Asking too much of couselor

annikasorrensen
Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:23:59 +0000

Counselors who are worthy of their jobs and who are paid by the taxpayers (you!) would be more than happy to help. It is their job!

It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be considerate. Meaning, give him/her plenty of lead time whenever possible, provide all necessary information, and make the process smooth. Perhaps sit down with him and tell him that you are planning to apply for 12 - 20 (or whatever the number is) of scholarships, of which many will require counselor forms. That way he has an idea of what you are up to and can plan accordingly.

It is probably unreasonable to expect him to deal with 100 scholarship applications – but a dozen or even two dozen seems within a reasonable if aggressive amount of scholarships. If you do intend to do even more than those dozen or so – then you really do need to tell him your overall goal and why you need so much money for school. Perhaps he can help you narrow down your scholarship search for ones that you are most likely to get some money from. Scholarships are really hit or miss, and can be a lot of work for very little pay off. You should check to find out if your colleges decrease your aid when getting outside scholarships – if so, then the scholarships are a wash (the institutional aid goes down a dollar for every dollar of scholarship earned.)