How good are your HS college counseling teams

[Anonymous]

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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.

Also, colleges do not have the bandwidth to notice or care if you took honors algebra 2 or accelerated algebra 2.
There are many girls with top college options who maxed at Calculus AB and girls who struggled through Calculus BC or multivariable who got much worse results.
The answer is always to do well and preserve your mental health.

[Anonymous]

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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?

Why are you so bothered by parents wanting help in course selection?

[Anonymous]

Can someone elaborate on college counseling at Potomac? Do they limit the number of applications? When do they start meeting with students? Also, do parents generally need to work with outside counselors as well? What is the student counselor ratio?

[Anonymous]

Holton there is nothing until junior year. Unless you are a D1 recruited athlete who can commit on June 15 after sophomore year. I think junior year is late, but it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our experience is that it depends on the college counselor your child is assigned. At our son's school, two of the counselors are exceptional, one is adequate, and one was recently relieved of his position. Therefore, half the students and parents will tell you the college counseling team is amazing, a quarter will say it is just okay, and the remainder will tell you it is awful.

Potomac?

[Anonymous]

Holton is fine. They start junior year, you get access to Scoir, and the parents fill out a long form as well as the kids. The only problem is that there is one head counselor who has been there a long time, is incredibly well connected, and the other 2 counselors change all the time. Literally, they do not stay more than 2-3 years. They are all pretty young and you just don’t feel as safe as you do with the head counselor. She is very honest about your chances and just an excellent counselor. We had her for one kid and not the other. Ended up asking her for help all the time anyway. a lot of students do that.
I genuinely appreciate that Holton counselors are willing to say “No, you won’t get in. I know this school. There are bigger fish applying. There are donors applying. There are important legacies applying. We have already chosen who to put forward. Etc” That’s how so much of the class is happy with their ED admit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had boys at two different schools. Gonzaga and GC. Gonzaga was absolutely amazing. GC isn’t bad, but Gonzaga blows them out of the water.

+100 two sons that went through it at Gonzaga. The team is absolutely amazing !

[Anonymous]

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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.

That is very disappointing but not surprising if true. And everyone knows who the worst one is but no one does anything about it. The rest are pretty good.

[Anonymous]

How is the current GDS team?

[Anonymous]

Our son graduated from Georgetown Prep. We (son, wife and I) all thought that their college counseling program was excellent. We did not feel the need to engage the services of a private college counselor. He got into every college he applied to. Prep's college counseling office did recommend a private SAT/ACT tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is the current GDS team?

We thought they were quite good.

[Anonymous]

What about the current Sidwell CCO team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone elaborate on college counseling at Potomac? Do they limit the number of applications? When do they start meeting with students? Also, do parents generally need to work with outside counselors as well? What is the student counselor ratio?

Did you get an answer to this? I’m getting concerned the iffy things we had heard about this department may be true!

[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.

Yes so odd all the highschools seem to wait until junior year to do the college case studies evening (where students discuss the merits of example apps with college admissions officers). Would be helpful sooner when students could actually be motivated to get involved in more activities, try harder in school, etc.

[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.

Yes so odd all the highschools seem to wait until junior year to do the college case studies evening (where students discuss the merits of example apps with college admissions officers). Would be helpful sooner when students could actually be motivated to get involved in more activities, try harder in school, etc.

It's more than odd, it's stupid. Glenelg Country School does the case study exercise in the spring of 9th grade. They do it with both the students and the parents. This is the best time and way to do it.