A Good and Bad Spring for Diversity on Campus

By:  Patrick O'Connor  Ph.D

It’s been an interesting and rocky spring for college diversity.  Efforts to improve diversity through college admissions received an unexpected boost this week, when the US Supreme Court affirmed the right of the University of Texas to use race as a factor in some of its undergraduate admissions decisions.  Since the Supreme Court had already heard this case before, this second hearing hinged on a pivotal question:  was the way Texas used race designed to affect as few people as possible?

The answer came from the unlikely voice of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has never voted in favor of an affirmative action case in college admissions in his long career on the bench.  Given this surprise ruling came as the result of a vote of support from an unlikely source, it’s easy to understand why champions of diversity are thrilled, in fact downright giddy, over this week’s decision.

The Fisher decision certainly gives new life to affirmative action, but Justice Kennedy’s opinion also included some warnings that too many analysts are overlooking.  After granting the University of Texas the right to continue their admissions program, Justice Kennedy went on to advise the university to “use… data to scrutinize the fairness of its admissions program; to assess whether changing demographics have undermined the need for a race-conscious policy; and to identify the effects, both positive and negative, of the affirmative-action measures it deems necessary.” Combined with other comments in the opinion that were thoughtfully picked up by the Chronicle’s Andy Thomason, the overall effect of Justice Kennedy’s opinion is less a genuine embrace of affirmative action, and more an acknowledgement that affirmative action serves an important, but what the Court hopes will be a short-lived, purpose. It is safe to say Justice Kennedy had a change of vote.  Given his past concerns about affirmative action, and the halting tones of support in his opinion in Fisher, it is unclear that he has had a change of heart. 

Beyond the actions of our legal system, several articles published this spring suggest diversity of opinion is having a tough time on college campuses.  From articles about trigger warnings on campus (notices about class content that some may deem controversial) to job actions taken against professors who try to present all sides of an issue in classroom debates, authors across the political spectrum are concerned that more and more students want to hear less and less about opinions that disagree even modestly from their own.  Whether it’s the result of coddling or simple lack of exposure to dissenting opinions in the past, student backlash to the presentation of ideas that cause them to question their core values seems to be at an all-time high, as is the expectation that it is the job of the college administration to shield students from opinions the students might find offensive.

No one can say with any true authority how the Founding Fathers would view affirmative action, but it is clear from their writings and their conduct that the discussion of difficult subjects and the willingness to find common ground are cornerstones of the founding and successes of our country and our society.  As the Supreme Court tries valiantly to grapple with key elements of college access, those with access to a college education seem less and less interested in using those opportunities to engage in genuine discourse.  The poor role models of Congress and Jerry Springer may have led them to take this posture, but it is one that is contrary to the purpose of higher learning, and to the betterment of our world.

You’re Worried About the Changes in College Admission. Your Students Aren’t, and Don’t Need to Be

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

It’s easy to understand why some school counselors are nervous about next year.  SAT changes, a new multi-school college application, and major changes in financial aid deadlines are more than enough to concern those of us who have been involved in the college application process for a long time.

But here’s the thing.  Next year’s seniors haven’t been involved in the college application process for a long time.  They are bringing new eyes and new energy to a process that has exactly one purpose:  help them build what’s next in their life.  It may mean more than that to you, but that’s all it means to them, and that’s all it should ever mean to them.  That’s why they don’t really care about all the changes – and that’s why our task is to make sure they never do.

I know, I know.  “But there will system glitches with the new SAT and the new FAFSA deadline.”

Maybe.  But in case you missed it, this wasn’t exactly the smoothest year for standardized testing, even before the new SAT rolled out.  Colleges didn’t get test scores from both ACT and College Board until well after many application deadlines.  That wasn’t because anything was new; it just happened, we told the students, and they went back to English class.  Once it showed up, we dealt with it and moved on, minimizing student stress.  That goal is the same for this year.

“But kids need to know what their score on the new SAT means to colleges.”

Yes they do.  Just like last year’s students needed to know what their score on the old SAT meant to colleges.  They asked; the colleges told them, and the student had their answer.  This year shouldn’t be any different.

“But the new FAFSA deadline will really change things for students.”

Not really.  It will give this year’s students different opportunities and responsibilities, but this year’s class doesn’t have that knowledge—so they don’t have to change anything.  We have to change what we say to this year’s students, but it doesn’t change their existing mind set.  It’s all new to them.

“But—“

OK.  Perhaps we should just talk about the real issue.  You aren’t worried about what the changes are going to do to your students, who don’t know the history of college admissions.  You’re worried about what the changes are going to do to you.  Interpreting the new SAT.  Helping students apply for college and financial aid at the same time.  Hoping the Coalition application allows you to send a transcript, and that it gets there.  All perfectly understandable.  All perfectly reasonable.

All having nothing to do with your students.

It makes perfect sense that you’re nervous about all of this, because it changes the way you do your work, and that means your programs, newsletters, and calendar all need to be updated, and may not be perfect this year.  It’s your first time doing things this way—just like it’s the first time your students are applying to college.  That means you’re in this together.

Use this to your advantage.  Combine your wisdom with your students’ sense of wonder and endless possibility, and see where it takes you.  It will be new, it may be unpredictable, and it may take you somewhere you least expect—but you will experience all of this together, with the student’s best interests as the ultimate and only goal.

In a time where college admissions seems more and more like a pricey game, what more could you possibly want than a chance to start fresh?

College Access and Your Principal: An Essential Partnership

By:  Patrick O'Connor  Ph.D

The Internet is already full of the pictures that hold a special place in the hearts of school counselors.  Dressed in cap and gown and beaming ear to ear, an incredibly delighted high school graduate is standing next to an equally delighted, somewhat older, and often slightly slouching adult.  Off to college, perhaps with a counselor-discovered scholarship in hand, the caption under the picture reads “Thank to my counselor Mrs. Smith, I’m doing something I never thought I would do—go to college.”

It does our hearts and our stress levels a world of good to see a counselor’s hard work pay off for a student with college dreams.  As we think about professional goals for next year, we can’t help but wonder what we can do to help more students realize that dream, if that’s what they want to do.

That’s where your building principal comes in.  Long recognized as an essential element of a successful school counseling program, strong counselor-principal bonds are a must in order to create the college-going atmosphere that gives all students the chance to consider college as a viable postsecondary choice, understand what it takes to be ready to make the most of college, and walk the sometimes winding path of applying to college and finding the resources to pay for it.  When it comes to setting college goals for next year, here are three reasons why you need to start with the principal-counselor relationship:

College Access Isn’t A Program; It’s an Atmosphere  There are some programs counselors can run without anyone else’s assistance, but creating a college-going atmosphere simply isn’t one of them. We may be the masters of college awareness, but students knowing which college they like best means nothing if they don’t have the skills and attitude necessary to make the most of the college experience.  That’s largely built in the classroom, through extracurricular activities, and in conversations about learning that need to go on outside the counseling office in order for students to truly be college ready.

It’s important for counselors to have strong relationships directly with teachers, but when it comes to integrating college readiness into every assignment, building time in the annual schedule for events like College Application Week, and sending the right message about the role of college to parents, principals can move the college access needle as no one else can.

Your Principal is Your Boss  It’s also important to remember that principals control the one commodity counselors never have enough of—time.  From assigning tasks like schedule changes and test administration to creating policies for when colleges can visit your students, principals play a significant role in deciding what gets done in the college curriculum, when it gets done, and what doesn’t get done.  Any college program that requires more counseling time, or more building resources, ultimately happens only with your principal’s OK—and it will only get done successfully with their enthusiastic OK.  Give your administrators take a personalized tour of your college counseling curriculum.

Your Principal is Well Connected  A growing body of research shows that an effective college-going culture is best created in the community, not just in the school.  Since the principal is seen as the face of the school in the larger community, it’s essential counselors make the most of the relationships principals have with business leaders, the local media, faith leaders in the community, and heads of area government.  A world of partnerships, internships, job shadowing, professional connections, and program resources await the counselor who builds strong bonds with caring community members, and that relationship begins through the principal’s office. 

The 5 Minute Evaluation Program

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

School counseling has come a long way as a profession in a short amount of time.  From updated ASCA standards to a new array of formatting data to being honored at the White House, it’s safe to say that our profession is more visible, more respected, and better understood than ever before.

All of this growth is good, but a key part of change is incorporating or modifying successful past practices in ways that make sense in our brave new world. That’s certainly the case with evaluation and assessment of counseling services and programs.  New data reports can offer finely detailed accounts of attitudes, participation, and pre/post change, but there’s still something to be said for that moment when we pause for a moment after a student leaves our office and we quietly say to ourselves, “Yeah, that could have gone better.”

There’s nothing scientific about that approach, to be sure, but it can create opportunities for additional deliberations, both formal and informal, that lead to real change, and better service.  An award-winning college instructors call this the “onramp assessment method.”  His campus is close to a freeway, and every semester without fail, he leaves campus for the last time that term, hits the onramp, and knows exactly what he needs to do to improve the quality of his teaching next term.

This is a crazy time of year for counselors, so it might be hard to find five minutes, but that’s an even better reason to find them, turn away from the Mania of May, and ask yourself these simple questions. The answers can take you far on the freeway of improvement—and besides, this week’s column is a little short, so you can use the time you’d usually spend reading on helping yourself.

Hey, I’m a counselor—I’m here to help.

• What three things went well this year?
• What three things could have gone better?
• If you had the chance, what one event or meeting would you do over, and why?
• What one event or meeting makes you burst with pride?
• If your supervisor was asked to identify three goals for you for next year, what would they be?
• Are they the same three goals you have for yourself?
• If they aren’t, what are you going to do to negotiate the difference?
• It’s this day, next year.  What was glorious about the year you just lived?

Apply to College *and* Financial Aid in the Same Month?

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

School counselors throughout the land were really stoked when the US Department of Education first announced a change in the filing date for the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  By moving the date to October 1 of the senior year (it used to be January 1), the government was giving students an extra four months to apply to college with at least some idea of how much aid they would receive from the federal government, and how much they would have to pay.  When a decision is as important and costly as college, there’s nothing like having some extra time.

Now that it’s spring, counselors are putting their fall activity schedules together, and it’s starting to dawn on them that they’ll have to move their FAFSA completion activities to September—which, of course, is the same month they’re helping students apply to college.  Throw in a couple of weeks of schedule changes, and the new FAFSA deadline now seems less about giving students more time, and more about trying to drive counselors over the edge.  All we need now is to have administration move the Awards Assembly and AP week to September, and our journey to insanity will be complete.

It would be great if we could delay applying to college or filling out the FAFSA for a month, but the two are now linked in the minds of students, so delaying one could unintentionally derail the college plans of the very students the new deadline was meant to enhance.  If you’re trying to figure out how to manage this 1-2 Septemberpunch, consider these options:

Build FAFSA into your College Application Week plans.  Many high schools are already devoting a full week to raising awareness of college options through College Application week.  Designed to be a Spirit Week for college, this is a week many counselors help students apply to college—so why not build some FAFSA time into this event?  The whole school is already focusing on college this week, so this is a perfect add-on, making a rich week much richer, and only a little crazier (if College Application Week is a new idea to you, go here for some CAW ideas.)

Seek outside partners to help students and families with FAFSA.  Some high schools take a different approach, working with students on college applications, but focusing on parents for FAFSA completion.  If that’s the case, it’s wise to consider working with community partners to create a separate set of activities for parents to complete in September that may, or may not, have something to do with College Application Week.  Some schools partner with local accountants and tax preparers to host a series of FAFSA completion workshops in the school computer lab on September nights and weekends, while others call on college financial aid officers to offer introductory workshops during these same time periods.  Financial aid guidelines change quickly, so it’s wise to make sure you have a college cash partner who stays on top of the trends—and that doesn’t always have to be you.

Build an Early September/Late September model.  If the idea of doing both these important activities at once is just too much, consider splitting September in half.  If you start with the FAFSA activities, you can lean on your college cash partners to lead the way in early September, when counselors are usually inundated with schedule changes.  This means you can focus on college applications in late September, with some students having their FAFSA information in hand by then. Now there’s a winning combination!

The College Application Question No One Wants to Handle

By: Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

At first, it seems like a simple couple of questions that cause most college applicants no problem.  Usually located right after the student’s name, address, senior year schedule, and year of graduation, two fairly long questions appear, both with Yes and No boxes to check:

“Have you ever been suspended, disciplined, expelled, or put on probation while in high school?”

“Have you ever been charged with, or convicted of, a misdemeanor or felony?”

Like most things in life, if neither situation applies to you, this is no big deal—check no twice, and start thinking about how to tackle the essay prompt.  But for those students who don’t check no, life can get interesting in a hurry—and that means it gets interesting for counselors, who are often asked the same question.

As is always the case, the best plan to have is to plan ahead.  For the question about school discipline:

• Make sure you know the school policy on how to answer this question.  Many schools have a policy requiring counselors not to answer this question—the student can, but the counselor cannot.  If your school has a policy, follow it; if your school doesn’t have a policy, develop one.  Now.
  
• It’s important to read the question on each application closely. Some schools will ask about the student’s entire disciplinary record, while others will only want to know about discipline that led to time away from school.  One answer may not apply to all applications.
  
• When the answer is “yes”, the college may ask for an explanation.  Many schools direct counselors to discuss this with the student, have the student write an explanation they review together, and submit that answer, with no additional explanation from the counselor.  This shows the college that the student is taking ownership, and can explain how they have moved on from the situation—and that’s the important part of the explanation.  Unless it’s absolutely necessary, the counselor doesn’t add their own comments.
  
• If the situation is complex, the counselor may simply want to say “please call me” when answering the question.  The student should still submit an answer as well.

The question about misdemeanors and felonies is more challenging, largely because most counselors aren’t aware of these situations, since most students aren’t eager to share them.  At the same time, many students will simply stop filling out a college application, convinced that simply answering Yes to this question will lead to a denial of their application.

After once again reviewing school policy, the best way to be proactive with this question is to supply general information to all students.  They need to know that most colleges evaluate each Yes answer on its own merits, and many colleges that ask this question turn all Yes answers over to a separate legal or judicial division of the college.  This group often reads the student’s explanation, does any appropriate investigations, and determines if the student would pose a risk to the college.  If the answer is no, the application is then read for admission like every other application, and the matter is closed.

It’s easy to understand that some people think one poor choice is like one low grade—that it will eliminate college as an option.  While discipline questions aren’t usually a part of college admission, it’s important all students know that “one strike and you’re out” doesn’t generally apply.  These questions shouldn’t get in the way of pursuing your college goals. 

Should you fall into a Gap Year?

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

It’s been around for years—decades even—but now that Malia Obama has decided to take a year off before going to college, everyone wants to know about gap years, and if everyone should take one.  Let’s review the basics. 

Unlike students who get to the end of senior year and start to wonder if college is really the right choice, gap year students generally find a program, opportunity, or life experience they’d like to pursue that might not be available to them once they start college. This can include teaching English in another country, working with a nonprofit social agency, organized travel, career exploration organized by a gap year agency, or working to earn more money for college.

The process for taking a gap year is relatively simple. Students apply to colleges in their senior year as if they were planning to attend the following fall—they do not, and should not, mention they plan on taking a gap year. Once they’re admitted, they contact the college and explain their interest in deferring admission for a year or six months. Colleges that allow students to take a gap year typically ask for an enrollment deposit and give the student a deadline to notify the college if they aren’t coming—and that’s it.

Some school counselors will promote the idea of a gap year as part of their college counseling curriculum. At the same time, most students who feel the need for a gap year usually find their way to a program or experience they’re interested in, taking the initiative to make sure their colleges of choice will let them defer. 

Given that track record, some counselors hesitate to present the idea of a gap year to a wider audience, since some students may misunderstand it as “a year off,” which puts them in danger of never going to college or delaying the development of career skills. Students who discuss a gap year with their counselor in the spring of junior year (or fall of senior year) have put in the thought and energy needed to investigate gap year options and create the opportunity. Students with firm college plans who come to your office two days before graduation to talk about a gap year may just be coming late to the party. More likely, they are having second thoughts about their college choice, or about leaving high school.   It’s important to give each case the counsel it deserves. 

Colleges granting deferred admission often require the student not to use the year to attend another college, and many will also freeze the student’s financial aid package—something to consider if a tuition increase will require the student to find more money for school. While more private colleges allow students to take a gap year, some public colleges will as well. It’s also important to note that nearly all colleges granting gap years do not allow the student to use the time off to attend another college.  Understanding the details of each college’s conditions for a gap year is important—especially since some colleges don’t even over this option.

A handful of gap year students may inform you they plan on applying to college after they complete their gap year. This is generally a bad idea; not only is the student out of high school, making contact with counselor and teacher recommenders more challenging, but the student could also be out of the country, making contact with the college more challenging. A gap year is an opportunity to learn in a new way, not cut corners in applying to college. If that’s the student’s goal, it’s time to have a different conversation.