What Are Guidance Counselors For?
Guidance counselors are supposed to be a student's number one advocate during the college admissions process. When a student is applying, their letter of recommendation is supposed to be filled with praise and comparative statements about how that student is better than many other students who were dealt a similar hand in life. In the letter that most colleges require guidance counselors to submit, they should talk about how that student's presence at their high school elevated the social and academic experience of other students, and actively excuse and minimize the impact of any less than perfect grades they possess. It is also the job of the guidance counselor to explain the opportunities and lack of opportunities that students have, and even talk candidly about challenges facing the students' school if that can help contextualize their application profile. This includes explaining the school's grading system, general difficulty of classes, and any infamous teachers that are abnormally harsh graders. Effectively, the letter they submit should sound like a recommendation a parent would write for their child if they could. As a result, the letter that a guidance counselor writes is the most important letter of recommendation a student will receive during the college admissions process.
Once a student submits their application, the guidance counselor should be updating the schools in real time with any positive developments that happen to their students. This can include winning competitions, publishing papers, getting accepted into certain programs, breaking attendance records at clubs they have started, or any good anecdotes of that student's behavior they can come up with.
When a student is deferred, the guidance counselor's job is to call the admissions department and advocate on their behalf to be accepted, and then continue to update the admissions office on the student's success and triumphs as the student awaits their next decision. In the case of being waitlisted, it is the job of the guidance counselor to make an advocacy call as well, and then update them on successes of the student, such as getting As on their final exams or acing classes taken in 2 or 4-year colleges during their senior year.
If you worked with a guidance counselor before, and this is all news to you, I'm not surprised. Despite the huge role they are supposed to play in the college admissions process, most of the time they don't do anything. They are infamous for giving antiquated advice, have no idea what the classes they recommend students to take even cover, resulting in bonehead moves like taking AP Statistics in their senior year instead of multivariable calculus, submit copy and paste letters of recommendation that reveal no information about the student that will help them stand out, and won't dare to pick up the phone to ever advocate for a student. Half of the time they'll even refuse to update colleges when a student does something truly out of the ordinary, leaving it to the student to pester the admission officer with their updates.
This is the case because most guidance counselors are vastly underpaid. In public schools, one guidance counselor has to advise 467 students! This is a death sentence for students. Why? Because they will inevitably be competing with students from private schools whose guidance counselors will provide all of the services we mentioned. The solution for parents is to hire an admissions consultant to level the playing field.
Our advice for public and private school parents and students is to start building the best relationship with your guidance counselor as soon as possible. This means coming to visit them to talk about any concerns you have, even if you really don't have any concerns. Even just visiting them to say hi works. Remembering their birthday, buying them presents. Stuff like remembering the names of their kids and again, thoughtful gifts is good. Parents should email the guidance counselor to introduce themselves. Impressing them positively now can result in them going that extra mile for your loved one during the college admissions process, which can truly make the difference between rejection and acceptance.
If you have any questions about the college admissions process or need help filling out a form that your guidance counselor provided to help them write your recommendation letter, schedule a complimentary consultation with an admissions expert today!
