Weekly Column Patrick OConnor Meeting Next Year's Challenge of Getting Into College Begins May 17th
 |
 |
 |
|||||
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about this being a record-breaking year for college applications, and I’ve offered come hints to juniors on how to make sure their college application process is as smooth as possible. It seemed like all of the bases were covered… …and of course, that meant something had to change—which it did. The surprise came this week, when plans were announced to lay off at least 26 counselors in Most of the eliminated positions are elementary counselors, so a number of experienced elementary counselors could be transferred into high school counseling jobs next fall. It’s great that they have counseling experience, but it’s unlikely they will have experience counseling students about college. If that’s the case in a county that’s still doing OK in the dollar department, chances are your school district is thinking about similar plans, which could mean the counselor you have now won’t be the counselor you have senior year—and that’s not good. Every part of the college selection process works best if parents, students and counselors work together and plan ahead, and this challenge is no different. To make sure your senior year is strong, and their college options are all they can be, take these simple steps as a family: * Ask about counseling plans for next year. Now is the time to find out if your school is planning a reduction in counselors, or a change in counselors. This would also be a good time to urge your school board to look elsewhere for budget savings; since most counselors work with 350 or more students, now isn’t the time to make that number bigger. * Introduce yourself to your new counselor early. If you are getting a new counselor over the summer, now is not the time to be a stranger. Contact them over the summer, and ask for a meeting to bring them up to speed on your college plans. Better yet, have your folks contact the principal and offer to host an open house at the high school for all the students of the new counselor. This will allow the counselor to hit the ground running come September. * Insist on well-trained counselors. Parents are surprised to find out most school counselors didn’t have any training in graduate school in how to help guide families through the college selection process. That’s not their fault—only about 30 counselor training programs offer a course devoted just to college advising—but such training is available. I offer an online course that trains counselor in college advising—it’s under the Classes and Events tab on the Web site.
* Warm up your computer. The week of May 17th is National Action Week, a time to tell school boards, principals, state legislators, and Congress that school counselors are valuable and necessary. There’ll be more information on the Web site next week, and there’s more at http://www.nacacnet.org/LegislativeAction/LegislativeNews/Pages /NationalActionWeek.aspx—tell your friends, tell the PTA, and be ready to fax at will. Applying to college isn’t as easy as it was when today’s parents were high school seniors, but a little advanced planning, combined with keeping the best interests of the students at heart, can create a solid foundation of college success for the Class of 2011 and beyond. Get your letters ready—the time for action is now.
|
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
