@Cubanmom3 - THAT’S HORRIBLE! Hope your daughter just reported that to you and didn’t take it to heart.
At my DD’s school, a few years ago, they got 2 - 3 kids to apply to Harvard and other elites just to say they could get people in. (They didn’t get it, by the way.)
We had something similar happen to us in a meeting with the GC last year, as we were finalizing the short list for our D16. It was a suggestive push to add back some elite privates, so my D “didn’t regret not applying”.
I was so angry about it at the time, but when I cooled off, I figured the GC was assuming we were on the poor side and would be eligible for a pile of need-based aid at an elite private, and obviously she thought our D had a chance at admittance.
Our D attended a private high school on scholarship, and based on what suburb we live in, I can see where the GC may have been making some assumptions about our EFC, maybe thinking we were ignorant too? I can’t say for sure.
We are a classic donut hole family (hmmm…suddenly I’m hungry!). No way we can afford our EFC.
This same GC helped guide two of my D’s classmates, both from low income families, to top 20 schools where they are now attending! She may have put our family’s financial situation in the same boat as these other families. Again, I don’t know.
In fairness, I never told the GC what our budget was, and our D16 wouldn’t hear of “budget”. We parents were THRILLED at the full tuition offer from Bama and the full ride offer at UKy. But for sure, from other parents and teachers, there was this air of “Oh.” Tacit “your daughter could have done better”.
Well, sure, if YOU pay for it. 
@Midwest67 I was just thinking back to our first meeting with D17’s GC, early junior year. We talked about schools D was interested in, and what she was considering for a major. Never once did the topic of ‘budget’ come up, and at that point I don’t think I’d found CC. Anyway, I didn’t think of mentioning it to her at the time. They should definitely ask each family as part of their normal data collection. I could tell their default was to target the ‘best’ school that they thought the kid could get in to
D was awarded the Foundation Fellowship at UGA!
My D’s GC generally offers bad advice. Fortunately, my D is well aware that I’m the GC as far as she’s concerned and she tunes out all the other “noise.”
Unless a kid specifically asks for advice, I’m not aware of the GCs recommending anything to kids at our HS. There are 6 counselors for over 700 seniors, so college application time is usually the only time they ever really have any contact with them. 95% of the kids go on to college and the parents tend to be well educated, so I think most just get the info from home.
wow @ itsgetingreal17 your D is really hauling in the awards, congrats. Impressive.
We didn’t ask our GC for what colleges to apply except for what could be the UC safety and she responded UCD. DS is high stats and full pay and I figured CC -> GC 
It was my experience that “guidance counselor” was a terrible term for the woman who barely knew my daughter and had no idea how to offer her any advice. She did mail the transcripts in on time so she was good for that.
But the icing on the cake was when we attended a session on college planning and the head of guidance said the counselor was like the passenger directing the student (who was driving the “car”) and parents were in the back seat. Yeah, that didn’t happen because we’d have driven over a cliff!
@srk2017 we didn’t ask for help either, but our guidance counselor pre-populated Naviance with some guidance suggestions. She suggested 4 Catholic universities, however we aren’t Catholic and aren’t particularly active in church life. Several more suggestions were some super safeties, and then our state school. Yeah, not so helpful.
@RightCoaster - May be she was on recruiting/spiritual mission
Ha, @srk2017 we told my son that maybe she thought he needed some spiritual enlightenment, like more than 1 or 2x per year, lol.
@srk2017 UCD was the school that made us paranoid this time based on our experience a few years ago. Older kid had a GPA well above their average and a 2300+ SAT and got waitlisted. We saw several SATs in the 1900s for the same major get in. That caused us to have our younger one apply to more schools this time around.
We’ve actually had our GCs comment to some teachers that “kids from this school don’t go to college,” thereby excusing, I guess, their complete uselessness at helping with the process. On the other hand, one of D17’s GCs actually cried when she heard D had been accepted to Stanford. So…there’s that.
Some news to share, since I haven’t been on in a while: Likely letters from Smith and Whitman, and a Presidential scholarship from the University of Kentucky… We are going to have some tough decisions.
@youcee - I also heard similar stories and that’s why DS ended up applying for 5 UCs. so far we heard some news from 3 UCs, but nothing from UCD and UCSD.
We also applied to 5 UC’s, you figure she’ll get into at least one, lol.
Now we all know why the # of applications are high @socalmom007 Some apply to couple of state schools like Cal Poly also, but we didn’t
D17 accepted to Cal Poly slo, we threw in a couple of other CSU’s she’d never want to attend just to be safe and because it was on the same app 
@srk2017 @youcee my son’s school says UCD is very protective of their yield and doesn’t accept kids they think won’t attend kind of a tufts syndrome.
@Cubanmom3 that is terrible what does better mean it is all relative!! Sometimes I think these GC’s are out of touch. My DS goes to a rigorous private school and I think the GC’s sometimes tell the kids to aim too low because they want to say the kids got in to their first choice. She recommended my DS apply to a safety school ED we said no way especially since it wasn’t strong in his major. Hello (
@itsgetingreal17 congrats on UGA!!
@ibf I will be upset if UCD doesn’t give admission even though my DS wouldn’t have attended anyway (to close to home) He had couple of research experiences there.