<p>My school has about 800 kids for all 4 grades. 9-11 meet with their counselors each once a year to make their schedules for the next year. Then you can make appointments for what ever you need. But I will not take pity on my counselor! She has been there for eons and really lost her touch. She maybe has 22 seniors tops to take care of. She didn’t really do anything for me except collect all my forms, I applied online to all of my schools.
She lost my activity sheet TWICE and I applied for a scholarship and it had to be done online, she refused to do it on a computer and her hand-written evaluation wasn’t excepted and my application was VOIDED because of her! She didn’t help me with the confusing as hell common app at all and she has been useless.
AND-
she still doesn’t know my name! I meet with her at least once a week, she tells me how great I am, and then calls me by another name or just asks me who I am! I swear some people just need to retire!</p>
<p>If my guidance counselor feels overwhelmed she can go find another job. Sorry, but most people know what they’re taking on when they go into a field, so I have no pity for busy guidance counselors. I think if you look around in the real world, you will find people just as busy if not busier than guidance counselors. Not to mention that at my school, there are three counselors for less than 400 students.</p>
<p>Our 4-year public high school has 3600 kids. The kids each get a guidance counselor that follows them all four-years. In the spring of their Junior year, they get their first personal meeting with the single college counsellor for the school. Luckily, the college counselor has an assistant, who I believe is responsible for making sure all the actual applications’ pieces and parts get sent to the various schools. Other than the ‘counselor recommendation’, I’m not sure whether the ‘regular’ counselor is involved in the college process. </p>
<p>The college counselor and assistant do have a specific College Information night each year for the individual grades to give information specific for that year in terms of what freshmen, sophomores, etc, should be doing to get prepared for college applications. </p>
<p>I wish my daughter could get in to see the actual college counselor earlier than March of Junior year, but I guess with a senior class of 850 (and I haven’t a clue how many actually do college applications) I can understand the enormous workload those two people have. But, my daughter’s regular counselor really hasn’t been particularly helpful regarding college questions. I guess she’s too busy with the reams of paperwork she gets daily on tardies, discipline reports, award letters, serious issues, etc. Helping with the guidance counselling office’s filing has really made me aware of how little time these folks have to spare for kids without issues or problems. And I am not being a smart-aleck. They really do have their plates full.</p>
<p>The “Top 25” of each class, however, seems to be well-represented at well-respected top colleges/universities, so I guess they know how to get it all done in the end.</p>
<p>My private school has 2 guidance counselors for the 400 kids in the high school and one guidance counselor for all 800 kids in the middle and high school (!) so it seems they value good colleges for the alumni newsletter more than mentally healthy kids 
though my school is rich enough that half of the kids have their own private shrinks…</p>
<p>I attended one of the schools mentioned in the article-though overwhelmed with a heavy caseload, my counselor still got to know students (the high school ones, anyway) on a first-name basis. She was extremely helpful to me in my college search and personal/school life-a miracle worker, I think. Truly, though, she and my alma mater’s other counselor could certainly benefit from someone else shouldering some of the work… but that’s politics, for ya! (funds misappropriation is my guess-forget repainting the doors-hire some new administrators, I say!)</p>
<p>I go one of those schools and guess what. Few students are motivated to move ahead. Even fewer attempt to hammer a top notch school. So when you are applying to such a school, and your counsellor has your forms for TWO MONTHS and not filled it, then there is a problem. If you counsellor avoids you because of your paperwork that is TWO MONTHS old, there is a problem. When the forms are filled out on the DAY OF then we should stop and ask. Sometimes the students are a lot. BUT, most of these students do not want to go to college at all. It is sad to say that. This means a counsellor has less than 25 students to deal with. This means someone is not doing their job properly, and needs to be questioned. I do not want to say anymore, but this; if your college acceptance is going to be ruined because a counsellor is slow (and lazy), then I am sorry, there is no excuse about student number.</p>
<p>My counselor only has to deal with 34 seniors (all extremely self-motivated, who know when to take tests, how to write essays, and which teachers to approach for recommendations), so I have no sympathy for her whatsoever. :)</p>
<p>ugh</p>
<p>so in terms of recs would a kid at a private school had an advantage over a public schooler who gets a generic rec from a counselor?</p>
<p>probably.
I speak to my counselor on a daily, first-name basis. She goes to my performances and basketball games, and is very familiar with all of my teachers and my performance in their classes.</p>
<p>I like it :)</p>
<p>Also, when the the admissions process is all said and done, AT LEAST SAY THANK YOU to your counselor, maybe even give her a ______ College pen =]</p>
<p>I don’t even need to read that article. Nothing it says will change how bad my guidance counselor is.</p>
<p>Haha Yup. Same here! It’s ridiculous, they have so much to do and so little time! Especially when the students don’t want to do anything and expect them to do everything!</p>
<p>"BUT, most of these students do not want to go to college at all. It is sad to say that. This means a counsellor has less than 25 students to deal with. "</p>
<p>If this is like some high schools, the GCs have to spend lots of time with students who are dealing with legal problems and problems like being homeless. Just because a lot of kids aren’t going to college doesn’t mean the GCs have nothing to do.</p>
<p>Wow…I’m so glad all recs for gifted students are written by the gifted counselor, who handles, at most 125 seniors a year. And she has known everyone since 9th grade…</p>
<p>3,200 students here, and only 4 counselors…</p>
<p>I am grateful to Sally that she brought this article to CC. As a former school counselor, I can verify that the issues brought to light here are real. Most counselors I know got into the field out of a genuine desire to help kids; I surely did. After 20 years of trying to do just that, I finally realized that my frustration level was based on truly unrealistic expectations…I had over 800 kids to counsel on every topic you have heard in this thread and much more. I threatened to quit after 17 years, and the powers that be finally hired a second counselor, then poured a whole lot more administrivia our way. The day finally came that I had to say enough already. I still have the desire to help kids, so I went back into community mental health where I have about 50 clients and a much smaller pay check. Now I can get to know my kids well, which for me makes all the difference.</p>
<p>I found CC myself when I had three kids in or about to go to college, and I am profoundly grateful for the service it provides. I have recommended it to many people who have found CC to be a blessing. Among a lot of other things, for many years, CC provided me a community of folks in the “same boat.” We are now at the closing days of college, with one in grad school, one senior and one junior in college. The light exists at the end of the tunnel. For that, and for CC, I say thanks!</p>
<p>Because I do have some expertise here, let me encourage those of you in the process to do all you can to help your counselor. Give him or her time to get done what you need. Think about your values, interests and needs BEFORE you see your counselor. Give him or her a list of your activities and achievements in order of their value to you. If you are in a huge school, or if your counselor has a lot of students and you wonder if your counselor remembers your name, say who you are when you go into the office, and remind the counselor what you have discussed in the past. “Hi Ms…I am Jane Eyre, and I really love the idea of going to Kenyon that we talked about last month. I have looked at some other schools too…” If you think your counselor looks kinda frantic, ask for an appointment time. That will allow your counselor to wrap her mind around your issues and be less distracted. I am sure this will not make the impossible situations perfect for you or your counselor, but I hope they will help you!</p>
<p>I wish you all the best in your college thinking and planning! </p>
<p>Momofthree</p>
<p>same situation as RH.
I guess I’m lucky, but I have nothing but respect for my GC.</p>
<p>My counselor takes care of the 84 seniors in our school and I feel very happy it’s that way. Half the kids wouldn’t even qualify to go to a four year college imo. The others apply to only like 2. So that leaves me with 35 applications. I didn’t have to pay a penny to those for application fees.</p>
<p>my counselor had me type it up as he spoke, so i could add my own suggestions and such. it turned out a little under 2 pages long with detailed specifics, so i think thats not a bad way to go about it haha</p>
<p>I go to Public school with around 2300 students.
We have a seperate area of the counselor’s office that is designated as College/Career with materials and places for admissions officers to meet. </p>
<p>We have 1 “director” of college admisssions (but I get the feeling that he focuses on athletic recruits and top students) and he has a secretary/assistant. We have one student support specialist (who only does personal issues and is really nice). I believe there is also a Special Ed. counselor who I have never met. </p>
<p>There are two counselors for ninth graders only. For grades 10-12, there are 5 counselors (mainly academic, but also personal, I guess) who also have a joint secretary. </p>
<p>so all in all, each counselor prolly has a little over a hundred seniors to handle.
Luckily, I have a close bond with one of the counselors (and thus, even though she is not designated to handle my stuff because of the Alpha organization, she will prolly write my rec) since I have known her since 6th grade.</p>