<p>I signed up for sophomore classes and my counselor thinks my schedule for next year is much too difficult for me. He gets the impression that I am stupid because I had 3.5 gpa first semester. How can I get him to take me seriously?</p>
<p>Would getting a higher GPA be out of the question?</p>
<p>Get a high GPA, get into Harvard, and slap your acceptance letter in his fuggin face.</p>
<p>Soph year I went in to ask my guidance counselor about SAT subject tests and my guidance counselor actually suggested that I didn’t take them. She told me that only top colleges want to see them, so she asked me what schools I was looking at. I was like, “uhh… dunno, like Cornell or Penn”. She replied that only about 2 kids get into Penn each year and 3 or 4 get into Cornell so I should be more realistic about my college search and that I probably wouldn’t need the subject tests. Let’s hope I can prove her wrong.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think a 3.5 is anything to be ashamed of, but is there a reason it wasn’t higher? Like if you were having trouble adjusting to high school, but you were on a path of improvement, I can understand why you’d want to take difficult classes and be upset when your counselor judged you. Your counselor sounds like a tool, to be honest. But yeah, a 3.5 in really difficult classes is better than a 4.0 in easy-peasy classes. I’d recommend getting a higher GPA first and foremost, then showing a lot of interest in school. If you’re balancing a 3.5 with a part time job, two varsity sports, and student government, no one’ll question why you don’t have a 4.0. Also, if your teachers like you, and can tell that you’re interested in school, they’ll recommend you for more difficult classes and perhaps persuade your counselor of your worth.</p>
<p>I always find it best to take everything my guidance counselor says with a grain of salt. Don’t let yours hold you back.</p>
<p>All counselors are like this. If we listened to them, we would all go to state universities. I got called into my counselors office to talk about my sophomore schedule selections, too. I am going to be skipping math and science courses this summer. She told me she wasn’t going to stop me but she strongly advised me to rethink my decision. Very strongly. Seems like she actually was trying to stop me.</p>
<p>A 3.5 isn’t that bad. Tell him that there were some things that prevented you from doing the best you could this year and that you want to still take those classes. Don’t make him mad or anything because later on he’ll be writing college recs for you and you don’t want him to say you are rude and all that in a rec. Just make sure that you say it firmly enough so that he understands that this is what you want but make sure to be polite. Talking to a counselor is a pretty tricky thing since it always seems like they wanna drag you down even though they’re actually trying to help you.</p>
<p>Can the counselor stop you from taking higher level courses? If not, you should do what you think is best…I hope this helps:)</p>
<p>lol the counselor at my school is a joke</p>
<p>I mean, he used to work in the admissions office at Rice… but he’s still a joke</p>
<p>I second what bunnyred said…don’t make him mad. That won’t get either of you anywhere.</p>
<p>College advisors have to walk a fine line between encouraging kids to challenge themselves and providing some realistic feedback toward achievable goals. If my son’s advisor told him that the schedule he proposed was too difficult, I would tell him to go speak with the individual teachers…teachers from this year and from the classes he wants to take. Present teachers should have a pretty good handle on what your strengths and weaknesses are…and next years’potential teachers know better than anyone what the work load looks like.</p>
<p>ditto @ Lullies</p>