With the caveat that I am trying to be hands off on the college app process (I trust kiddo and his counselor that they’ve got this), here’s my stab at your questions:
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There are 4 full time people in the office and 70-75 students per grade. I am not exactly sure how they divide up the duties, but one person does all of the testing scheduling, and one is the head, so I think two are devoted to one-on-one counseling. Things don’t start ramping up for juniors until after seniors have their apps in. So figure 35 students per counselor. But there is more of a team approach than that sounds like.
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The basics are the same. There is a college app class the juniors start after winter break, group taught by the counseling office. There is a pretty rigid timeline and check-ins for progress. The differences are that the counselors aren’t traveling to colleges and there aren’t college reps coming to Cate. Everything is virtual. There is usually a spring break East Coast college tour, but that didn’t happen. They have set aside time in the fall for students to do their own trips and have one set up for the California schools. I have regular meetings with the counselor, and they are nicely collaborative, comparing notes in tone. I think a significant part of the counselor’s job is parent management.
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Yeah, college counseling was something I thought about, but it seemed to me from matriculation lists that all these schools do just fine. I would have maybe paid more specific attention if sports recruiting were a concern for us. What I have learned so far is that the process is far more nuanced than one can learn from matriculation lists. And it is a “you get out of it what you put in” endeavor.