Your Wish List for National School Counseling Week

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I’m always a little hesitant to visit counselor chat rooms and social media posts this time of year, since a too frequent post appears:

“How are you celebrating National School Counseling Week?”

At one level, I get it. Since it’s National School Counseling Week—with an ing—this is a great opportunity to promote all the services counselors offer, or can offer, and refresh your school community’s awareness that your program exists, and is there to help. 

At another level, I can’t help but feel like we’re throwing our own birthday party. No, it isn’t National School Counselor Week—with a lor—but there’s something about us hosting events to celebrate what we do that makes me wonder—why isn’t somebody else shouting out for all we do?

It then realized I was looking at this all wrong. When someone asks what I want for my birthday, I’m not shy. Same thing with Christmas—after the year I got four chess sets, I decided maybe I needed to regulate the good intentions of my gift givers, all in everyone’s best interests.

That leads to this conclusion. Write a memo to your principal, reminding (informing?) them your profession’s big week is coming up, and ask if they would celebrate by giving you an hour of their time.

Yup. You need to party by taking a meeting.

You do this for three reasons. First, it’s the best way to make sure NSCW is on your administrator’s radar screen, increasing the chances they will arrange some schoolwide recognition. Second, if that doesn’t happen, it’s more likely they’ll at least bring coffee cake to the meeting.

Third, it provides an important opportunity to look at the big picture of your school counseling program, and ask for the help and support you need to help and support your students. There are way too many times during the school year when counselors think, hey, we really need to start doing this, or stop doing that, or change the way we do this. Why not use NSCW as an opportunity to put all those ideas together, and put them on the table?

It’s likely you already know what to talk about, but if you need a jumping off point, try these:

Job awareness This is a great time to tell your new administrator exactly what it is counselors do (don’t assume they know) or to update veteran administrators on how the job is going this year—are there more absence issues, social-emotional cases, etc? If you don’t typically get their ear, now is the time to basically make them listen, and that’s OK.

Annual review If it’s not already in place, this is the perfect time for you to request two meetings- one at the start of the year, and one at the end—to discuss the goals and progress of the school counseling curriculum. The fall meeting clarifies what you will and won’t be doing for the year, including those famous “other duties as assigned”. The spring meeting is a springboard for modifications you can work on over the summer.

Speaking of other duties You can’t hope to do more than classroom faculty, but you shouldn’t have to do more. This is the perfect time to discuss that.

Blue sky time It’s good to finish this meeting by going around the room and asking “What’s one way you’d like counseling to change?” (make sure you answer the question as well.) These short answers can be very revealing, and give you things to consider in preparation for the spring annual review meeting they just agreed to.

Improving College Access? Stop Deferring the Investment

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

The first round of Early Action college decisions is nearing an end, and it’s clear something is going on with them that, once again, makes them different from last year. School counselors are tearing their hair out over the number of deferrals students are receiving, which will likely suggest we’ll be hearing about record application numbers later this spring. After all, if you get a maybe from your dream school, you have to cover your bet by applying elsewhere—and preferably, lots of elsewheres.

The amount of attention the Early programs get each year, while important, continues to stoke the flames of the argument that college is only for certain students. There’s a point where applying to college turns away from being about the students, and is more about the spectacle of The Glories Of College—and that’s too bad.

So here’s my hope for this year, and I really hope America will consider these ideas.

Stop talking about the New York Times colleges so much It’s bad enough the New York Times thinks there are only 35 colleges in the country. It now seems, once again, there’s some kind of race to become one of them, and a race for the media to try and outdo each other’s coverage of them. There are about 3000 colleges in the US, and most of the college-going occurs outside these schools. Cover the other ones more, so more students will see college isn’t just for 4.5 GPAs who started six corporations before they were 12.

Colleges need to talk college to middle school families This may seem contradictory—if America needs to chill about colleges, why start college discussions sooner? 

Data indicates early conversations are important to have to get low-income and first-generation students — those less inclined to think about college—to give college a second thought. That means there are bright kids who have no impression —or worse, the wrong impression— about what college can do for them. Presenting a generic College Information Night at a middle school can open some eyes that need to see the possible — and these programs need to focus on both students and parents, since parents need a better understanding of college (especially the idea it doesn’t have to cost $60,000 a year).

Reach out online to urban and rural high schools Colleges tend to visit high schools where they know students are interested, and high schools that are close to each other. That only feeds the vicious Colleges Are Elite Places for Elite People beast. Use Zoom to visit far away or hard-to-get-to schools. It’s not as good as in person, but at least students can get access to college they aren’t getting now.

Get states to increase funding for dual enrollment College is less of a mystery if students take college classes in high school—but right now, tuition for those classes tends to come out of high school budgets. States need to create separate pools of money for first gens to get a taste of college. Data shows dual enrollers are more likely to go to college, and to finish college.

Consider college advisers College advisers are recent college grads, and most are first gens, who help students like them get to college. They get great training in college advising, not to replace counselors, but to serve as role models, and help make college more of a possibility. This is also a funding issue for states to consider—the training model is already there—and these folks can make a huge difference.

If we’re serious about expanding college access, it’s time to stop deferring.

College Counseling Should Be Taught in Grad School

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

The chat room posting started off easily enough, in a way I’d seen a thousand times before. “I’m new to the profession, and interviewing this week. What questions should I expect?”

I provided what I have long believed to be a helpful answer. “They will want to know about your college and career counseling curriculum. If they don’t ask about it, that’s a question you should ask them.”

I moved on to other things, but saw the author had responded. “Thanks. And what college and career counseling curriculum would you suggest?”

And suddenly, 2026 was 1984 all over again.

That’s the year I earned my Master’s degree in Counseling, with absolutely no references—in coursework or practicum—to college counseling. The moment I was in the field, I knew this was a gaping error, so I put together a curriculum for a graduate course in college counseling. Convinced this was just an innocent oversight, I sent it to the department chair of my newly minted alma mater, and even followed up with a phone call when I didn’t hear back.

I don’t think he could have been more surly. “We don’t have room in the program for any new courses” he growled, with a brevity that suggested the entire conversation was over.

That has more or less been the story for the past 40 years—we don’t have room, it’s not real counseling, college isn’t for everyone. Even when CACREP moved up the number of required credit hours for certification, college counseling got short shrift.

So here we still are, lots of new counselors who come running out of their office doors after just 15 minutes on the job, wondering just how to do this college counseling thing.

OK. One more time then.

Yes, counseling has a curriculum A good deal of counseling work is crisis management, but counseling also has a skill set to teach all students—stress management, problem solving, self-esteem, academic success, and postsecondary planning.

College counseling is part of that curriculum Of the 500+ counselor training programs in the US, last count showed less than two dozen had a course in college counseling, and about half spent no more than 15 clock hours on the subject if it was mentioned at all.

Not everyone needs to go to college… but everyone deserves to explore what college is, and how it can advance their goals, needs, and interests. That’s the goal of the college counseling curriculum.

This can’t be effectively learned on the job Counselors don’t learn crisis management, conflict resolution, or anger management on the job. Why is college counseling different?

College counseling isn’t just for elite high schools I’ve worked at elite high schools, and while I helped those students, most of them would have found college without me (yes, I said it). If anything, college counseling is more needed in high schools that serve low-income and first-generation students, since their college knowledge curve is more steep.

There’s room in grad schools to teach this Most counseling programs have 7 or 8 courses in Psychology, ample room to reorganize that content and make room for a college counseling course.

A grad school curriculum exists Courses in college counseling exist, and have specific outcomes. Take a look at this one.

School counselors have many goals, including the desire to make the world a better place. Start the new year off on the right foot, call your grad school, and tell them to offer a required course in college counseling. Don’t make the next generation of counselors learn the hard way, if indeed they learn at all. 

College Admission in Five Years? We’re Already There

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I delved into the article with rapt attention, since it promised to deliver the keys to college admissions in 2030. Once I was done, here’s what I had gleaned:

• An increase in the use of portfolios.

• A decrease in the use of personal statements, since they will soon be written by someone other than the student.

• Utilization of information for student potential, so “(S)tudents who blossom later, or whose potential isn’t captured by exam performance alone, might finally get noticed.

• The prediction that “By 2030, applying to a university halfway across the world will be as seamless as applying to one down the road.”

• All of this, the article says, suggests that “For parents, it might mean a shift in focus from chasing prestige to finding the right personal fit”, and that the key to admissions in 2030 will be, in one word—trust.

Popular colleges have long had processes in place that go beyond test scores and grades to get to the essence of a student. Personal statements are part of that mix, but recognizing the significant “editing” of these essays by others, there are other means of verification of the student’s profile, including counselor letters and teacher letters, as well as a place where students can refer colleges to websites, research, and other artifacts to support their applications.

Since about 1/3 of the students at my last high school came from outside the US, I’m pretty aware of how fluid the college application process is beyond our borders—to the point that, if it gets much more fluid, we many need some serious paper towels.

And in terms of parents—is there any college counselor or advisor who doesn’t approach their work from the perspective of what’s best for the student? Sure, some parents are overly wed to the name of a school, and not what it has to offer. But that’s as true for parents who want their incredibly talented child to stay close to home, and not bother applying to top tier schools. The work there is all about good counseling.

I understand our world—both the one we live in and the one we work in—is all aflutter over the impact AI is having now, and could have in the future, and it may be I’ve just seen too many fads to get stirred up about this just yet. But portfolios were supposed to be a game changer 20 years ago; are we supposed to believe that’s going to change since they’ll soon be digitized? Are AI-generated essays really going to be that much harder to discern than the ones Mom and Dad write now? And let’s not forget the doom and gloom of two years ago that predicted the College Boardization of FAFSA. It’s still ticking as a federal entity, and rolled out early this year.

This field changes dramatically every year, to be sure, but it’s too easy to get caught up in the potential damage of those changes than it is to focus on what still matters, and always has mattered in this work. When that happens, do yourself a favor. Read this page from the Colleges That Change Lives website, and ask yourself two questions.

What part of that will, or needs to, change by 2030?

What college or college counselor/adviser doesn’t aspire to deliver this now, and will do so in five years?

I hope that makes you feel better if the future bothers you.

My wishes for a restful holiday, and hopes that we all work together for an even more peaceful new year.

College Admissions Based on Mission? Um…

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

Ever wonder why colleges take who they take, when they have a chance to be choosy? Posted on Georgia Tech’s admissions website, an article suggests the real driving factor behind admissions is the school’s mission, or the reason the college says it exists. Yes, you could be a great student with high grades in AP Everything who was president of every club in your high school. Still, if your essays and teacher letters don’t indicate that you understand the college’s reason for existence, the Georgia Tech piece implies that would be reason enough for them not to take you, since their review process would likely reveal that there isn’t a “fit” between what the reason the college exists, and what you have to offer.

So, the article puts together a nice argument, with only one small problem. Admission at most colleges doesn’t work like this at all. Instead, it depends on other factors that are a little more basic, but somehow more complicated—like:

How many people apply. The article tries to emphasize the role of mission at highly selective colleges. This suggests that if these same colleges only had 600 applicants for 500 seats, they’d likely take everybody, no matter what their essays said. That doesn’t make their decisions based on mission; it makes them based on numbers. Simply put, they don’t take everyone who applies, because they don’t have to.

What the college is looking for. An Ivy League admissions office once told me “If we’re graduating three hockey goalies this year, and you’re a high school senior applying as a hockey goalie, your chances of admission just went way up.” So what happens if the essays in the hockey goalie’s application don’t reveal a deep understanding of the school’s mission? Is this still a fit? Does the field goal kicker they don’t need get denied, even if his soul is the manifestation of the college’s mission in the flesh?

Rankings. On-site decisions and the rise in early application programs all point to a desire on the college’s part to attract more applicants, even though very few colleges are actually enrolling more students than they were ten years ago.

What’s behind the need to do that, if admissions decisions are driven by mission, and not by rankings? Is it impossible to be a solid B+ student and have a better understanding of a school’s mission than your National Honor Society counterpart? If not, why are so many highly selective colleges now denying so many—in fact, nearly all-- the B+ students who used to fulfill the college’s mission with distinction?

When most families start looking at colleges, they think the admission process is simple—take strong classes, get good grades, make sure your test scores are strong, join a few clubs, and you’re good to go. That perception works at an incredible number of colleges, but the highly selective colleges have a process that’s less clear, because they don’t have to take everyone who applies. It would be easy to assign this cause to the college’s mission, but that doesn’t reflect reality—and it also doesn’t explain why all kinds of schools say no to some B students and say yes to C students who average 21 points a game.

It would be great if mission was the only reason college admissions doesn’t seem fair, but it isn’t. Like life, it’s more complicated than that, and our students deserve an explanation more representative of that complexity.

Students—Clean Up Your Social Media Presence

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

There are three key technology rules when it comes to applying to college:

1. Create a new email account just for the messages that will be sent to and from colleges.
2. Check this email daily until you start college. There will be links to completing transcripts, notices of missing application parts, and more that will require immediate action.
3. Clean up any and all social media pages you have.

Students, you tend to get the first two. Email may be old-school to you, but this is how most colleges contact you, even once you enroll. This makes it easy to keep track of college contacts, and it's probably all for the best colleges not know your personal e-mail address is ladiesgoforme@mymail.com

But try and talk the pluses of website maintenance to you, and you’re convinced your counselor roamed the Earth with dinosaurs. You insist colleges don't care about social media accounts, and are too busy to check them — to prove it, students will ask colleges if they look, and the colleges will say no.

Fair enough — except when I asked a college if they looked, their answer was "Do you really think I'd tell you if we did?"

Or, worse yet — “We don’t check, but if we hear about one that’s especially bad, we look.”

Play it safe. Rough language, risky pictures — even having an account under another name — can hurt you and anyone else who's in those questionable photos with you. Once you've tidied up yours, ask your friends to take anything off their pages that makes you look iffy. After that, search for yourself on the web, and see what's there. You might not need to address it or be able to do anything about it, but it's better for you to know before the colleges do.

And even if the colleges don't look, they sometimes find out in very remote ways that can do serious damage...

(Based on a true story that happened somewhere else.)

Now Daisy thought she was all that
She knew she was a winner
A 3.9, a 32
The gal was no beginner.
Took five APs and tutored, too
Her homework was a snap
Spent most nights on the media
Just dishin' out some smack
She posted pix of homecoming
Her folks would see as knockouts
But dog, they'd never seen them, since
Her Instagram was blocked out

You can't imagine her surprise
When her counselor said "Hey Daisy
I got a call from East Coast U
The news will make you crazy!
The U was ready to admit
When in arrived their intern
'The buzz is all on Insta, man
These pics will make your hands burn.'
The intern loaded up the page
Of some homecoming hijinks
And in the photo, there was you—
Which made our rep do eye blinks.

"They saw your picture once or twice
And thought they'd overlook it
But then they read your online smack
And that's what really cooked it.
Your essays were all erudite
And very nicely tailored
But then they saw the real you
Has language like a sailor.
They read your app and loved you, girl,
It's you they were admittin'
But now they said they just can't take
A profane party kitten."

So dudes and dudettes, hear me out
Few colleges go lookin'
But if bad Instagrams are seen
That just can't be mistooken
Your full ride dough, your dream admit
Are goin' down the tank—gone!
And all because you tried to be
A social media icon.