Is it appropriate for a parent to meet with HS guidance counselor, with child to talk through course selection?

[Anonymous]

You’re doing your job as a parent to help set your child up for their future and if meeting with the counselor along with your student to help them understand and get into the best classes, then I think it’s fine. i

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, you don't need to meet with your child's counselor about course selection. Your child knows what they want to take, and you just need to sign off. The counselor doesn't have time to meet with 150+ parents/students

I say this as a parent of 2 mcps graduates and a 3rd currently in HS. Unless your child has some special needs (amd maybe a resource class), your involvement is just a signature

This is not true. Most kids at this age don't know themselves, their interests, their strengths and weaknesses well enough to know what they want or what they should take to optimize for their best future outcome.

They would GREATLY benefit from having an in-depth conversation with their parent and counselor to explore these things. That's what private school counselors do for their kids, which is why they get better outcomes and more intimate and detailed recommendation letters.

The issue is, as you pointed out, that the student-to-counselor ratio simply does not allow for that. So MCPS lets the kids choose their own adventure and then signs them up for whatever they say they want. This is not what is IDEAL for the student and parent, but it is what the system is set up to do with the current student-to-counselor ratios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, you don't need to meet with your child's counselor about course selection. Your child knows what they want to take, and you just need to sign off. The counselor doesn't have time to meet with 150+ parents/students

I say this as a parent of 2 mcps graduates and a 3rd currently in HS. Unless your child has some special needs (amd maybe a resource class), your involvement is just a signature

This is not true. Most kids at this age don't know themselves, their interests, their strengths and weaknesses well enough to know what they want or what they should take to optimize for their best future outcome.

They would GREATLY benefit from having an in-depth conversation with their parent and counselor to explore these things. That's what private school counselors do for their kids, which is why they get better outcomes and more intimate and detailed recommendation letters.

The issue is, as you pointed out, that the student-to-counselor ratio simply does not allow for that. So MCPS lets the kids choose their own adventure and then signs them up for whatever they say they want. This is not what is IDEAL for the student and parent, but it is what the system is set up to do with the current student-to-counselor ratios.

Parents sign off on it so please do not try and make this a "MCPS lets them do what they want" COME ON!!!!

[Anonymous]

I would like to +5 or whatever it is at this point in the thread that states you are better off speaking with friends. What are other people taking etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s helicoptery initially, but I do think over time as a parent you need to step back from this and let your kid take the lead. Also, word to the wise, don’t expect significant help or expertise from the counselor with regards to course selection. You be better taking with the Resource Teacher (ie subject Team Lead) or students current teacher.

Even then there could be major differences in what a Resource Teacher (RT) says and what a HS counselor will advise. For ex., a RT will say take Honors Statistics before taking AP Statistics while a counselor will say kid can go into AP Stats without the Honors Stats. Not sure why they can't seem to advise the same route. Does the Math RT think student will run out of math courses if they head to AP Stats, or is the counselor simply trying to boost "optics" of the school "89% of our students take AP stats blah blah blah..." Pick courses YOU or YOUR KID thinks they can handle given other courses they signed up for and other things going on in their life. You/your kid knows best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, you don't need to meet with your child's counselor about course selection. Your child knows what they want to take, and you just need to sign off. The counselor doesn't have time to meet with 150+ parents/students

I say this as a parent of 2 mcps graduates and a 3rd currently in HS. Unless your child has some special needs (amd maybe a resource class), your involvement is just a signature

This is not true. Most kids at this age don't know themselves, their interests, their strengths and weaknesses well enough to know what they want or what they should take to optimize for their best future outcome.

They would GREATLY benefit from having an in-depth conversation with their parent and counselor to explore these things. That's what private school counselors do for their kids, which is why they get better outcomes and more intimate and detailed recommendation letters.

The issue is, as you pointed out, that the student-to-counselor ratio simply does not allow for that. So MCPS lets the kids choose their own adventure and then signs them up for whatever they say they want. This is not what is IDEAL for the student and parent, but it is what the system is set up to do with the current student-to-counselor ratios.

Parents sign off on it so please do not try and make this a "MCPS lets them do what they want" COME ON!!!!

I don't know what you're talking about. Throughout my kids's entire middle and high school journey I never once "signed off" on any of his course registrations. I merely could see them in ParentVUE after he submitted them to his counselor.

[Anonymous]

My daughter and I met with my daughter’s counselor the summer before her freshman year to carve out a 4 year plan, which ended up being a waste of time. I mean creating one wasn’t but we really didn’t need a counselor for that.

For my younger son, I met with a counselor before senior year (this year) because his schedule seemed crazy hard to me. He’s doing well and you’ll for sure get better guidance in person but generally I agree to get your answers on DCUM. He’s doing well but taking MV and multiple tough sciences plus some time intensive APs seemed like too much work so I wanted his counselors opinion. She thought based on his record, he could handle but we agreed that my son could to reevaluate after school started.

[Anonymous]

Child and parent should be talking to slightly older peer families to find similar students to follow.

Teacher should recommend student what's a good next class in their subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s counselor usually didn’t show up for the quick meeting she was supposed to have with my kid. They try to knock out an entire class of 30 kids in one period at our school. So it’s not something I’d try to do every year, barring particular needs. But if you have an open and good counselor, it’s fine and you might get some insight on teachers, etc. Anything we can help you with? If you’re looking for advice on pathways for college admission, parents here might be just as helpful.

Trying to figure out balance of APs vs not APs for DS who will be a junior. Kid had a great freshman year (Honors Alg 2, couldn't take APUSH bc of the program he's in which includes more rigorous humanities classes, Honors Bio, Spanish 3, etc) but is having a difficult time this year: dropped Honors pre-cal to regular Pre-Calc but doing great, struggling in Honors Chem, doing well in Spanish 4, struggling in AP Gov

Next year: don't know if he should take AP Lang or English 11; AP World or something else; AP Calc AB or Calc with applications; Honors Physics or AP Environ Science.

Kid has ADHD and is bright but just not that interested in school. He seems worn down by the grind already, not wanting to put in effort and generally hating academic life right now. Maybe he's depressed? But he's active and happy in his sport and has a great group of friends that he sees regularly.

I just don't know how to best support and guide him and feel frustrated that there is nobody at his giant MCPS school that can help make some of these decisions.

If he might need 504 accommodations, definitely meet with the counselor. And def seek anything mental health support he might need.

Is he gunning for competitive colleges? I’m guessing at least somewhat.

At our school, AP Lang is pretty straight forward and not a lot of work. Much easier than AP Lit, so I’d recommend AP Lang but not Lit senior year (unless he loves literature).

AP World is a fair bit of work so tread carefully. I might skip that one unless he’s excited about it.

Sounds like Spanish 5 is a good choice for him since he’s doing well there.

Honors Pre Calc is harder than AP Calc AB. So he could go for Calc AB with a weekly tutor or for easier path do Calc with Applications junior year and then do either AP Stats or AP Calc AB senior year. Warning that stats draws on reading/logic skills a lot and isn’t just math.

APES is a lot of work. People really underestimate the amount of reading in that class. A lot of kids did poorly. Given ADHD, I’d focus on what he’s most interested in.

Honors Physics is less work than Honors Chem at our school so I’d give it a shot and only drop down if needed.

My two cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious why not meet with your child yourself the night before and go through it using the online course bulleting etc. Then you know exactly what the child is selecting and can work on it together at your own pace

Because we don't know how many APs will be too much; don't understand the workload of each course nor how to balance the number of APs against recommended rigor for college applications. Not gunning for top25 or 50 at all.

There's not really any way to know beforehand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s counselor usually didn’t show up for the quick meeting she was supposed to have with my kid. They try to knock out an entire class of 30 kids in one period at our school. So it’s not something I’d try to do every year, barring particular needs. But if you have an open and good counselor, it’s fine and you might get some insight on teachers, etc. Anything we can help you with? If you’re looking for advice on pathways for college admission, parents here might be just as helpful.

Trying to figure out balance of APs vs not APs for DS who will be a junior. Kid had a great freshman year (Honors Alg 2, couldn't take APUSH bc of the program he's in which includes more rigorous humanities classes, Honors Bio, Spanish 3, etc) but is having a difficult time this year: dropped Honors pre-cal to regular Pre-Calc but doing great, struggling in Honors Chem, doing well in Spanish 4, struggling in AP Gov

Next year: don't know if he should take AP Lang or English 11; AP World or something else; AP Calc AB or Calc with applications; Honors Physics or AP Environ Science.

Kid has ADHD and is bright but just not that interested in school. He seems worn down by the grind already, not wanting to put in effort and generally hating academic life right now. Maybe he's depressed? But he's active and happy in his sport and has a great group of friends that he sees regularly.

I just don't know how to best support and guide him and feel frustrated that there is nobody at his giant MCPS school that can help make some of these decisions.

Is this Blair CAP? Only guessing because of how you characterized not taking AP US History. If so, they must take AP English language and AP World History as juniors in CAP. If currently in regular Precalculus, then calculus with applications may be better - the calculus teachers are not particularly strong outside the magnet. In terms of science, colleges like kids to take biology, chemistry and physics so he could take physics next year and AP environmental science senior year. But honors physics (at least the male teacher) is actually pretty difficult at Blair so it won’t be a cakewalk.

If not at Blair, I suggest posting on your PTA listserv and asking for feedback from parents of older kids on the options you are considering. Then you will learn more that is specific to your school. I think it’s fine to request a meeting with the counselor also but they are not going to tell you some of the information that might be most useful. If your kid has older friends, he can also ask them for input.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we did a couple of times. Our counselor was excellent. Our kid led the process and selected every course. The counselor writes the recommendation, so I think it is helpful to everyone involved.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for asking this, I have a freshman and was wondering the same thing. He hasn’t even met his counselor yet despite my repeated requests. I’m pretty hands off but I just want one meeting with the counselor to have an idea of the pathway he should select. Navigating APs can be tough, he’s getting a B already in one so I think he could use some guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s helicoptery initially, but I do think over time as a parent you need to step back from this and let your kid take the lead. Also, word to the wise, don’t expect significant help or expertise from the counselor with regards to course selection. You be better taking with the Resource Teacher (ie subject Team Lead) or students current teacher.

Even then there could be major differences in what a Resource Teacher (RT) says and what a HS counselor will advise. For ex., a RT will say take Honors Statistics before taking AP Statistics while a counselor will say kid can go into AP Stats without the Honors Stats. Not sure why they can't seem to advise the same route. Does the Math RT think student will run out of math courses if they head to AP Stats, or is the counselor simply trying to boost "optics" of the school "89% of our students take AP stats blah blah blah..." Pick courses YOU or YOUR KID thinks they can handle given other courses they signed up for and other things going on in their life. You/your kid knows best.

What CAN be done vs what Is ADVISABLE based on individual student or what has been seen in courses over time are very different. This is why meeting with the RT/teacher usually yields more useful information about course content and path to take. For instance there are course that look to be full year elective and a teachers recommended taking only part B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s counselor usually didn’t show up for the quick meeting she was supposed to have with my kid. They try to knock out an entire class of 30 kids in one period at our school. So it’s not something I’d try to do every year, barring particular needs. But if you have an open and good counselor, it’s fine and you might get some insight on teachers, etc. Anything we can help you with? If you’re looking for advice on pathways for college admission, parents here might be just as helpful.

Trying to figure out balance of APs vs not APs for DS who will be a junior. Kid had a great freshman year (Honors Alg 2, couldn't take APUSH bc of the program he's in which includes more rigorous humanities classes, Honors Bio, Spanish 3, etc) but is having a difficult time this year: dropped Honors pre-cal to regular Pre-Calc but doing great, struggling in Honors Chem, doing well in Spanish 4, struggling in AP Gov

Next year: don't know if he should take AP Lang or English 11; AP World or something else; AP Calc AB or Calc with applications; Honors Physics or AP Environ Science.

Kid has ADHD and is bright but just not that interested in school. He seems worn down by the grind already, not wanting to put in effort and generally hating academic life right now. Maybe he's depressed? But he's active and happy in his sport and has a great group of friends that he sees regularly.

I just don't know how to best support and guide him and feel frustrated that there is nobody at his giant MCPS school that can help make some of these decisions.

Teachers will make some preliminary recommendations. Have you kid talk to their teacher about their thinking then ya’ll can discuss at home.

APs take some adjustment to get use to the pacing and rigor of the class, so it’s not unusual for kids to have some productive struggle. Honors Pre-Cal is known to be a tough class and many kids drop down to on-level Pre-Cal. If kid is really struggling, many schools have a resource class that those taking APs can take that helps with learning how to study, prepare and time manage.

Where does your kids interest and natural aptitude lie? Try for APs in those areas. If they are having a hard time with 2 this year, stick with 2-3 next year. Ideally after this year they will be a bit better. As for math, determine how the child is feeling about pre-Cal, whether they are currently more interested in a Science/Tech field or humanties and then talk with the teacher for help deciding between Calc AB or Calc with Applications or AP stats. There is benefit to moving straight into Calc but there is also benefit to waiting until Senior year.