What is your child's school's counselor to student ratio?

<p>Public 1:250, plus psychologist who takes any of the kids who have an IEP; gifted or challenged. Our school assigns counselors alphabetically by last name so you get the same counselor for all four years.</p>

<p>Private - 1 college counselor and an assistant (started out as a secretary, but after years of experience, including getting a son into a selective school, is better termed an assistant) for 140 seniors, no guidance duties. This ratio is somewhat misleading, because no more than 70 seniors apply to more than one school, and about 70 seniors would apply only to rolling admission schools - although some of the kids toward the bottom of the class will require as much time and attention as those at the top.</p>

<p>As others have said, this is a big part of what we pay for, along with the excellent system in the lower school - now if they could just fix the middle school, it would be a great place.</p>

<p>Public: 5:2500, 550 seniors. Just increased this year from 4. While the counselors have information available and try to be helpful, their job is really to make certain that everyone has applied to at least one college where he or she will be admitted, and to make certain the school's paperwork gets delivered on time (provided the student holds up his or her end). They spend comparatively little time on successful, ambitious students, believing (correctly, most of the time) that these kids will counsel themselves and each other to a fare-thee-well. They spend a lot more time on kids who have to be prodded a lot.</p>

<p>Private: 1 full-time, 4 part-time faculty counselors and 1 part-time psychologist for 380 kids, 95 seniors. The faculty counselors have no role other than college advising for seniors in the fall and juniors in the spring. Subject to over-subscription, kids pick their own counselor. A really nice, intimate system that generally produces great results.</p>

<p>We have eight for 2200 students, but some of them are more like adjustment counselors than college counselors. They are way too busy, and have giant caseloads with kids with all kinds of needs.</p>

<p>We are basically on our own for college, as far as I can tell. If we depended on them for information, it would be a disaster. Everything I know thus far, I have discovered myself.</p>

<p>Public school. 3 counselors for 1400 kids grades 10-12. (414 in the senior class.) That's 1 to 467 if my math is any good.</p>

<p>private school. 10 counselors for 1600 kids (1:160). or, if your just doing seniors its 10 for 390 (1:39) yay for big private schools.</p>

<p>Public school. The GCs have fewer than 60 seniors they work with at one time. However, they are not dedicated strictly to college counseling and also handle course selection, etc. for freshmen on up.</p>

<p>public 1-467 seniors, 4 for around 2000.</p>

<p>Counselor asks that parents provide a letter detailing achievements and such during spring of junior year so he can work on recs over the summer. He needs the letter because there is no way in h**l he can know every kid! I wish they would hire more people!</p>

<p>Public school. 4 for 1950 students. Counselors are assigned alphabetically by student last name, and 3 of the 4 are in their first year. The school has flatly rejected the idea of a "college counselor" - and they may have their priorities straight, as this past week a 16 year old student was arrested for the murder of an 18 year old student.
Our counselors are spending their time trying to get the kids to attend school and graduate. The high-achieveing kids interested in top colleges are a breath of fresh air for the GC's, but better have their own act together! That's why my son and I are so thankful for this board -- really, I can't tell you how much this board is helping kids at my son's school! I volunteer at our ASPIRE office - helping kids apply to college and find scholarships (this is run by parent volunteers and an Americorp worker) and I'm about the most knowledgable person we have - due to the help of all of YOU - Thanks!!</p>

<p>public school 4 counselors 1600 students- assigned by last name
freshman year her counselor was head counselor- I built relationship with her, helped in office with other students etc- then she left for a private school
sophmore year, her new counselor was again the head- I started even earlier in the year, building a relationship with counseling office, helping with other parents volunteers bringing coffee and muffins etc- especially on what I knew was going to be their very busy days- this counselor left the district two weeks before her junior year.</p>

<p>Junior year, she has again another new counselor, who is also the head, however this counselor, possibly becuase is male & better dealing with students than other adults, I have not been able to build a(positive) relationship with, in fact I have been getting the message to stay away, which is frustrating, because the other counselors she has had have been pretty helpful & I don't ask for much ( just help trying to get her classes straightened out at beginning of year- which is kinda the job ;)
* since it is possible he may figure out who I am- I also want to say that I think it is fine that he is better with students than adults & even that he seems to think I am a PITA- but even as I have been encouraging my d to advocate for herself, I am not going to back totally off, because that would not be doing my job * :) )</p>

<p>So I am not expecting much/any help regarding college, especially since counselor has already indicated that community college is a good option for her. ( which is why the parent volunteering with college- CAN program etc- is so necessary- I know its hard to beleive- but even if you aren't applying to MIT/Brown/UChicago, doesn't mean that you can't be successful at Pitzer or Smith or Morehouse or U Madison)</p>

<p>Certainly I am not against community college for anyone, depending on circumstances, but for a student who has been working hard to attend college since middle school, a college where the only entry requirement is high school graduation/GED, should not be dominant path for post high school education.</p>

<p>Private school 1/18- one college counselor-small senior class- didn't really meet with prior to senior year. ( although was also her Spanish teacher)
However, did have very excellent learning specialist/who I met with even regarding her sister in another school & who had a great relationship with students, very accessible.</p>

<p>Also had a psych?social worker- not really clear on his background, but he also served as counselor in situations like when there was a harrasment incident, which I was happy with how it was dealt with.
It may seem strange I am not clear on ratio , but she did graduate a few years ago.</p>

<p>Entire high school was about 160 students- ( also had a middle school)
Even though the college counselor had only 18 seniors to deal with, quite a few parents hired their own counselors, however, this may have been to act as an intermediary to get students to finish essays or whatever.</p>

<p>Even though my D was first gen college, I didn't feel I needed to hire someone ( even if I had had the money which we didn't)- and even though I didn't know about CC- I did an awful lot of reading though & I communicated by email with Bruce Hammond who was one of the Fiske editors and had written his own book ( which was very valuable but really needs to be updated Discounts and deals at 360 best colleges )</p>

<p>We have 5 college counselorrs for 100 Seniors
20:1</p>

<p>Public in Oakland CA---4 counselors for 2200 students(or 1:550) ...3 full time...1 part time. Close to 90% of the graduates go onto post secondary education..my D has the part time counselor...great heart, willing to do all she can, but there are limits. I gathered D list of schools, forms for each school w/deadline, addressed and stamped the envelope, ordered the transcripts. D used the Fiske guide & internet to develop her list.</p>

<p>I don't know whether it is a good idea to have GCs who do only college counseling. My Ss GCs knew them, having worked closely with both of them (and us) since 9th grade to get them into the most appropriate classes (not always what we or they thought these should be at the beginning of the process). </p>

<p>We do, however, have GCs whose strengths are very different and it can be the luck of the draw for students. Some GCs work very well with Haitian students, for instance, others with Hispanics; some GCs know which kids would be a good fit for top schools; others know about colleges that give good financial aid. There can be mismatch between GC's strength and student's needs. My kids were fortunate.</p>

<p>
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I don't know whether it is a good idea to have GCs who do only college counseling.

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</p>

<p>It might solve the problems of the students who post on this board, saying "I'm a senior and I have a personal problem, but I'm afraid to talk to my GC about it because he/she also writes my recommendations."</p>

<p>my D middle school ( which was also a high school) had a drug/alcohol counselor, that the kids had a good relationship with- in fact when my D had a problem ( not drugs or alcohol), her friends went to the counselor to help D get some help.</p>

<p>Her current school has a health clinic ( as most of the public high schools do) staffed with nurses, social workers and psychologists.
I agree though, that depending on teh counselor, they might place too much emphasis on knowledge of personal issues- which is unfortunate, because it is important that teens have a place to get help and not have it come back to bite them</p>

<p>We have a teen health clinic and the deans of students handle discipline issues as well as personal problems. There are four deans of students, one for each small learning community as well as four deans of curriculum. The guidance counselors handle course selection and scheduling as well as college counseling.</p>

<p>Many years ago we had a "college" counselor who worked with the students all 4 years on college prep, testing, etc. We lost her to a private school. Our school district won't give us another one, and won't give us the 3 more counselors we should have based upon our numbers. </p>

<p>All of our counselors are new (have been counselors for 1-3 years). None of them have any kind of relationship with colleges and truly don't understand college admissions beyond the state universities. </p>

<p>We have a school nurse who visits our school 2 mornings a week, but I think she mostly handles paperwork. She doesn't have an office and has to sit in the library to do that, so I don't know where she would talk with students.</p>

<p>Son1 graduated from an urban Southern Californian public high school three years ago.
One (1) college counselor for about 2500 students.
What this meant, in reality:
During spring of our Son's junior year we received an email message urging us to make a private appointment with the counselor to discuss the college application process.
I dutifully called to make an appointment. Done. What was in retrospect striking - and an ominous sign - about our initial contact was that the counselor never asked my son's name.
On the appointed day, I arrived at the school early and got a copy of his official transcript from the main office. Then I sat with the counselor for about 20 minutes listening to a monologue about the basics of college admissions (and I mean, really basic, like "he should take the SAT...").
At this point, I gently interrupted, and asked, "Do you know who my son is?"
She responded - faintly abashed, admitting with a small grimace that she knew nothing about him, not even his name.
I was, as you can probably imagine, appalled. (She knew my name, of course, and I had assumed - perhaps stupidly - that maybe she had some sort of computer search engine that allowed her to cross-reference parents with their children.)
That very day, I hit the internet, desperate for information and encouragement. And that, my friends, is how I became a CC obsessive.</p>

<p>catholic high school : 2/50...they also teach a class each, but they're so focused on the seniors; it's amazing</p>

<p>6 consulors for 3,000 students.</p>

<p>yeaaa.</p>

<p>i think my consulor has to deal with like 150 seniors along with her regular other grade students.</p>

<p>that's the bad part about being in a big public school.</p>