Real College Counseling Season Begins Now—And Is in Trouble

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

There is a sense most of the college counseling world goes on hiatus after May 1. Not every college requires a May 1 deposit anymore, but there is still this feeling most of the decision making and form completing is done, and all that’s really left is to fill out the end-of-the-year college selection reports and get ready to enjoy an afternoon or two of mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers on the patio of a grateful senior.

Oh, if it were only true.

Eric Hoover gave the field a wake-up call with this piece, a rare but important look at the way college counseling works for too many students—an approach that has little to do with essay coaches or prioritizing activity lists. In the real world, where most parents are hesitant to send kids to college (largely because they haven’t gone themselves), forms that were due in December are now just being started, and families that managed to persist in completing financial aid forms have many questions, but aren’t asking them. High school counselors—and these tend to be the high school counselors who are in charge of everything, including getting students across the graduation stage—find themselves running out of time chasing down students who have outstanding paperwork, or who come to the office with a college’s request for proof of citizenship in order to qualify for financial aid. 

If you’ve ever had to follow this paper trail, you know it makes Alice’s adventure down the rabbit hole seem predictable to the point of being boring—and remember, these are students whose parents didn’t go to college, who have doubts about their kids going to college. It’s not going to take much for them to give up and send Jimmy to the local sandwich shop for a job application.

This typically makes May and June that much harder for counselors, families, and students from urban, rural, and low-income communities—and this weekend, it got even harder. As part of their efforts to downsize the Federal government, the Trump administration cut all remaining funding for AmeriCorps for the rest of the fiscal year. These grants tend to go directly from the federal government to the states, which then distribute funding to needy schools and organizations. This money includes funding for AmeriCorps workers in high schools who assist high school counselors in the college section process, doing some, if not most, of the work with many students whose families have no history in college attendance or financial aid.

If there is any, the good news is that the funds are being cut with about a month left in the financing cycle—so any schools who want to find money to keep their AmeriCorps counselors on payroll have less of a burden. On the other hand, it likely means a lot—and I mean a lot—of AmeriCorps high schools will have to send those counselors home for a week or two before they find an alternative funding source—and graduation is just a week or two away as it is. Some states are suing the Federal government for the money, and past practice suggests they’ll win—but again, that takes time, and that’s the one thing in short supply here.

So, the Land of Opportunity that promises all things are available to all citizens are, in essence, telling families with no money or college experience they’re going to have to do without. Not quite what we’d hoped for last fall, or what the Founding Fathers hoped for. Here’s hoping the courts can limit the damage.

The Final Exam of Choosing a College

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

Now that you’ve narrowed your choices, there are three final questions to ask:

Are you in love with what the college has to offer, or with what the college stands for? Once a college admits you, they will call you day and night, send you email hourly, and text you in the middle of math class. One college even went so far as to send every admitted student a disposable cell phone, so the college knew they could get through to every student.

Some of this may be helpful—if you get a call from a student studying your major, great—but many of these communications are just designed to give you a feel or glow for the college that can cloud your judgement, not clear it. The same is true for financial aid packages; on student picked a school just because they gave him a $600 grant and called it an honors scholarship. That makes the school a little less expensive – but does it make it right for you?

The college you say yes to will be thrilled to have you, and that’s important—but you won’t be getting hourly texts once you hit campus and the school mascot wont be escorting you to class every day. Classes, studying, doing laundry will take up about 150 of your college days very year, while home football games will take up about six. This is your new home—make sure your choice about that home is on a solid foundation.

Should you start locally and transfer? If money is tight, consider starting at a local community college or four-year institution where you can commute, live at home for a while, then transfer to your dream school to finish. You’ll have to work very closely every semester with an adviser *at the college you are transferring to* to make sure your classes will transfer for the degree you want, but if this means less stress, less loans, and more of a chance to afford your final two years at the place you really want to be, it’s worth considering.

It’s time to deposit, and you just can’t decided between your schools. Is it OK to deposit at more than one school at a time? No. 

Consider this. You decide to enroll at a college that has small classes, which you really like. You head to class on the first day, only to discover that 30 students double deposited—they told more than one school they’d be going there in the fall. All 30 of these students decided not to come to your college, and they just told the college the day before. It’s too late for the college to go to their waitlist, so those seats are now empty, and so is their budget. They cancel classes, lay off teachers they suddenly can’t afford, and put students in classes of 100. SO much for the education you had hoped for.

Telling lots of schools yes with a deposit is like saying yes to 10 prom dates—you might get more time to choose, but it hurts lots of people in the process, including you. Students stay on waitlists for no reason, colleges schedule classes that won’t have enough students, and parents lose deposits that could go towards textbooks—or retirement.

It’s great to have options, but the band is playing, and it’s time to dance. Size up your partners, pick the one that will get you across the dance floor with the right balance of support and excitement, and move to the music of the future—your future.

Tariffs and Tuition

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

It’s been a while, but there was one summer when colleges decided to raise their tuitions pretty significantly, without much fanfare. This was a summer of computer upgrades, coffee bars, rock walls, and lazy rivers, when colleges decided they needed to improve their social atmospheres and their academic backbones all at once—and the results weren’t pretty. Tuition increases of ten, twelve, even eighteen percent weren’t uncommon, and since budgets for financial aid didn’t get a similar boost, many students who thought they were set with their first choice either discovered new levels of debt to stay where they were, or the need to shift to Plan B at the last minute.

At first blush, the current discussion of tariffs suggests colleges have little to worry about, since most tariff issues are between countries. But a closer look shows there are serious consumer issues—and colleges are, like all of us, consumers. Tariff increases on fruit make the cost of maintaining the salad bar at its current glorious level a little harder. Cars used to get admissions officers around town and to high school visits have to be replaced every few years, and they are the target of some of the highest tariffs. The cost of turning classroom lights on, running the football scoreboard, and paying faculty enough to afford the increased cost of food means tariffs can play a significant role in tuition-setting this summer, something that’s usually done after students have made their college decisions, assuming prices will pretty much go up about as much as they did last year—but there’s no guarantee.

What should families do to be as ready as possible for the effects of tariffs on tuition? Try these:

Call your first choice college Not every college will have their tuition and fee schedules set for next year, but if parents are worried about tariffs, college are too—they don’t want to teach to empty classrooms with just a handful of deposits to show for it. Start with the financial aid office, and see where the discussion goes from there.

Watch out for specialty increases It’s not uncommon for colleges to put greater increases on specific sub pools of populations, especially when it comes to residency status. Community colleges typically pass higher increases on to residents outside their service area, as do many public four-year colleges to out-of-state students—and nearly everyone loves to gouge international students, who somehow have an established reputation as having an endless flow of cash. Increases in everything from special supply majors (think paint and clay for studio art majors) to fees for student activities (increases in costs related to athletics) have been reasons in the past for asking for more money. Watch carefully.

Keep Plan B open as long as possible Most counselors, including me, are pretty adamant about students committing to just one college by the time May 1 comes around. The reason for this is simple—you can only go to one college, so telling two you’re going to show up increases the chances one of them is going to be teaching to an empty seat.

That advice doesn’t usually change, but if you end up with one college you can no longer afford, and no place else to go, that doesn’t really solve anything. Review your college list to see if they all require a commitment or deposit—not all do—and keep those options as open as possible. It’s also likely colleges may offer advice on how to approach this challenge, so keep an eye on email and snail mail—and proceed with caution.

A Day in Their Life

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

It was arguably one of the best moments in the history of school counseling, and, while I cannot remember who told me about it, I am most certain it happened. A student was in a counselor’s office, where the topic of discussion was the student’s academic progress. After engaging in the customary question-and-answer round, and concluding with the bucking up counselors are known to do even when a hurricane is about to demolish the building, the student stood up, slung their backpack over a shoulder, and, while exiting, said over their other shoulder.

“You know, we have a lot to do every day.”

Which, according to the story, which I have no reason to doubt, gave the counselor something to think about. They hadn’t been in a high school classroom as a full-time teacher for five years, and hadn’t been a student in a high school classroom in almost 25. Odds were, some things had changed since then, if only that Bye Bye Bye was no longer the number one record (record?) in the country. Maybe it was time to get a few more details.

A couple of administrative meetings later, and the counselor found himself out of the office on a given day, having received a typical student’s schedule, which he would follow all day long, No trips to the faculty lounge or the office were allowed, nor was the checking of phone calls or email—although where the counselor went to the bathroom seems a mystery. The counselor was to attend every class, arrive before the bell, and stay for the entire period. What the counselor did for lunch is also undocumented, but one can only imagine how awkward that may have been.

There are several videos that try to capture some of what high school students take on in the course of a day, and there a lot of articles written by well-meaning teachers that outline the theory of how a typical day should go. But all of this pales in comparison to the experience of going through the actual day at your high school, since no school is really the same.

And so, here’s the challenge. Counselors say they understand how hard it must be, getting to a class and settling into the mores and customs of a learning environment that is dramatically different from the one they just left, which will be incredibly different from the one that comes after that. One class period may seem of less consequence because there was just a test yesterday, while another may feel more weighty, with the promise of a coming exam. Teachers of some classes may want the class period all to themselves, while others try desperately to create an environment of mutual discovery—while others are led by a teacher who claims group engagement matters, but doesn’t let kids get a word in edgewise. And then, there is always the battle of overcoming the post-lunch doldrums, where lunch gives student weighty bellies that can lead to unplanned dozing, or a reminder that the end of the day is nigh.

Counselors say they are always looking to increase legitimacy among their students. What better way to show you care about their world than to immerse yourself in it? You’ll likely need some administrative OKs, but this is the kind of activity most principals can’t say no to, since it’s really all about the kids.