Students, driving the life-after-high school bus means taking care of all the passengers, and that includes someone whose role is pretty important—your school counselor.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
“Hang on. So I meet with my parents every week, and I have to stay in touch with someone I’ve only met once when I changed my schedule?”
Exactly right—and that’s the problem. If you look at most college applications, there’s a section that has to be filled out by your school counselor. It doesn’t matter how well the counselor knows you. It doesn’t matter how many other students they work with. It doesn’t matter how many other things your counselor does besides help students get into college. The colleges want to hear from your counselor.
That means one of three things will happen with the space the counselor has to complete. It stays blank; your counselor scribbles something in it that could apply to anyone; your counselor has so many helpful things to say about you they have to write “continued on attached document”.
Two questions here. First, if you gave this form to your counselor today, what option would they choose? Second, which option are you rooting for?
Thought so.
This isn’t hard. For the first two years of high school, see your counselor when you need to—when you need to change a schedule, discuss a personal issue, apply for a summer program—and, if they have time, talk about college. Like it or not, your counselor is way overworked. So go see them if you need them; if not, space is good.
In most cases, the time to ramp things up is in February of junior year. If your school is like most, this is when you’ll schedule classes for senior year. By the end of January, you’ll want to type up a summary of your community service and extracurricular activities, along with any awards and recognitions you’ve received. Complete this with 1-2 paragraphs explaining why you want to go to college. This way, the notes or letter your counselor writes for the college will be more than just a list of what you’ve done; it will show them more of who you are. That makes a difference.
You’ll also want to have your senior schedule written up and finished. Your counselor may have scheduled this meeting to talk about your classes, but you don’t want to do that. Instead, put all these materials in a folder that has your name on the front. Hand it to your counselor when your meeting starts, then say:
“Mrs. Jones, I know you’re really busy, so I got a copy of my transcript from the office and planned my senior schedule already. I also want you to know I’m scheduled to take the SAT in April, and I’m doing some in-person and online college tours over spring break. I don’t know if I’ll see you before I apply for colleges before fall, so here’s a list of what I’ve been up to in high school, along with my thoughts about college. I’ve highlighted the activities that mean the most to me, and my cell number is at the top of the page, so you can contact me right away if you have any questions. Thanks for helping me with this. If I have any questions, what’s the best way to contact you?”
I promise you—if you do this, your counselor will look for reasons to see you from now on, and that’s a good thing.
Counselor on board? Drive on.
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