Our situation was pretty awful.
At our school, at the end of my student’s 10th grade year, the college counselor planned to retire (this was announced at beginning of 10th grade). At the start of 11th grade…the school still hadn’t hired for the position yet.
So in the fall of 11th grade I made a school list with my student, and figured out the merit money process, worked out a plan for a testing schedule, classes, mapped out tasks for the year, etc. And I checked with the principal about the timeline for hiring a new CC and I was assured it was a priority.
But in the spring of 11th grade…there still wasn’t a CC. My student and I visited colleges, and we talked about who he would ask for recommendations; he asked those teachers in May of 11th grade if they would be open to writing his recommendations, and he let them know that he would likely be applying ED and talked to them about that timeline.
When school resumed in the fall for 12th grade, there still wasn’t a college counselor on staff, and we were told the principal would be writing the CC letters. This is a small school and she knew the students very well, and had also been my student’s advisor for 9th-11th grade. So having her write the letter was appropriate and I knew it would be done well, yet I also knew how busy she was, and I was not encouraged by the fact that the school had neglected to hire a CC after all this time.
Early September I conferred with another family at the school (our students were the top of the class and their student was also applying ED that fall); we were both dismayed and not at all confident at this point that application materials from the school were going to be submitted in time. Together we asked to read the school report, received it and noted with alarm that the description of the curriculum was from pre-Covid, and the curriculum had gone through notable changes since then. Us three parents insisted on a meeting with the principal early in September and urgently insisted that the school report be updated to be accurate as to what our students had been doing the past three years.
(The curriculum was very different, content and yearly themes, as well as all the classes; this wasn’t something that was just a shade different.)
My student also formally requested his recommendation letters the first week of September, and gave his recommendation teachers and the principal a copy of his essay along with his CV, and he finished his Common App halfway through the month. And then we waited. And waited. We were assured that the deadlines would be met, and the school report and the CC letter and transcript were finally submitted on the day ED was due.
No one ever read his essay at the school; when other families began panicking mid-fall of 12th grade about college applications, and asking the school about timelines for applying to college, it was a mess—having had no college counseling at all in 11th grade, there were many families that didn’t realize that starting to think about any of this in October or November of 12th grade is a set up for stress and rapidly closing doors.
So, in mid November of 12th grade the school hastily added an essay writing day at lunch time for 3 weeks; no other support or advice on how to fill out the Common App or make a list. It was too little, too late; I fielded quite a few phone calls from parents asking me questions, and my student and his friend who also applied ED were helping their friends at lunch and after school. Just an absolute mess.
The school hired a CC for the following year; I’ve heard they’re great. I still receive the school newsletters, and I’ve seen that they have college information sessions starting now in 10th grade, and they welcome 9th grade families to sit in on those fall information evenings, too. It’s formalized, I see that they have benchmarks for each year of high school, and I’m glad for those families and students to have support and structure.