College Counselor Advocacy Calls

[V3rnor]

Hi everyone, I hope y’all days have been going well! I’m seeking advice on asking my guidance counselor if she could potentially do an Advocacy call for me to Georgetown.

Just as some context for the school I go to:
I attend a public charter school that accepts people from across my entire county—We’re a small school, and my graduating class is under 100. That initial number was over 200, but it has dwindled over the past few years.

Recently, I’ve looked at ways to try and potentially boost my application to Georgetown, which is my top choice. I’ve already drafted and am about to submit a LOCI after I got deferred. While snooping around on the internet, I read that some counselors make advocacy calls to admissions offices to talk about applicants.

Recently I’ve seen a lot of videos breaking down extremely high-cost Private schools, and how shelling large amounts of money gives those who are more well-off advantages through more specialized & varied courses, alongside having more personal counselors who have deep connections to T20 & the Ivy Leagues. In short, how they coined it, Ivy Feeders. On top of that, some can shell out thousands of dollars for external college consultants (i.e. the $120,000 consultant thread) to boost them even further. Here’s one of those videos that I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxQirxR2d4Y&

Looking at my school, there are definite parallels between their schools and mine, really only with the closeness of our College Counselor. Because of our class size, our 1 college counselor can work with us one-on-one, a privilege that isn’t available to those who attend public schools where their college counselors can only spare so much time for hundreds of students. I myself have benefited from this, working with her for probably hours in total to help work on my applications. She knows me very well, and has had me walk other seniors through the application process as well.

But apart from that, we don’t fit that picture of an ultra-rich private school, rather being an IB school we don’t have much class selection at all, and our budget is… questionable at times, relying heavily on parents to meet our minimum operating requirement. While we do get money from the state, it isn’t a lot.

I see, and I recognize that having a college counselor who can provide students like me with so much personal attention is a rare privilege that could put me ahead of other applicants.

So the dilemma that is playing out in my mind is if my college counselor does an Advocacy call for me, will I come off as a woefully ignorant, or entitled student who has resources galore at their disposal?

I do apologize if I sound somewhat entitled/ignorant in this post, and if it also feels like a big braindump—there has been a lot on my mind recently, and its hard for me to phrase what exactly I’m thinking about this.

Thanks for y’alls help!

[NiceUnparticularMan]

Talk with your counselor and let them guide you.

But I can tell you this is pretty rare even at our feederish HS. Indeed, normally our counselors have put all the relevant information and evaluations in our applications to begin with, and it would not be credible if they tried to plead every students’ case to every college they wanted.

Still, if your counselor believes there is something more that they could do on your behalf with Georgetown, it is fine to try.

[mikemac]

@V3rnor

She knows me very well, and has had me walk other seniors through the application process as well.

The decisive factor probably isn’t how well your counselor knows you, it’s how well a selective college knows your counselor.

At top prep schools the counselors may attend workshops featuring adcoms from selective colleges who they’ve gotten to know over the years (after all it’s one reason both parties attend). The counselor may have worked in the admissions office. The school has a track record of sending kids to selective colleges and as often as not its the adcom calling the counselor as vice versa.

The conversations aren’t really about any particular kid they discuss (although the kid wouldn’t see it that way) but should be seen in the context of the stream of great kids a counselor can help send their way over the years. And in this stream a counselor will also point out when there is a poor fit. The trust comes from the mutual benefit of honest discussions over a long-term association, something missing when an unknown counselor dials the office.

So if your counselor were to call and say nice things about you I don’t see it hurting but I have more than some doubt about whether it will help.

[TonyGrace]

I think this is less common than you believe. Where it tends to happen is in the case of a WL situation. But like someone pointed out, being able to do so usually involves an established relationship. Our school counselors do this sometimes, but not at all schools. They are pretty upfront about where they might be able to have a conversation. Also they will only do this for someone who will definitely commit if moved of the WL. These relationships are important and they don’t want to burn bridges.

[Bruno99]

I think a counselor advocacy call can help because it puts you on the radar of the AO who is likely reviewing thousands of applications. However, I would guess that to be helpful it probably has to convey something specific, relevant and not otherwise obvious in your application. But I’m just guessing at that.

I learned that my D’s counselor reached out to the AO at her top choice school to ask a specific question that was relevant to her application. We didn’t ask her to do this but she did so because we asked a question she didn’t know the answer to and, unbeknownst to us, she reached out to the AO to ask. We only found out she had done so when she reported back to us. D ended up getting in (yay!). Not an Ivy-level school but one that is highly selective and that for which I thought her chances were 50/50 at best. Of course we will never know why she got in, but I believe the phone call had to help. However, I don’t know if a more general “this is a great student you should really consider” top of advocacy call would be beneficial in the same way. Either way, best of luck to you!