OP,
Can you afford a counselor? If you think about the cost of college, a counselor can be a great investment.

Anonymous wrote:If you are shooting for a top school, read the book "A is for Admission" by Michele Hernandez, a former Dartmouth admission director. She covers lots of these types of questions. My advice, start early (spring of junior year)to solidify your teacher recs. Have a clear view of what you want them to say and ask if you can read the letter before it is sent.

Thanks! Not shooting for a "top" school, but would like to have options including SLACs and flagship state schools. DC has geographic and campus location (rural/urban, etc) preferences as well as possible majors in mind. We have a good knowledge of a variety of colleges/universities. General information emails from the counselor have spelling and grammatical errors. (So do I when I post here, but this isn't my job.)

These tips for logistics are appreciated.
This is good advice and the time frame helps. Thanks again.

If you are shooting for a top school, read the book "A is for Admission" by Michele Hernandez, a former Dartmouth admission director. She covers lots of these types of questions. My advice, start early (spring of junior year)to solidify your teacher recs. Have a clear view of what you want them to say and ask if you can read the letter before it is sent.

OP, we could all be helpful, I think, but we have no idea of the colleges, and the thus the selectivity, your DC is considering. The amount of concern/angst you should shoulder will vary considerably.

I think my child's college prospects were significantly hurt due to the lousy letters of recommendation his public school teachers wrote. We gave them a resume and they just copied and pasted parts of the resume. One teacher showed us the rec and it didn't in any way reflect who our child was, the things about his personality that made him unique and would make him a contributor to a particular college's atmosphere. Our kids were clearly disadvantaged compared to prep school kids whose teachers understood the process.

OP what state are you in? What High School?

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume every student is using the common application

Fair point. Although even Georgetown's app seemed to want electronic submission of recs, although our school opted to mail them last year because they had trouble with the Georgetown system.

Don't assume every student is using the common application