College Access in Six Easy Steps

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

The start of school is the perfect time to revisit your counseling office’s college access curriculum. College isn’t in everyone’s plans, but too many students who want to go to college don’t know what to do or how to prepare for it. If these students come from families where their parents didn’t go to college—or worse, think it’s not affordable—the exploration of college as an option is never really going to happen.

That’s where you come in. Developing a full-blown college curriculum takes time (in case you’re interested, I already wrote one you can use), but these five pillars serve as a key foundation for your college access efforts.

Middle School College Readiness The high schools that offer students the best chance of considering college know the readiness for college doesn’t start in ninth grade. Kids whose parents talk about college at home think college is a natural thing. Schools can instill that same attitude, with middle (or even elementary) school visits to college campuses, and visits by alumni who are in college. 

Better yet, make sure your middle school curriculum has academic choices that let students develop their college credentials. Two keys are strong science offerings—think physical science and life science—and Algebra I as early as seventh grade. You can’t teach these in middle school the same way you teach them in high school, but the outcome is the same—they know the concepts, and can move on to the next level.

College Awareness If your high school is close to a college, you’re in luck. Use the resources of their admissions and financial aid offices to offer presentations to 9-11 graders about college. This isn’t a recruiting speech; it’s a give-and-take about what college is, how students can prepare for it, and how they can make the most of it. If colleges from out-of-state come to visit your seniors, they can play the same role. Ask them ahead of time, and they can come with a presentation that meets that need.

Parent Presentations The same thing is true for parents, especially if they didn’t go to college. You can’t just spring college on them when their kids are juniors and hope for the best. In some ways, you have to convince them this is a possibility, let alone a great idea. Again, college admissions officers are happy to present at these events, and so are financial aid officers. Just ask.

College Application Week Want to raise awareness of all college has to offer? College Application Week is a Spirit Week for college, including when teachers where college gear and share their college stories. This can get you started.

Dual Enrollment The data is undeniable—students are more likely to go to college, do well in college, and complete college, if they take a college course in high school. Dual enrollment is a program where, in most cases, the high school pays for the student’s college class. This takes advanced planning—and, unfortunately, some convincing—but this is one of The. Key. Steps. to opening college opportunity. Here’s a brief overview.  If this isn’t an option in your high school, it’s time to put the wheels in motion.

College Awareness as a Class The idea of teaching kids how to choose, apply, and pay for college as a course they take during the school day is a relatively new one, but it’s a great way to make sure students find the time to plan their futures. Senior College Seminar is complete with video links and lesson plans, and it’s free. Take a look.

“High School Parents — This is a bit harsh, but said with care”

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

It isn’t very often that I give this space away to a colleague, but when I read something and think “Gee, I wish I had said that”, that’s a clue that you would enjoy reading it as well.

That’s the case with this piece, written by Eva Dodds.  A former college advisor at one of the country’s most prestigious private schools, and a former admissions interviewer, Eva has worked face-to-face with students in four states and the District of Columbia. She’s a past president of the Michigan Association for College Admission Counseling, and works with Root College Advising, based in Metro Detroit.

Eva’s work as an independent college advisor is the example all independents should follow. The interests of the student are at the heart of everything she does, and when the occasion arises for her to work with the student’s school counselor, she develops a sense of team that’s simply hard to beat.

This piece is just one example of Eva’s support of school counselors, and I’m grateful she’s letting me share it with you. This is an ideal piece to take to your principal or building newsletter editor so they will share it with well-meaning parents who may need some help understanding just how college applications work.

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High School Parents — This is a bit harsh, but said with care

If your student is up against a college deadline and has questions, that is the fault of the applicant’s timeline, not the school counselor’s schedule. There are no emergencies in college admissions.

I know this sounds basic and I am not in any way meaning to be patronizing. Your school counselor would like to instantly answer all questions, as our world has become used to, but that is impossible. My advice is to plan to submit applications two weeks to six weeks ahead of deadlines. Then, when questions or process issues arise, there is time for them to be addressed in a relaxed and thorough manner.

Your school counselor wants to be able to answer your every college admission question in real time. The fear of not understanding or knowing how to best support your child = honest experiences. Saying that an office or a counselor is not doing enough because they did not make sure you knew how the process works, is a misplaced thought. These realities do not change based on the size of the high school or if one pays tuition. Seek out the information from your high school’s college admissions information resource. If the answers are not there then make an appointment to speak with your school counselor.

Most every school counselor I know is working late into the night in September to return emails and process applications. The process has become more complex each year for the high schools as well. The school counselors are asked to learn more platforms/programs to use to submit applications and transcripts each year while keeping up with college specific updates and more.

Planning ahead and seeking information where those who share it have left it are the two keys to a less stressful college admission process. This will help the applicants (your kiddos) the most! — All of this shared with their best interests & yours at heart.

Test Scores on Transcripts? Oh Dear…

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I need to give you a little background about all this, so if you don’t work in Michigan, hang in there. This is important.

The end-of-the-year testing program in Michigan includes the SAT, and is given to every public high school junior. This battery of tests includes the SAT, a move originally designed to encourage students to take the test as they explore their options for life after high school.

Here’s where things get tricky. This program, which is codified in state law, was created at a time when the vast majority of colleges required test scores of some kind as part of the admissions process. That’s now changed, but the law hasn’t.

You see where this is going. Thanks to state law, no Michigan public school student can apply to any college as a test-optional candidate. This is an issue for many reasons, including a couple not often considered:

• Out-of-state students applying to Michigan colleges have an advantage over Michigan public school students applying to the same colleges

• Michigan public school students are at risk of submitting test scores that are lower than their best performance, since the SAT is given as part of a three-day testing experience, increasing the likelihood of test fatigue.

State law also requires this battery of tests includes administration of the SAT Writing Sample, a dinosaur that hasn’t appeared on the national SAT in several years. It was discontinued nationally when colleges basically said yeah, this thing doesn’t come close to measuring a student’s ability to write at the college level—yet Michigan is one of four states that still make students take it.

Legislation has been introduced in Michigan to eliminate the transcript posting requirement and the SAT writing sample—but here’s the reason why all of this could be important to you.

In gathering support for the change, a leading assessment organization has suggested that, in placing test scores on transcripts without the student’s consent, the state is violating FERPA. If the scores truly do belong to the student, the student should have say over who gets to see them. It’s also interesting that College Board believes test scores have no place on transcripts.

All of this is to say that, if your school has a policy that places test scores on transcripts, or automatically sends test scores with a transcript, it’s time to rethink that. Most colleges are test optional, which means scores aren’t required for admission. But if they’re sent, low scores can hurt a student’s chances for admission, since most colleges look at everything submitted—and the number of colleges who ignore low scores once they see them is about three dozen, so don’t count on that. Worse than that, if FERPA really is in play here, you’re putting yourself at the risk of a lawsuit, and that’s just no fun at all.

You could run into some resistance from your administration if you request this change, but it really is in the best interest of your district and the students to stop this practice. If you need some help convincing your crew that it’s time for a change, talk to the folks at FairTest. They’ve led the charge to change testing policies in this country for years, and are highly respected national experts on the subject.

If that doesn’t work, it may be time to contact your local media and let them know students’ privacy and college chances may be at risk. This may drive your boss crazy, but a lawsuit would drive them crazier—and that’s what you should tell them. 

Beating the August Counselor Blues

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

Let’s face it — August is not the best time to be a school counselor. New students need help feeling grounded, particularly the ones who feel they don’t need any help feeling grounded. Well-meaning parents new to your school were sure they could just show up the first day of school to register their kids. Middle- and high-school counselors are trying to remember just why schedule changes are their responsibility, and high school counselors are being besieged — before school starts — with parents saying “She applied to college yesterday. Why haven’t you sent their transcript?”

It would be too easy to try and comfort you by saying “This will all be different in three weeks”, but that really doesn’t help, since three weeks is, well, three weeks away. You need some relief now, so here goes:

You’re doing things you weren’t trained to do. There are hundreds of counselor training programs in this country, and not one — Not. One. — shows you how to do schedule changes, or how to register students. There’s a reason for this. This isn’t part of your job.

Remembering this can be oddly healing, since there’s always a sense of satisfaction being right. If you throw it in with lunch duty and bus supervision, you can see these first days’ tasks as a chance to get to know the students and help you build relationships. “Did you go to any concerts this summer?” “I’ve been at work too much — what’s going on with TikTok these days?”, and the usual comments about the teams they’re on can help you (and them) get past the fact that these tasks are mundane, making your time with them much more valuable — especially if you have to say no to the schedule change that would give them lunch with their girlfriend.

You were just on vacation. Summer counseling duties vary greatly, but with some effort, most counselors can remember back to the end of July, when your only concern was moving your backyard hammock around to keep out of the sun. Everyone, from counselors to business folks to artists, have a tough time engaging in reentry to their workspace. Keeping a few photos handy on your phone of vacation, the family reunion, or the perfect peach cobbler you finally conquered gives you the opportunity to peek at them between students to remember your personhood, and that can really help.

Don’t look ahead. Do ahead. It doesn’t really help all that much to say “Once this is over, I can do some real counseling”, since that just makes you more impatient for that day to arrive. Instead, take a few minutes at home to draw up half-a-dozen five-minute activities you can do at the office that you’ll actually use once it’s time for real counseling. Will you be visiting ninth grade classes to introduce yourselves? Take five minutes to review (or prepare) a slide deck you’ll be using. Meeting with seniors to discuss post-high school plans? Review the senior meeting sheet to make sure it’s up to date. Sneaking these activities between August student meetings isn’t planning; it’s doing, and that reminds you why you became a counselor in the first place.

Think Labor Day. The start of your school year isn’t after Labor Day anymore, but you still get three days of summer this weekend. When the next student comes in with the Lame Schedule Change Excuse of the Century, take a mental break to envision the mini-summer that’s coming up. See yourself sleeping in, poolside, or next to a plate full of grilled brats and grandma’s deviled eggs. It works.

College Applications

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

Most students balk at filling out college applications because they view it as the first step towards leaving home. That's easy to see; this is the place where you listen to your music, text message long after your parents have gone to bed, do a little homework, and think about your life. The world outside has changed and challenged you, sometimes in ways you didn't like or didn't completely master — but at the end of the day, you came home to sort out what it all meant, and looked forward to what came next. Giving this place up won't be easy.

The good news is the colleges that are right for you will feel just like home. It may be in the dorm rooms, it may be at the library (hey, it happens), it may be the whole campus — but somewhere at those colleges, there is a spot waiting for you to reflect on the challenges of life, wonder about the possible, and text your BFFs ’til dawn. Once you think about college as your next home, completing the applications will be as easy as taking the written exam for your driver's license, because both are just the paperwork that leads to a greater sense of freedom. In the end, going to college isn't about leaving home — it's about taking home with you.

The second thing I would do is replace students' earbuds with soundproof headphones. Some students hit the brakes because of outside opinions about their college choices. The application to a college a student loves often heads to the shredder when a well-meaning neighbor asks "Where is that college?", or Uncle Bob reports the college is nowhere to be found in the recently published rankings. If it turns out no other student at the local high school is applying to this college, this can become a trifecta for trauma.

So make the mature choice and be selfish. You know who you are and what you want in a college — if college selection were a term paper, you’d have about 25 sources to quote and 3000 file cards to synthesize by now. Knowing what you know about college and yourself, it's important to keep the well-meaning insights of others in perspective — some may know you, some may know colleges, but very few (except your parents) will know both as well as you do.

Everyone on your first grade soccer team got a trophy for participating, and choosing colleges works the same way — with self-knowledge and college knowledge, everyone gets a best college, even if what's best for you is different from what's best for everyone else.

At this time of year, it's easy for seniors to think it's gonna take a miracle to get into college. You've worked too hard to believe in things that you don't understand. Instead, remember what home means to you, stay focused on what you've learned about college and yourself, and your college applications will go flying out the door so quickly, you'll realize the miracle is you.

So pick up the pen, and pass the cheese doodles. You can do this.

 

First Client, Last Client

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

My first client didn’t mean to, but she taught me everything I needed to know about being a college counselor. She had made the most out of what she could with a limited rural school curriculum, her great grades, limited scores, and, as I recall, a national and international title as a powerlifter. My job was to sign the application and send out the transcript. She was admitted to her first-choice school in October. After that, our relationship was a series of encounters in the hallways, when she kindly waved and smiled whenever our paths crossed.

That’s really the way it’s supposed to be for every student. I never met her before twelfth grade, and never had a chance to “shape” her extracurricular “portfolio” (I still don’t know what that means). She showed up to ninth grade, studied what she wanted to study, lifted seriously massive objects because it was fun, and found a college that said “That sounds great to us, come on down.” At that time, and at that school, kids drove the postsecondary bus, and thought enough about life after high school to put together a good plan, all without test prep, private counselors, or parents who lost sleep about it all.

I wish I could say that about everywhere I worked, but it’s a little tough to work in American suburbs without becoming a victim of America’s obsession with name colleges. One school was ripe with nouveau riche middle managers of a local car manufacturer. Their version of college counseling was getting their student in the best state school, since it was a name institution, and especially since it was a bargain. Building lists based on student interests and ability was anathema — my job was to “work my magic” with State U’s admissions officers, just like all good college counselors did, I guess.

In time, that part of the job seemed to overtake most of the other work, until my last employer made it clear there wasn’t room in their college counseling program for an approach where the first question I asked students was “So, what’s next?”

I got an October call from a former student, now a mom, who had supported my work in many ways over the years. One of her kids was transferring colleges, and only needed help with essays — so, was I up for a Zoom call? Too many recent essay sessions had students expecting to take dictation from me — but this Mom had been a friend in the trenches, so I succumbed to a 45-minute session.

75 minutes later, I remembered why I went into college counseling. She brought ideas, themes, and questions, and responded to my comments with questions and challenges of her own. She clearly had the answer to “what’s next” in her soul, and wanted to know the best way to express it. That had been my job all along, and getting to do it one last time — the last time — was a gift beyond measure.

Eight weeks later, I got a text saying she had been admitted as a transfer student in a tough applicant pool to the same college those McMansion parents coveted — but she wasn’t applying to some name school for a name diploma. She was on her way to life’s next steps, and providing what little help I did left a glow that stays with me this day.

Thank you, dear God, for this good life, and forgive us if we do not love it enough. 

Staying in Touch This Summer

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

A wise principal once told me how funny he thought it was when parents said June was the month when schools wrapped things up. “We don’t wrap things up” he said, “we run off a cliff.”

It sure feels like that this year. With colleges making all kinds of changes in admissions policies, the inside of our work continues to get more school specific. With policy changes and programmatic cuts, support systems for our work—especially in the federal government—are changing daily.

All this is to say that, for those of us who get a summer that is supposed to be restorative, there is a challenge this summer. On the one hand, we need the rest, and the salmon river, pile of books, and RVs are calling our names like never before. On the other hand, if we close the office door and vow not to open it until mid-August, we could be begging for a deluge of changes we won’t be prepared for.

How do we handle these seemingly opposite callings? By doing what counselors do best—being all things to all people.

Admissions offices changes Barely a day went by in the school year without a college announcing they were heading back to requiring the SAT, or that they were adding an essay, or or or. That’s the kind of information counselors need to swallow one small bit at a time during the school year, since you’re building lists with underclassmen, and you’re making sure the lists you developed with seniors are still relevant.

That’s a little different in the summer. Yes, your rising seniors have college lists that need to be kept current; on the other hand, does it really matter all that much if you find out Cornell has a new testing policy on July 16th rather than the 12th? When it comes to checking office contacts, once a week (fortnight?) should more than do the trick. If a student reaches out with information that, in your opinion (not theirs) is urgent, you can certainly take action. But letting them know when and how you’re staying in touch with the office can build their expectations in ways that are healthy for you and for them. 

Government and agency policy changes The federal government has a reputation for slowing things down during the summer as well, and it’s safe to say that the tempest of cutthroat reform that started in the Department of Education in February has slowed to a trickle now, thanks in part to court rulings that funding promised by Congress can only be removed by Congress.

This means you don’t have to spend your summer listening to the latest news updates at the top of every hour—in fact, it likely means you can cut your ration of news updates to one a week and learn everything you need to know for the summer. Since most funding changes affect districts, year-round employees are around to stay on top of whatever updates may occur—and if they need you, they know where to get hold of you.

The only possible area you need to stay focused on is financial aid, but that’s been remarkably stable so far. Find one good source to check weekly , and you’ll be able to help seniors stay focused on their college transition.

Counselors are exceptionally good at keeping students first, and that matters—but so does having the perspective and energy to do this task with purpose. Staying in touch with trends without driving yourself crazy this summer is manageable, even after this incredibly unique school year.