<p>fogfog,
Understand your pain with private schools and finances. I told GC at our JR year private meeting that S needed merit and he talked about how hard and time consuming it is to get outside scholarships. I told him I wasn’t talking about those, I was talking about merit scholarships. They basically don’t have those on the radar apparently because very few kids need them. Just this year they started to keep track of the merit money offered to the seniors, so maybe this is changing. However, they don’t weight grades and gpa is out of 100- actually 94 since no one has above a 94. Most merit is on a 4.0 scale and is weighted, so I’m not sure how that is going to work out. They always say “schools know us” or “we work directly with the colleges” and they supply their profile. This isn’t going to be sufficient for S. Probably 50% of the schools he is applying to no one has ever applied from his private school as most students apply to top tier NE and he is not.</p>
<p>I would say they do some things pretty well, and some things not so good. Good is they have some connections and the ability to pick up the phone on behalf of a kid. With 2 for 75 students I have to believe they get to know the students. </p>
<p>Wish us luck with merit aps though, we will need it.</p>
<p>Our student is in the same boat as the OP. Small private, however the level of service we are receiving is the polar opposite. A well run private should compare favorably to a public school in level of service…typically better resources with less challenges.</p>
<p>-GC meets with student & parent in middle of sophomore year and gives overview of what will happen over next couple of years regarding college. From that point on all meetings will be with the student.</p>
<p>-There is an annual college night for sophomores and juniors where they have a number of speakers discussing a variety of topics. This is coordinated with a couple of other local private schools.</p>
<p>-Naviance is made available to everyone. Each student is given their own logon. This is a great tool for researching schools…why would the school limit access?</p>
<p>Student’s GC is great and we couldn’t be happier. Sybbie719 - you are a saint.</p>
<p>S2’s public school has about 350 kids per GC. No college counselors per se – it’s part of the entire social worker/academic advisor/college guru package all GCs are assigned to carry. GCs meet with students in spring of junior year. No parents. (At S1’s school, a different public, parents were included in that spring meeting.)</p>
<p>Both schools gave the kids and us a questionnaire to complete. It was some resume-type rundown stuff, plus a few short answers. If you are concerned that your GC does not know your student well, HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO FRAME THE DISCUSSION. Both my kids treated those GC questionnaires like college essays. They were thoughtful, specific, made sure to cover some bases that they wanted the GC to address vs. in a personal essay. We did the same thing. We let her know about my medical situation, because she might find it relevant to mention or to place S’s performance in context of what was happening at home. Neither of our kids felt my illness had affected their performance, etc., but the GCs at both schools thought how we handled it as a family reflected well on the kids’ ability to handle adversity. </p>
<p>At our school, we know that the GCs rely heavily on these questionnaires in writing the rec letters, and they encourage people to be thorough.</p>
<p>S2 got a comment from an adcom in his acceptance letter about his late night Risk parties – that info was provided only in the questionnaire. Nowhere else. It made me feel good to know the GC had taken the time to read those responses. That said, S2’s GC never asked where he was applying. Worked out for us, but I know of other situations where some reality checking would have been helpful.</p>
<p>My expectations of our GC was that she would put together a LOR that reflected S’s performance and interests, and that the transcripts, profiles, IB supplements, etc. would be sent out on a timely basis. The GC has a lot more important things to do than to hold the hands of college-savvy parents with a high-performing kid who will bloom wherever he is planted. </p>
<p>Sybbie, I would be honored to buff your halo for all the good work you do.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts
We have a mtg in the next ten days or so–to meet with the GC and move over from the academic advisement to the college advisement side of things…
Our student has a very up to date resume–we crafted that last fall and keep it updated…</p>
<p>Our hs missed the mark by not advising our student to take an SAT back in freshman yr–when our studnet finished a certain track…It would have been nice to have it done–
At the time they acted liike I was crazy to consider our student taking the SAT subject test–and I see that they have since changed the advisement/schedule that “perhaps” a soph might take and SAT2…whateve…</p>
<p>The lack of use of Naviance is mind boggling–I am sure its been around anough to have some decent scattergrams–though alot of the kiddps here apply regionally–
Another local priuvate has their Naviance available via internet–For a couple of the schools–it does not privacey for lack of enough data…thats fine
I just think if you want to use my kids stuff–make it available…</p>
<p>As far as SAT and ACT on transcripts…
I believe that the trnacsripts are expressly to NOT have test scores…
check in the SAT forums–thats what I was told.
I checked with our registrar–and scores are NOT listed on transcripts.</p>
<p>Wow…reading about the small caseloads at some schools makes me jealous
I work with a caseload of 450 or more each year in a Southern California high school. I welcome appointments with my parents anytime. I feel that even with all we have to do, it is critical that I be available for my parents and students.</p>
<p>Even with our large caseloads, I know my seniors pretty well after working with them for four years. It really helps when the student meets with me numerous times each year and when the parent comes in at least one time per year and keeps in touch via email. Too many times, parents seem to feel they are “bothering” us with their questions. I really emphasize to the parent that I am here to help them.</p>
<p>Sybbie, I agree with your comments throughout this thread.</p>
<p>^^
Well we are looking forward to our appt…</p>
<p>The school has the luxury of each student having an academic advisor each yr–they change from year to year–so its not the same advisor…
The GCs really just handle the apps process,
while they will advise a student who has academic issues and they do submit the paper for the courseload choices, thats minimal paper at the beginning of the year.</p>
<p>Certainly what GCs do and don’t do varies by their role in each school…and vaires by the student/family needs.
Because we have done sooo much research already–the Naviance would be helpful sicne I/we can see what the admit rate has been for our school.
Looking at nearby privates or other schools around the country is interesting and still doesn’t give a clear picture since GPAs and school profiles vary sooo much.</p>
<p>Naviance, that would be nice, but can’t see it happening. fogfog do you have naviance info from some privates? It would be nice to look at a comparable school.</p>
<p>I haven’t closely followed this thread, but the question about limiting Naviance jumped out at me.</p>
<p>The only reason I can think of is because there aren’t enough datapoints for a particular school. For instance if only a couple of kids apply to Big Name U, and one gets in, it’s easy to tell who that is, his/her stats, etc. Our school requires four datapoints before it makes that school public. But it’s an easy fix to allow some schools and restrict others. I would tell the GC/school that its cutting the nose to spite the face by not allowing kids/parents the ability to use this information to lead the college search themselves. They could save themselves some work by letting families have this information.</p>
<p>We had an unofficial meeting with my D’s GC. She gave us an overview. It was helpful in getting school’s perspective. Our official meeting starts in the second half of junior year.</p>
