This is really not uncommon. My high school had 1600 students and four guidance counselors, and one guidance counselor was the administrative head of the guidance program. So that’s about 400 students per counselor. Middle-class students at public schools don’t expect hand-holding and personal dedication to the design of a tailored college list. The “guidance counselors” at my high school were more like administrative executives who took care of a lot of school paperwork than actual counselors. We didn’t expect them to help us select colleges; we really just needed them to fill out the GC form/write the GC letter.
And this is exactly what happened. I personally didn’t understand the financial aid process; I simply was not aware that some schools would cover my financial need. So I didn’t fill out the CSS PROFILE (not trusting a financial aid form I had to pay for). I also didn’t take any SAT IIs (not being aware of their importance) because they cost extra money and my parents could barely afford the $25 they gave me to take the SAT. Most of my friends either went to local colleges/universities or they went to the alma maters of our teachers, because those were the only colleges we’d of which we’d ever heard.
I never even heard of Naviance until I started hanging out here.