<p>Public magnet school. 2 counselors, approx. 62 seniors per year (total 250 students 9-12)</p>
<p>Private school. About 115 students in senior class. They had two counselors and a registrar (plus some help from others in the administration on the mailings). Have added a half-time position, so the ratio, when the system is up and running, will be about one counselor for each 45 or so seniors (plus they have the work with the sophomores and juniors to do). They work as a team so that one of the counselors is always available. They run an efficient, productive ship, thanks to the head of the department.</p>
<p>Also, each student (9-12) has an academic advisor - the same one all the way through unless the teacher/advisor leaves or the student requests a change. And there are other adults involved in working with the students on traditional academic and non-academic counseling/advising-type issues (coaches, department heads, a vice principal for curriculum and academic matters, advisors for each grade as a whole, a learning specialist, and others) so that a lot of the work that guidance counselors do in other schools is not something that the college counselors are expected to do.</p>
<p>My D's primary college counselor is wonderful. She really knows my D well. We are very, very fortunate.</p>
<p>But before you get jealous, the head of my D's school probably does not know her name and the principal spends most of his time talking down to the students and has no time or impulse for celebrating or encouraging, just for putting the kids down.</p>
<p>Public school - grades 10-12. 8 guicance counselors for 2400 students. Not very knowledgeable or helpful about selective college admissions. In their defense, students applying to such colleges are only a small fraction of the student body, and they have to deal with many different types of students and situaitions.</p>
<p>Public. 500 to 1.</p>
<p>public 1:200 but 1:50 for each grade</p>
<p>private: 2 counselors for about 75 students</p>
<p>private: 9 deans(counselors) for 250 seniors.</p>
<p>Why do colleges ask for counselor recs when so many schools have 200+ kids for each counselor?</p>
<p>public: 380 to 1 for seniors; 4 for 1600 total</p>
<p>Wow, everyone's ratios are so amazing!</p>
<p>My public school: 638:1 for seniors, 2200:5 total</p>
<p>"Why do colleges ask for counselor recs..."</p>
<p>Good question, at least with respect to public schools. At least the teacher has had some contact with the student before writing a rec. Is the counselor's rec just to verify attendance?</p>
<p>International -1 counselor for 10 applicants</p>
<p>Since pretty much the only way a counsellor would "know" a student at our local schools would be if the kid tried to burn down the cafeteria, I guess that's what they're looking for. (Whether skill at arson is a "hook" or not I'll leave to more knowledgible posters.)</p>
<p>Public school, 4 for 1000 -> 1:250. Not as bad as I thought, really, and I'm lucky because my counselor is head of the department and also favors the top 5% of kids. It sucks but that's how it works.</p>
<p>6 GCs, 450 seniors, 1800 students total. I think the GC is supposed to act as the "collector" of information from the teachers, etc. so can summarize how the student is generally perceived at school. I know our GCs get the teacher recs and send them in with the transcript.</p>
<p>My mother worked for a school district as a secretary. She had a argument with one of my teachers once and the teacher pulled my file from the office. Teachers over the years had put comments down about my skills, attitude, temperment, etc. I was surprised about what was written. Couselors can use these files to "get to know" the kids. Even if the couselors don't know you personally, they have years of records from teachers.</p>
<p>Our HS ratio is 1:500.</p>
<p>Our public hs ratio is fairly good at 160:1 overall and about 40:1 for seniors. Considering that at least 50% of the seniors spent minimal time with their assigned GC, choosing to attend our local CC or one of the state colleges, that meant a more reasonable ratio of 20:1 for college bound seniors looking into a broad range of colleges.</p>
<p>Our son's GC had many years of experience under his belt and was able to offer him a lot of good advice which he then used for his own research. I do not think Case or Oberlin would have made his initial list of possibilities without his suggestions.</p>
<p>The Guidance Office also let seniors use one of the office phones or theri own cell phone to make one of those pesky calls to colleges during the day when the Admissions Offices were open.</p>
<p>Sounds like your public has a pretty nice set up for the college bound kids. Much better ratio than the publics (or privates) in our state.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>My public school: 638:1 for seniors, 2200:5 total</p> </blockquote>
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<p>MusicNut, you might get the prize for worst ratio. :( </p>
<p>One of the issues that affects many public HS counselors (and some private HS ones, too) is that in addition to academic and college counseling, they end up dealing with all kinds of peripheral issues, like truancy, substance problems, parent/family issues, etc. That makes it even tougher for the straight A student with a college list, who seems to need very little help compared to the suicidal kid with an abusive parent. Some specialization would help, no doubt, but I think that's politically difficult in many high schools. It would make a lot of sense for one counselor to focus on college-bound kids in the top tier academically, but the rest of the staff typically doesn't want to get left with all of the problems and the less qualified students. So, they end up splitting up the students in a random way to make it "fair".</p>