NYT: Average HS Guidance Counselor has 478 students

In this article the New York times talks about how high school guidance counselors have, on average across the nation, 478 students!  Some admit to reusing the same text for letters of recommendation over and over for many students, just changing the name of the student.  So, for those stressed about performing the role of counselors for their college-bound students, I'm sure that I can do a better job with no experience, and plenty of hours to apply to the task; than an expert, who could just allocate one or two hours per student.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I had a very sweet counselor my senior year.  She wrote a very nice letter for me and did her best to help steer me to good colleges in a state I wasn't familiar with (having moved just before senior year).  But I'm sure that in today's world she would have to put most of her efforts into students who were on the edge of failing or who were getting in trouble.

[Bootsie]

When I was in high school, we had one guidance counselor for two grades.  Since we had about 500 in our graduating class, that would have been about 1000 students per counselor.  In addition, my counselor was out for an extended time during my senior year with an illness.  My understanding is that the "letter of recommendation" from the counselor is not so much of a personal recommendation (like one from a teacher) for colleges.  Even at DDs much smaller school, the counselor's recommendation was fairly generic, talking about the curriculum of the school, the courses DD chose, etc.  It was about the overall education at the school--not about DD.  I hear this is fairly standard.  It seems a waste of time on everyone's part to me.  It would make more sense to simply have a prepared "school description" that is included in the application.

[MysteryJen]

My counselor was worse than useless, lost forms and wrote one line recommendations. He easily had over 500 students. The smaller the school, the more likely a guidance counselor will be a true help. One private school around here has amazing counselors and it shows in their graduating classes.

[Pawz4me]

Oldest DS's high school had two guidance counselors and one assistant.  The school had about 1000 - 1,200 students.  But I thought DS got a decent amount of assistance as a senior.  They were relatively on the ball about sending in transcripts, the school profile and whatever else they needed to send.  I have my suspicions, though, that DS got more attention because he was highly ranked.  I could be wrong, but my guess is that the top ten or twenty kids in each senior class probably get more assistance than lower ranking kids.

[TranquilMind]

I made an attempt to talk to one counselor one of mine had.  This person knew nothing about the universities in which my kid was interested, nor much about anything except a couple of well-known state universities.  Useless.  We did basically everything.

[RootAnn]

When I was in high school, back in the dark ages, we had what seemed like a ton of counselors. Each one had probably 100-200 students, so not bad compared to what you guys are referencing. However, my counselor didn't write any of my recommendations or anything sent to colleges - they all came from teachers or were handled by the secretary in the Guidance Counselor area (and she was awesome). 

 

I disliked my guidance counselor a lot, though. He didn't bother to know anything about me. Every year when I would go in to do the mandatory session before registering for classes, we'd have the same talk. He'd ask why I wasn't taking some class. I would tell him it was because I already took it or was taking it right then. (Duh, dude. My record is right in front of you.) The worst was the talk before my senior year when he tried to tell me that I would forever regret not taking Composition. My high school offered four one-semester English classes. I was signed up for three of them already (British Literature, Humanities, and Creative Writing (because I loved the teacher & the idea of the class)). I assured him that I already knew how to write a paper and would NOT need the class in college (engineering major). He made me take the sheet home and have one of my parents sign off on my choice of classes. I've never regretting not taking that class. Turns out he tried to tell my sister she would always regret dropping Pre-Calc after the first semester. She never has regretted it as she only had to take Business Math classes in college. 

 

Dork.

[beaners]

My entire high school had about that many students (120-ish per graduating class) and three guidance counselors. My guidance counselor was still useless. During my college planning meeting she handed me a sheet listing average SAT scores for admission into our state school system and suggested I decide which ones would be safeties and which would be reaches. She ignored the fact that I tied for the highest SAT score in my graduating class, and she didn't even bother to look at my score on the transcript in front of her. I would have been automatically accepted at any of the schools on that list. Many, many students from our small school went to Ivy League and other elite schools every year, but certainly not based on her stellar advisement skills.

[creekland]

I feel for guidance counselors.  Ours try to do a good job, but they definitely have a ton of hats to wear.

 

For my own ps guy, I was the one who found appropriate colleges for him to consider.  He's at a school no one from our high school has gone to (or even applied to) to date.  Three other schools we visited and considered were similar.

 

It is FAR easier to do a proper job for one student than for several.  For each of my guys, I spent hours looking schools up.  I can't imagine having to do that for oodles of students every year, though once you know about a school, you keep that knowledge and can use it for other students, of course.

 

However, I appreciate his guidance counselor doing a great job on all of his application stuff, including his letter.

[Mabelen]

Yeah, you do have to be realistic about the counselor's role. In my dd's public high school, basically they do all the paper work and put school wide college informational sessions etc. They seem to be getting better at doing this and are offering a wider range of themes this year. For the letter of recommendation, they have a template with questions for parents to answer. I took this very seriously and made sure to spend time to have an awesome letter of reccomendation that reflected my dd's qualities not shown in her transcripts. They have Naviance available, which I used to have a realistic idea of my dd's chances at each of her potential colleges. As far as searching for colleges that fit both academically and financially your student, you have to do your own homework.

[TravelingChris]

I know I have done a much better job at counseling my three kids than they would have gotten at public school.  In particular this last child who has very particular requirements she needs in a school because she is 2E if not actually 3E (I don't know if there is such a thing as 3E- but this girl would actually probably qualify for 4E, if that is possible- gifted, learning disabled, medically challenged, and finally, bad case of SAD and tendencies towards year round depression if conditions are wrong).  I started out extremely worried I would be able to find a school for her that could work.  I read college catalogs and disability department documents to figure out whether a college could potentially work.  I have found a number that will potentially work for her and now we will see.

[Arcadia]

I'm not from this country though. My home room teacher does the work of guidance counselor. The home room teacher has only 25 or less students and we have home room "class" once a week for 46mins. We can also ask for help after school hour. There was 1,600 students per grade level for 11th and 12th grades.

Our letters of recommendation were personalized as we have the same homeroom teacher for 11th and 12th grades.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I thought the most interesting thing about the article was the comment string. Basically people saying that counselor weren't that informed or helpful back 20-30-40 years ago.

 

I think engaged parents who ask a lot of questions and help do research are key.