How good are your HS college counseling teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counseling at Bullis is fantastic and started freshman year and kicked up sophomore year. They also helped DS pick courses throughout his HS experience. Worth every penny right there.

Not great if you don’t get one of the good ones.

They handpick the students they want. More money/influence = better counselors. Know this from experience.

This. 1000%. There’s a total influence caste system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One key aspect of private high school college counseling to understand is that they tend to meet a student where they are mid-way through junior year and find the “best fit” colleges for that student’s resume, versus working with a student to strategically build a resume starting freshman year. By the time you are meeting with them, it’s often too late to find out your child should have taken Alg 2 as a freshman, etc. If you really want more strategic guidance, you may want to consider an outside college counselor.

I’m the NCS PP and this is what I was getting at, only not as articulately. To hear “if only you had done xyz your application would be much stronger” halfway through junior year isn’t helpful.

Neither NCS or STA give any sort of earlier advising about what courses to take or extracurriculars to do as they relate to college admissions. They take the 11th grade kid as-is and fit the colleges to the kid.
I don't know if places like GDS and Sidwell do earlier advising or guidance. I kind of doubt it but would be curious to know.

Also, when I say this---advice may well be in the form of "don't take that course." Harder is not always better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One key aspect of private high school college counseling to understand is that they tend to meet a student where they are mid-way through junior year and find the “best fit” colleges for that student’s resume, versus working with a student to strategically build a resume starting freshman year. By the time you are meeting with them, it’s often too late to find out your child should have taken Alg 2 as a freshman, etc. If you really want more strategic guidance, you may want to consider an outside college counselor.

I’m the NCS PP and this is what I was getting at, only not as articulately. To hear “if only you had done xyz your application would be much stronger” halfway through junior year isn’t helpful.

Neither NCS or STA give any sort of earlier advising about what courses to take or extracurriculars to do as they relate to college admissions. They take the 11th grade kid as-is and fit the colleges to the kid.
I don't know if places like GDS and Sidwell do earlier advising or guidance. I kind of doubt it but would be curious to know.

Also, when I say this---advice may well be in the form of "don't take that course." Harder is not always better.

I think turning HS into a four year race to college is a shame. For those that want that, hire a private counselor to hand hold you and leave the rest of us alone. Perfectly content family here to start talking about college second semester junior year. You want to game every system, fine, but just know that there are those of us who do not want that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One key aspect of private high school college counseling to understand is that they tend to meet a student where they are mid-way through junior year and find the “best fit” colleges for that student’s resume, versus working with a student to strategically build a resume starting freshman year. By the time you are meeting with them, it’s often too late to find out your child should have taken Alg 2 as a freshman, etc. If you really want more strategic guidance, you may want to consider an outside college counselor.

I’m the NCS PP and this is what I was getting at, only not as articulately. To hear “if only you had done xyz your application would be much stronger” halfway through junior year isn’t helpful.

Neither NCS or STA give any sort of earlier advising about what courses to take or extracurriculars to do as they relate to college admissions. They take the 11th grade kid as-is and fit the colleges to the kid.
I don't know if places like GDS and Sidwell do earlier advising or guidance. I kind of doubt it but would be curious to know.

Also, when I say this---advice may well be in the form of "don't take that course." Harder is not always better.

I think turning HS into a four year race to college is a shame. For those that want that, hire a private counselor to hand hold you and leave the rest of us alone. Perfectly content family here to start talking about college second semester junior year. You want to game every system, fine, but just know that there are those of us who do not want that.

How is it gaming the system by having a multi year plan of what classes to take? Many classes have prerequisites (esp math) so if you want to be in Calculus or have a certain level of foreign language or a particular science by 11th or 12th grade, you need to take other classes before. If you want to wing it, cool, but your attitude that people are gaming the system by setting their kid up for success is weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NCS should start earlier. They don’t meet with kids until January/February of junior year. By then it’s too late to course correct if you’ve chosen the wrong classes, lack leadership etc. college guidance is fine just need to meet with the girls starting in 9th in my opinion.

Yes! There is little to no guidance on course selection in regards to college counseling at NCS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like limits on applications for hs counselors. i don't like schools that make charts pointing certain kids for certain schools and not helping the other kids get there. which we would have known. i am looking at you gds.

Trust me it's for the best. There was a valedictorian at another Big3 within the past 5 yrs who applied to pretty much every top20 school RD and basically shut out everyone else from any RD top20 admits. When the top kid joins the race, the rest of the class doesn't look so good.

No, this one kid is not a what kept Larla from getting in.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone recommend a great private counselor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone recommend a great private counselor?

What, like Rick Singer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS should start earlier. They don’t meet with kids until January/February of junior year. By then it’s too late to course correct if you’ve chosen the wrong classes, lack leadership etc. college guidance is fine just need to meet with the girls starting in 9th in my opinion.

Yes! There is little to no guidance on course selection in regards to college counseling at NCS.

Take the most advanced option at every juncture.

Saved you $20K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS should start earlier. They don’t meet with kids until January/February of junior year. By then it’s too late to course correct if you’ve chosen the wrong classes, lack leadership etc. college guidance is fine just need to meet with the girls starting in 9th in my opinion.

Yes! There is little to no guidance on course selection in regards to college counseling at NCS.

Take the most advanced option at every juncture.

Saved you $20K.

Actually, I would not recommend this at all. Mom of a recent NCS grad and current junior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS should start earlier. They don’t meet with kids until January/February of junior year. By then it’s too late to course correct if you’ve chosen the wrong classes, lack leadership etc. college guidance is fine just need to meet with the girls starting in 9th in my opinion.

Yes! There is little to no guidance on course selection in regards to college counseling at NCS.

Take the most advanced option at every juncture.

Saved you $20K.

Actually, I would not recommend this at all. Mom of a recent NCS grad and current junior.

Another mom of a junior. Taking all the hardest classes is a recipe for disaster or at least a lot of stress and anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Funny- just having this conversation with my rising Senior who wants to take three sciences.

I don’t want next year to be too stressful for the kid… or me. Mostly me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like limits on applications for hs counselors. i don't like schools that make charts pointing certain kids for certain schools and not helping the other kids get there. which we would have known. i am looking at you gds.

What charts are you talking about?

-Parent of GDS underclassman

Parent of GDS senior--there are no such charts. They will show you SCOIR scattergrams (which many many schools share with parents) that show the stats of kids who have applied to certain schools in the past and their results rate with admissions, wait list, rejections. GDS does not tell students where they can or can't apply beyond limiting the overall number of schools and making sure each student applies to a few "foundations" with likely admissions for that student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One key aspect of private high school college counseling to understand is that they tend to meet a student where they are mid-way through junior year and find the “best fit” colleges for that student’s resume, versus working with a student to strategically build a resume starting freshman year. By the time you are meeting with them, it’s often too late to find out your child should have taken Alg 2 as a freshman, etc. If you really want more strategic guidance, you may want to consider an outside college counselor.

I’m the NCS PP and this is what I was getting at, only not as articulately. To hear “if only you had done xyz your application would be much stronger” halfway through junior year isn’t helpful.

Neither NCS or STA give any sort of earlier advising about what courses to take or extracurriculars to do as they relate to college admissions. They take the 11th grade kid as-is and fit the colleges to the kid.
I don't know if places like GDS and Sidwell do earlier advising or guidance. I kind of doubt it but would be curious to know.

Also, when I say this---advice may well be in the form of "don't take that course." Harder is not always better.

GDS will meet with sophomores to talk about course selection, but overwhelmingly the message to 9th and 10th graders is, focus on high school now and think about a good fit school (for whatever record you've amassed) in spring on junior year. I think that's the healthiest message.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One key aspect of private high school college counseling to understand is that they tend to meet a student where they are mid-way through junior year and find the “best fit” colleges for that student’s resume, versus working with a student to strategically build a resume starting freshman year. By the time you are meeting with them, it’s often too late to find out your child should have taken Alg 2 as a freshman, etc. If you really want more strategic guidance, you may want to consider an outside college counselor.

I’m the NCS PP and this is what I was getting at, only not as articulately. To hear “if only you had done xyz your application would be much stronger” halfway through junior year isn’t helpful.

Neither NCS or STA give any sort of earlier advising about what courses to take or extracurriculars to do as they relate to college admissions. They take the 11th grade kid as-is and fit the colleges to the kid.
I don't know if places like GDS and Sidwell do earlier advising or guidance. I kind of doubt it but would be curious to know.

Also, when I say this---advice may well be in the form of "don't take that course." Harder is not always better.

I think turning HS into a four year race to college is a shame. For those that want that, hire a private counselor to hand hold you and leave the rest of us alone. Perfectly content family here to start talking about college second semester junior year. You want to game every system, fine, but just know that there are those of us who do not want that.

How is it gaming the system by having a multi year plan of what classes to take? Many classes have prerequisites (esp math) so if you want to be in Calculus or have a certain level of foreign language or a particular science by 11th or 12th grade, you need to take other classes before. If you want to wing it, cool, but your attitude that people are gaming the system by setting their kid up for success is weird.

Why do you need a college counselor to tell you the prerequisites for calculus?