Just how helpful are High School Guidance/College Counselors supposed to be?

[Anonymous]

My DD is a rising senior and getting ready to apply to colleges. She wants to go top 10 and has the grades and test scores. She has been very active throughout HS. I was speaking to her guidance counselor today and was not impressed with her approach about assisting with the apps. For instance, I asked her if she reads the essays and gives an opinion. She said no, English teachers can do that. I asked her if she works with the kids to find good potential school matches. Not really she says. So, am I expecting too much? I want to make sure my kid has the best chance of marketing herself with these applications. Should we hire someone? If so, any recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Is this a public or private h.s. OP? A lot of large public schools just don't have enough people to help and that puts the kids at a real disadvantage. I would advise you to do what I did...I bought a bunch of books on Amazon about the process because I didn't care for my child's college counselor's approach either. We worked around her but acted like we were working with her. You don't want to get them on their bad sides.

[Anonymous]

Some counselors are worthless. We hired someone to review/edit my son's essays. And a friend with many connections and much experience helped advise on overall process and target schools.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that college advising is only a small part of a high school guidance counselor's job, and in my area, guidance counselors have an average caseload of 325 students. At most publics, guidance counselors are just trying to make sure students are on track and their transcripts get out-they are not able to do that much more. However, schools, local libraries, and other non-profits often have free sessions.

[Anonymous]

My kids guidance counselors were useless. We just worked around them. My son wanted to apply to ivy and ivy-like schools. She kept pushing Rutgers even though he states he hates New Jersey. Her son went to Rutgers. My son wound up at Stanford.

[Anonymous]

That sounds like our experience pp. Mine ended up at an Ivy even though college counselor was pushing the Naval Academy. It was weird. I think counselor wanted the Ivy spot for a more "preferred" kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this a public or private h.s. OP? A lot of large public schools just don't have enough people to help and that puts the kids at a real disadvantage. I would advise you to do what I did...I bought a bunch of books on Amazon about the process because I didn't care for my child's college counselor's approach either. We worked around her but acted like we were working with her. You don't want to get them on their bad sides.

+1. Large public high school counselors are overburdened with helping 4 years' worth of kids get into the right classes, among other counseling duties. At our public high school, the counselors didn't read essays although the English teachers did - maybe it's the same school.

You can do this yourself, OP, if you and your kid are willing to put some time into it. If you can see it as a bonding opportunity and a fun challenge, that will work best.
(1) Buy the books.
(2) Start stalking College Confidential, which has lots of valuable information. But do discount the more hysterical posts as the site tends to attract the most OCD parents and kids.
(3) Get to know Naviance if your school gives you access. Naviance provides data on how kids from your school did at various colleges with their different SATs and GPAs. No book or private counselor can provide this particular information, tailored to your kid's school.

DC went to a big public high school where the counselor was pushing a certain state school. DC is now at a top 10.

Go with a private counselor in a few circumstances. For example, if you and your kid are at odds about the whole process, a private counselor can help push your kid along on the application process and maybe read the essays. Or, if you just don't have time to roll up your sleeves and read the books, then contract it out.

[Anonymous]

17:12 again. Just to give you an example, the books will tell you a few basic things about writing the essays.
- Don't write about how much you admire your mom/granddad/uncle. The school wants to know about you.
- Don't write about the volunteer trip your parents paid major bucks for.
- Basic points like use active not passive voice, et cetera.

There's more. But none of this is terribly hard to grasp. The really hard part is coming up with a subject that passes these tests and shows your kid at her best.

Then show it to the English teacher for grammar.

[Anonymous]

well if you graduate in a class of say 600 or more, which isn't unusual around here, the counselor will not likely know your child.
This is one of the important things you pay a private school for. DC's class has 68. The counselors know every kid personally and it is a credit to the school iof they can help get the kid into a good uni.

[Anonymous]

If a public school then definitely hire a private counselor. My DC was at a top public school in the area and we got very little help from the guidance counselor - not their fault, just not something they have time to do. I wish we had hired someone. You need someone to help you be realistic about targeting schools (mine had top grades and scores and didn't get in to quite a few schools that otherwise looked quite realistic), help with the application and essays, etc.

[Anonymous]

How hard is it to research schools that are appropriate for your child? I don't get why kids with help from their parents can't narrow down a list of safety schools, target schools and reach schools? What is so difficult? Why pay thousands of dollars for this? I can understand hiring someone for the essay but not for a list of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a public or private h.s. OP? A lot of large public schools just don't have enough people to help and that puts the kids at a real disadvantage. I would advise you to do what I did...I bought a bunch of books on Amazon about the process because I didn't care for my child's college counselor's approach either. We worked around her but acted like we were working with her. You don't want to get them on their bad sides.

+1. Large public high school counselors are overburdened with helping 4 years' worth of kids get into the right classes, among other counseling duties. At our public high school, the counselors didn't read essays although the English teachers did - maybe it's the same school.

You can do this yourself, OP, if you and your kid are willing to put some time into it. If you can see it as a bonding opportunity and a fun challenge, that will work best.
(1) Buy the books.
(2) Start stalking College Confidential, which has lots of valuable information. But do discount the more hysterical posts as the site tends to attract the most OCD parents and kids.
(3) Get to know Naviance if your school gives you access. Naviance provides data on how kids from your school did at various colleges with their different SATs and GPAs. No book or private counselor can provide this particular information, tailored to your kid's school.

DC went to a big public high school where the counselor was pushing a certain state school. DC is now at a top 10.

Go with a private counselor in a few circumstances. For example, if you and your kid are at odds about the whole process, a private counselor can help push your kid along on the application process and maybe read the essays. Or, if you just don't have time to roll up your sleeves and read the books, then contract it out.

I would also add Unigo to the mix.

https://www.unigo.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a public or private h.s. OP? A lot of large public schools just don't have enough people to help and that puts the kids at a real disadvantage. I would advise you to do what I did...I bought a bunch of books on Amazon about the process because I didn't care for my child's college counselor's approach either. We worked around her but acted like we were working with her. You don't want to get them on their bad sides.

+1. Large public high school counselors are overburdened with helping 4 years' worth of kids get into the right classes, among other counseling duties. At our public high school, the counselors didn't read essays although the English teachers did - maybe it's the same school.

You can do this yourself, OP, if you and your kid are willing to put some time into it. If you can see it as a bonding opportunity and a fun challenge, that will work best.
(1) Buy the books.
(2) Start stalking College Confidential, which has lots of valuable information. But do discount the more hysterical posts as the site tends to attract the most OCD parents and kids.
(3) Get to know Naviance if your school gives you access. Naviance provides data on how kids from your school did at various colleges with their different SATs and GPAs. No book or private counselor can provide this particular information, tailored to your kid's school.

DC went to a big public high school where the counselor was pushing a certain state school. DC is now at a top 10.

Go with a private counselor in a few circumstances. For example, if you and your kid are at odds about the whole process, a private counselor can help push your kid along on the application process and maybe read the essays. Or, if you just don't have time to roll up your sleeves and read the books, then contract it out.

I would also add Unigo to the mix.

https://www.unigo.com/

PP again. I picked up a book recommended on College Discussion called 'Crazy U' by Andrew Ferguson. It's informative and funny about the author's experiences with the college application process from a parent's perspective. Got it used on Amazon for a couple of bucks as I was ordering other stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/books/04book.html?_r=0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How hard is it to research schools that are appropriate for your child? I don't get why kids with help from their parents can't narrow down a list of safety schools, target schools and reach schools? What is so difficult? Why pay thousands of dollars for this? I can understand hiring someone for the essay but not for a list of schools.

Because the counselors will write a recommendation - that's why. If they know the kid and his/her strengths they can write knowledgeably and enthusiastically about your kid. And if they have a track record with certain schools and even know the admissions people there, who in turn trust counselors from certain schools, this can be a big advantage over someone doing all of this on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How hard is it to research schools that are appropriate for your child? I don't get why kids with help from their parents can't narrow down a list of safety schools, target schools and reach schools? What is so difficult? Why pay thousands of dollars for this? I can understand hiring someone for the essay but not for a list of schools.

Because the counselors will write a recommendation - that's why. If they know the kid and his/her strengths they can write knowledgeably and enthusiastically about your kid. And if they have a track record with certain schools and even know the admissions people there, who in turn trust counselors from certain schools, this can be a big advantage over someone doing all of this on their own.

P.s. ^ I'm talking about the private school counselors, not paid counselors - I agree it's not worth spending thousands of dollars on.