Guidance counselor continuously adds odd colleges to Naviance - need CC help!

Parents Forum
1

Every day I sign into Naviance and find new, completely “out there” colleges put in by the guidance counselor.

She is brand new, and it’s nice that she is trying to help - but given what she has been recommending, it’s hard to imagine that she is reading my D’s stats and interests correctly. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter what she suggests, but I guess since it’s a reflection of her knowledge level, I wonder how the recommendation is going to go.

We met with her a month ago and told her that:

D wants a medium-sized school but would use our state flagship as her academic and financial safety.
D may consider a larger school but does not want a small (less than 5,000 student) school
D is Jewish and would not want a Jesuit school.
D doesn’t know what she wants to do yet, but she is pretty into languages
D wants a school that “isn’t in the middle of nowhere” but “isn’t in the city”
D love a challenging environment

We did not mention cost to her, but since we are using state flagship as financial and academic safety, we are okay with exploring all kinds of cost options. (My spouse and I are both in careers where salary fluctuates so we can have good years and bad.)

Stats: 3.96 GPA (weighted, school does not unweight), Ranks in top 15% of class. Highly ranked public school. ACT 31 - FWIW, heavily weighted to English and Reading. Almost all AP and honors. Awaiting SAT subject test scores in Lit and US History.

Good ECs, but no sports. Heavy community service and heavy employment, and some language-based ECs.

We had already put the following schools onto her list:

State flagship
Lehigh
Emory
Tufts
Michigan
Northwestern
U Maryland
Tulane

We feel that we need additional “match” schools for her - her list has too many reaches.

Last week she added Brown (not a match, obviously) and Fordham (Jesuit, and in a city). This week she added Clark, Merrimack and Northeastern. When I asked her why she chose these particular colleges, she said it was because my D has mentioned that she liked the Boston area. She also said that they had study abroad options.

I just looked up Merrimack. The average ACT of an admitted student is an 18. My D has a 31. In what world would this be a school she should consider over her current safety? (Also, doesn’t pretty much every school have study abroad opportunities, either through their own programs or through a partnership with other schools?)

I know that CC will help me, but I just can’t imagine the poor students whose parents aren’t able to do the research and are relying on this kind of “guidance.”

Sorry for the mini rant. Can anyone suggest more appropriate list additions?

Thank you!

2

Are you saying that the guidance counselor is making specific recommendations to your daughter, or that the guidance counselor is reporting information about acceptances that this year’s seniors have received, and broadcasting that information to all of the junior class? If it is the former, then maybe your daughter needs to have another chat with the GC. If it is the latter, use your own best judgment about whether or not your daughter should take a look at any of these new-to-you places.

Now for my own rant: Sit down with your spouse, and come up with a figure that you can pay. Let your daughter know NOW so that she isn’t surprised next spring if the current safety turns out to be the only affordable option. As her list evolves, your daughter can feel free to eliminate any that clearly can’t be made affordable, and can consider whether or not she wants to have more than one sure-thing affordable safety on her list.

3

@happymomof1 - it’s the former - she is making specific recommendations by putting the schools into daughter’s personal Naviance. And as for your second suggestion - our income is very variable and we won’t know for sure until later this year. We are all fine with that and D knows it as well. She is happy with the state flagship as her financial and academic safety.

4

Are you sure the state flagship is an academic safety for her? Some are startlingly selective.

I wouldn’t trust the advice of your basically worthless GC on this point.

Also, how about Brandeis, if she likes the Boston area? Or Wisconsin (kids who like Michigan seem to like Wisconsin, too).

5

Hi @Marian - I hear what you are saying and you’re right - ours has also become more selective. But right now she has the stats to qualify for their honors program (so they say), so I think it would be a safety for her. Kids admitted there from her school last year had an average GPA of 3.3 and an ACT of 27, and that includes all of the very high stat kids who always apply to the state flagship but have no intention of going, which means that there are probably some much lower stat kids being admitted as well.

Thank you for the advice. She feels Wisconsin is too big (she didn’t love Michigan either, to be honest). Not sure about Brandeis as we haven’t seen it yet.

6

The fact that she is even suggesting colleges is a huge step over the average GC (assuming this is a regular public hs).

If you don’t want her help, just let her know that you think your list is finalized and then use CC :slight_smile: .

7

It doesn’t really matter what schools she adds, your D is under no obligation to apply to them. Let her add away and then maybe toward the end of the year you can ask to meet and pare down the list. And your list of schools is a good start but keep in mind that it does include some schools in cities (ex. Tulane & Emory) and some schools outside of your targeted size (ex. UMD and UM) so the GC might feel she has license to add ones that don’t exactly match your stated criteria.

Maybe also consider Brandeis, William and Mary and SUNY Genesco (may be a good less expensive option with good OOS rates).

8

I’m amazed a public hs teacher even recommends schools. My kids were on their own, wth me as their secret weapon. Really, you get more attention than most. If it’s useless or odd just ignore it.

9

If she likes Tufts, Brandeis is similar although I coudldn’t get my son to apply - we visited the day before Passover and the campus was empty which did not help… Tufts is a little more convenient regarding public transportation to Boston and it’s campus is more traditional architecturally (which my son considered a big plus, but not everyone cares as much as he did!) It’s a little easier to get into, so very much worth looking at.

At any rate I wouldn’t worry about what schools your GC is putting into Naviance. Most public high school GC’s don’t do that good a job of figuring out what it’s appropriate. But it’s better to have too many than too few.

I wouldn’t rule out all Jesuit schools. Georgetown, for example,was one of the first schools to have both a Rabbi and Immam on campus in addition to Catholic and Protestant ministers. Our tour guide said his required theology course was fulfilled by taking a course in Existentialism.

10

Wow. At my HS, the GC I have who rocks doesn’t add the colleges we do. She did give me a suggestion and it turned out to by my first choice.

11

Agree that you are lucky to even have someone making any suggestions.

I don’t really follow your requirements and list of schools. You want ‘medium’ which to me means 4000-8000, but you’ve listed Maryland, Michigan, and Northwestern. You don’t want a city, but listed Emory, Northwestern, Tulane, and Tufts, all in cities. Do you not want catholic schools, or just not Jesuit schools? Merrimack isn’t Jesuit, it’s medium, it’s not rural.

Just ignore her suggestions.

12

We don’t have Naviance. Our guidance counselors meet with juniors in the late fall and then when they become seniors the next fall. My son is a junior and is on his third counselor of high school. They ask what colleges you are interested in and then tell you what they think your chances are. My son knew when his counselor gave him bad information about our flagship. We’ll be happy if they don’t screw up sending transcripts. They are simply overwhelmed with schedules, issues, etc.

13

Maybe American U? It is in DC but in a more suburban part of the city. Size is right, at least. Also U of Vermont might be a state u option to consider.

14

U of Rochester. Should get some merit money.

15

It is great that the counselor is trying to be helpful. She probably has many students to track, and she may not precisely remember everything your daughter told her in the initial meeting. It’s also possible that she is putting schools on the list that she knows do not quite meet the criterion because sometimes those evolve.
I would have your daughter send an email to the counselor, starting with thanking her for her suggestions. You daughter can then explain that she has researched each of the suggestions and discuss what she likes or doesn’t like about each one. Hopefully, this will help the counselor understand which factors are crucial (not Jesuit) and which are more flexible (school size).

16

The GC college choices aren’t any more not in keeping with the criteria than the family’s…as noted upstream. There are already urban campuses, and large campuses on the list…even though the family said no to these.

I’m not sure what your issue is with Jesuit schools. Most are in the sweet spot of the right size. Campuses are usually very lovely, and self contained. And the Jesuits are not in your face about religion. My kid went to a Jesuit college…we are not Catholic. Yes, she had a religion requirement, but there were well over 100 choices to,fulfill this. My kid took a women in Religion Course, and a ethic course to fulfill the requirement. She really liked these courses.

No required chapel or anything of that sort.

17

As stated before, you are lucky she’s actually trying, most don’t. Yes, it’s a bit annoying that she’s off the mark, so you have two choices - you can either have your daughter ask her to stop, or just delete the ones you don’t want. As for the recommendation, if your experience is anything like ours, you will be given a form where you basically outline the recommendation for the counselor by telling them all about your kid. It’s a pretty silly process given the inputs, but I get that a counselor isn’t going to have meaningful knowledge of the hundreds of kids they “counsel”. (Large public schools anyway, YMMV at smaller/private schools).

18

You may find the Hillel guide to the top 60 colleges with a significant Jewish student population to be useful for finding additional matches:
http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/search#radius=10&select=top60

19

@twoinanddone, Northwestern has about 8K undergrads.

20

^^ and 12k graduate students. I don’t consider Harvard a medium size school either. Once you are fighting for a parking space with more than 10,000 other students, you’ve moved into ‘large’ school in my view. JMO.