</p>
<p>I know a kid who attends a private hs and the counseling department is VERY involved. They had the kids write their admission essays over the summer so that they could be submitted to the counselors for corrections/improvements in September! (does this seem...right?). I have to wonder if private school kids are any smarter, or if they just have superior guidance and intense assistance throughout the entire college application process.</p>