Admissions Communications with GCs

carolyn
Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:20:01 +0000

I am a school college counselor. Every now and then a college will call asking about a specific student, but mostly these are requests for updated grade information, or to clarify something in the student’s transcript. We might also chat a bit about the student, but usually not.

I have never had a college call and ask me about every single student who has applied to that school.

If an admissions officer happens to be a personal acquaintance of mine, they will sometimes call or email me to let me know the admissions decision in advance (both positive and negative) and in a few instances, I have called or emailed admissions people I personally know to put in a good word for students (but I do this very sparingly – if a student has a realistic list, and I’ve written a good recommendation letter, a push usually isn’t necessary). Many (but not all) colleges also send me a letter that lists all of the students from my school who have applied, and then another letter listing their admissions results. So guidance counselors do know where students have applied!

However, ALL colleges do not call high schools about EVERY student. As already noted, Colleges get thousands of applications – would they really have time to call the guidance counselor of each one? Not only that, but frankly, I, and most school counselors, would go nuts if colleges did.

So, don’t take a call to the school, or lack thereof, to be a sign of anything, either positive or negative. Just sit tight. There’s less than a month to go, and then all will be revealed.