Anonymous wrote:My HS kid happened to get a great counselor in MCPS just based on last name. Worked out and counselor is spectacular.

Lucky you. I've never heard of a spectacular counselor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. But don't worry, none are that great. Even if they wanted to, they have no time to be.

That is completely not true. You can switch and there are good counselors at MCPS.

What is the process for switching? I thought it was entirely based on last name.

My HS kid happened to get a great counselor in MCPS just based on last name. Worked out and counselor is spectacular.

Anonymous wrote:Nope. But don't worry, none are that great. Even if they wanted to, they have no time to be.

That is completely not true. You can switch and there are good counselors at MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Have you btdt?

Yep - you definitely can and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
My son had a space cadet for a counselor at BCC many years ago. She never returned calls and one day I asked her if she could help me sign my son up for an optional summer school class because we were getting an error message. She said counselors can't do that. We tried ourselves again and told her we needed her help. She ignored us.
I contacted the Assistant Principal who did it in 3 minutes and said it's easy for any of them to help us with this.

I realized that this counselor would be in charge of my son's college recommendations. There was no way that woman could put together a letter that would impress anyone. In fact, I didn't even trust that she'd get it done at all.

We called the head of the department and we were switched right away. It might have helped that there were many complaints about this counselor but I said our needs were not being met and I didn't think she was in a position to be a resource to my son in any way.

If you don't think they are helping your child, you can switch.

Nope. But don't worry, none are that great. Even if they wanted to, they have no time to be.

They rearranged counselors at our large public HS and our 2nd child had a different cou slir than the first. The first child's counselor was amazing, we had a good report, and we went to the head counselor and made the case to switch for child #2. It took a little of pressure and pushback from me, but the change was made.

If you make enough noise, they will switch your counselor just to get you off their back.

Why do you care who the counselor is?

Depends on the circumstance. DS had a counselor for 9th and 10th and just before 11th learned he had been shifted to someone new. We requested his counselor be changed back to the original and made our case and our request was granted.

Why do you want to change counselors?

No, I've asked.

You probably need to have the sign off from your AP. Hopefully your AP isnt a bozo but thats a crap shoot.

You certainly can if you change your last name.

Have you btdt?