I will add to @gardenstategal’s post that mirrored our son’s experience that the boarding schools have been in this business a long, long time and don’t require help from parents beyond that “extensive questionnaire” (the purpose of which I felt was more to ferret out if we were likely to be a PITA come senior year rather than guide the CC office toward enlightenment about our son whom they knew as a student much better than we did by that time). We were able to be completely hands-off during our son’s admissions cycle, although his GC kept us in the loop, as that was, in part, what we were paying for from his school. But, I believe the boarding schools are outside the scope of this conversation because they exist to eliminate many of the concerns discussed about this process.
I often laugh, though, that because our son went the service academy route, which was a process entirely independent of his HS and did not require anything from it beyond his transcript and LORs, he only got “CC-lite” from the school and perhaps we should have gotten a bit of a refund.
This is important - but I also think it gives students time to suss out schools on their own.
I don’t know about your kids - but my kids had ideas of some they might like on size or urbanness, etc. And we visited and it was like - yuck.
So maybe during 10th and first semester 11th grade, kids can visit some area type schools or some on vacation in order to get a better fit of what they want in a college (beyond a rank) - and maybe walk in with more clarity - to then have a discussion that likely will be more fruitful vs. being given names and finding out later they are not a fit.
In our case we are doing all of that. D has an initial list of criteria in terms of academics, size, location, preferred extracurriculars. We have visited a small handful of schools both formal tours and on our own (and have a few more already scheduled), and so far they have validated some of what she thinks she wants and doesn’t want. Based on her personality and HS experience, frankly I know the “type” of environment that she might flourish in. Taking the SAT today (8/22), has PSAT from 9th and 10th (they take the NMSQT in 10th as a baseline), we have provided her resume, and based on her transcript to date she can probably get a sense of the type of student D is in terms of performance and rigor.
Ideally here are a few things we would like to get out of an early meeting. And based on many responses above this seems reasonable.
First, just make introductions and get on her radar since if nothing else they will engage in February for senior year course selections.
Get the counselor’s first take on D’s preferences and initial list of schools, and any feedback she might have. (Oh you like X and Y schools. Take a look at Z)
For those schools that don’t have Naviance scattergrams, is there any recent history of kids from this school headed to that college.
We just learned juniors may only participate in three visits by AOs to the campus this fall but the full schedule isn’t posted yet. What schools normally come, and any advice on how to choose. (I’ll probably crowd source that here later).
I really appreciate everyone’s feedback and can see it actually is quite late to not have initial college meetings until spring of 11th, which is what I suspected. I’ll be following up with the counselor in early September.
Our school wasn’t huge, and by design, kids knew lots of kids in the classes ahead and behind them. They definitely got a feel for the college options out there from older students and who they fit. Most juniors and seniors connected with their former classmates/teammates/ dorm residents as they went off to college. This was a really valuable resource, and I would highly recommend this kind of informal fact-finding for any high school upperclassman.
I still think most, if educated, can nail a college list on their own. We didn’t have Naviance or Scoir. I got 16 of my kids 17 acceptances right and some included more selective schools.
Counseling is a comfort for you but I do think given the national breadth of folks here, you can do just as well if not better in validating a list or developing a list here if that’s why you want counseling.
I guess because my public school kids didn’t have access to this type of thing, I don’t see the ‘crucial’ part of it but obviously to many here who have experienced it,there is a comfort with it.
My guess is most attend college with little to no substantive counseling but I do realize the more upmarket you go in school type, that likely changes.
I’m sure she’ll find the right place for her, no matter how counseling or college fairs or otherwise go. And don’t forget, it’s unlikely a fair or visits only happen at your school.
There’s often a public school district fair you can attend - ours was held at the big shopping mall. And many colleges make visits to hotels or restaurants or other places - where kids from anywhere can join. Most have a - where we will be page or if you are on their email list, they’ll tell you when they’ll be nearby. Often four or five like schools will present together - like an Emory, Wash U, Wake Forest type thing. . We did a few of those -although they are no substitute for visiting a school on its campus, they are no different than attending a session at a high school.
Good luck. I’m sure she’ll end up at the right place for her regardless.
I’d just emphasize those to me are good enough reasons to politely ask for an early meeting. But if they say they don’t do that, then I would also think you can drop it.
Because in fact, your family, including your daughter, really are doing what you should be doing already. And so if you don’t actually meet with your counselor ahead of time, I think it will all still work out fine anyway.
