Reply to Teacher turnover at BASIS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Nothing against her, but she's not a college counselor by trade or experience, she's a chemistry teacher.  BASIS should hire a bona fide college counselor to mentor her for a year or two.  [/quote]

[quote=Anonymous]She's very smart and pleasant but not experienced or trained, no National Association of College Counselors certification in her background. Good luck to her and you.  [/quote]

Maybe none of you realize, but in 2014 BASIS did initially hire a "certified college counselor" who bragged during info sessions that she "trained under the greatest college counselors in the nation." Her sessions with the students were pointless and wastes of time. She was unhelpful, disorganized, and generally not knowledgeable. So much for being "certified".

I'm not sure what prior experience you think is necessary to be a college counselor. The job essentially guiding students through filling out applications and applying for financial aid/scholarships, plus networking with schools. Competency in those areas relies so much more on the qualities of the person than their "background".

And it's not like the current counselor is just going maverick and winging it because she doesn't have this magic certification. She is connected with a national network of college counselors and travels to national college counselor conferences. She's arranged hundreds of college visits to BASIS including numerous prestigious institutions. The previous counselor arranged a grand total of zero visits.

The current counselor is incredibly knowledgeable and knows what she's doing. The seniors have a daily college counseling course with her, and if you saw how organized and methodical all of it is, your discomfort from her "lack of experience" might be alleviated. The students are in good hands.

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I know all this, and disagree that the competency relies more on personal qualities than on experience, training, or, for that matter, having attended highly competitive colleges and universities oneself.

To my knowledge, the BASIS college counselor, wonderful though she is, has no direct experience shepherding seniors through the admissions process at any college or university. She is in fact advising her first group of seniors, the guinea pig class, without a seasoned practioner advising her. College visits to high-performing high schools aren't difficult to arrange. They aren't also aren't necessarily more useful than flipping through college view books or watching college tour videos on YouTube. What's useful is having your student work with somebody who knows the ropes on how to prepare a college list strategically, how to complete the Common Application and supplemental applications in a way that showcases a student's talents and achievements effectively, how best to prepare for college interviews etc. This background on the part of the counselor is critically important when a student mainly applies to schools admitting in the single digits. The "outsourcing" recommended on this thread can easily cost parents a bomb.

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