College counseling at APS high schools

[Anonymous]

Can anyone speak to their experience with college counseling at the comprehensive high schools for kids who are strong students but probably not likely to be valedictorians?

Rising 9th grader and we are Yorktown zoned. It looks like they have a single college counselor and 500 seniors? When do they begin college counseling and how much can good but not great students expect?

[Anonymous]

I don't think they do a lot of personalized counseling. They do informational sessions on different topics in classes, provide links to a lot of resources, manage the college visits.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

OP is talking about a dedicated college counselor, not a counselor. YHS has numerous counselors but one that is dedicated to just college information. OP- their "regular" counselor will have a plethora of information about college as well. And PS the teacher/counselor is not a trained counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

Well, everybody keeps wanting to know what the HBW "program" is that distinguishes it other than small classes.
And when you only teach 50 kids instead of 150, meaningful individual mentoring is surely more feasible.

[Anonymous]

Question is specifically about college counseling, not how HB teachers are also mentors/untrained counselors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

Well, everybody keeps wanting to know what the HBW "program" is that distinguishes it other than small classes.
And when you only teach 50 kids instead of 150, meaningful individual mentoring is surely more feasible.

I know a teacher at HBW and she said she won’t send her own kids there. The place is out of control, kids are on their phones all day and not accountable for anything. Sure small classes are great, but only if you actually study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

Well, everybody keeps wanting to know what the HBW "program" is that distinguishes it other than small classes.
And when you only teach 50 kids instead of 150, meaningful individual mentoring is surely more feasible.

I know a teacher at HBW and she said she won’t send her own kids there. The place is out of control, kids are on their phones all day and not accountable for anything. Sure small classes are great, but only if you actually study.

So true. A very small number of teachers (possibly in the single digits) actually maintains and enforces a cellphone policy in class. It's not uncommon for multiple kids to be blatantly on their phones in the middle of class. Career/college counseling does not seem to be a priority and it's tough to get private time in with your "counselor" because oftentimes most classrooms are open either for class remediation (i.e., teacher is occupied) or for kids to just hang out and eat lunch in (noisy and no privacy). It's been our experience that kids may have to take tests while other kids are talking, eating, playing music around them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

Well, everybody keeps wanting to know what the HBW "program" is that distinguishes it other than small classes.
And when you only teach 50 kids instead of 150, meaningful individual mentoring is surely more feasible.

Now we're talking about mentoring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

OP is talking about a dedicated college counselor, not a counselor. YHS has numerous counselors but one that is dedicated to just college information. OP- their "regular" counselor will have a plethora of information about college as well. And PS the teacher/counselor is not a trained counselor.

This is typical for public high schools, and has been for quite some time now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

50 kids? What? At H-B each teacher is also a TA and are responsible for 10-15 kids, and the TAs/homerooms are across all 4 grades so they only have 3-4 seniors at a time to be assisting with the college process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, sounds like you blinked and missed it.

Its actually way better at HBW, where the teachers are the counselors, and they are responsible for like 50 kids. At least they might know your students name.

This is HBW's actual model? That's terrible. Honestly. Being a teacher and being a counselor is not the same job and also being a counselor should not be a side job for a teacher.

50 kids? What? At H-B each teacher is also a TA and are responsible for 10-15 kids, and the TAs/homerooms are across all 4 grades so they only have 3-4 seniors at a time to be assisting with the college process.

Tangent. The question was specifically about the comprehensive high schools and college counseling. NOT about how HB handles things.

Thank you to those who have actually provided helpful answers.

[Anonymous]

Your best bet is to hire a private college counselor. Your child will not get individual attention from their high school counselor to build a college list in this college environment.

[Anonymous]

Adding to my comment at 14:08

You “saved” money not sending your child to private school but the downside is nonexistent college counseling. Its going to cost you 4-6k for a private college counselor but you are over all head money wise.