Counselor Edition: What Really Matters When Choosing Your College Counselor
Guidance for Sophomores and Parents
Happy New Year! Hope 2023 is off to a great start.
As high schoolers and their parents start to seriously think about college in their sophomore years, one of the important resources they start to look for, is a College Counselor.
According to Rohan Pasari, CEO of Cialfo, while some schools have College Counselors on their staff, globally around 95% of the students do not have access to dedicated counselors.
The Things Counselors Do!
During the course of the various podcast episodes, I talked to high school and college students about their experiences with College Counseling.
College Counselors, it turns out, play a number of different roles. To wit:
Aditi Kapadia, a High School senior, who is leaning on her counselor to guide her with her essays and applications.
For Charlotte James, another High School Senior, it was about advocacy. Helping get her parents on board with her aspirations and plans for college.
Rishika Kartik, Freshman believes her counselor knew her well and understood her, in order to guide her to the best college for her.
Becca Youngers’ counselor identified the potential financial challenges for Becca and opened her eyes to lots of college options for her, outside the lanes she was considering.
Logan Lau found the senior year of school to be such a busy time with lots of things coming at him. It was easy for things to fall through the cracks. His counselor helped prioritize in order to “not forget things.”
What to Look for in Your Counselor
In my Podcast with Athena Lao, a college counselor herself, I asked about the criteria to use in order to pick a counselor.
Conventional - The things that most people consider.
a) Cost. Is this within their budget? Can they afford to work with this person?
b) Experience. The years in the field of higher education or college counseling, and their success rate.
c) The “Dream School” Conection. An overrated factor is, if you have a dream school, like say, Harvard, then the counselor you pick has to be a Harvard graduate! Athena says that actually doesn't matter at all!
So, What Really Matters?
a) Personality Fit.
Athena believes that one of things that actually matters when you're working with a college counselor, is the Personality Fit.
You will spend a lot of time with the Counselor;
A lot of the work involves helping manage this project for you, so that person you're working with has to have a sense of your style;
Be able to motivate you to do your best under a lot of time pressure. That is way more important than if they've been doing this for 20 years, and
Finally, if you don't vibe with this person, you're not going to enjoy the time working with that person, and you won't be as successful as you could have been.
b) Creativity in Strategy
Sometimes counselors will see a student’s profile and think,
“Okay, I have boxed this person into this sort of “category”,
They would be able to get into these kinds of schools,
And you know, they should not aim for anything else.”
What you really want is a Counselor who is able to say
Hey, this is a superficial read of your profile and your application.
But here's a creative way we can reframe that we can talk about your profile your experiences differently,
To show the best and a more interesting version, or the most interesting version of yourself, to schools.
That is an underrated skill that I think you should try to test for when you're talking to the counselor.
c) Paying Attention to Little Things
How attentive and thorough are they, when talking to you?
Thoroughness in terms of all the details that they listen to,
About your classroom and extracurricular experiences,
Life experiences that you may think are just boring, but actually might be a helpful detail to share on the application.
That sort of thoroughness and attentiveness to the what seems like the little things is huge, because those are all pixels that can be used to paint your complete picture and make it part of the larger, more creative strategy of how to present you as an applicant.
d) Project Management
Lastly, Project Management is one of the most important parts of the whole college process:
Requires an understanding of timelines;
How to work back from the timelines and help you and communicating to you as a student, this is what needs to get done now;
How much you can procrastinate without getting into trouble;
And Track all the different parts of the process and application. Did you forget about x? Are you sure you did this? Let me see it and check for you.
How to Interview a Counselor
It is worth taking time to ask about the college counselor’s style and management of their time, and the different parts of the application.
Talk to the Counselor directly.
Share some basic information about your profile that you're concerned about.
That gives the Counselor the chance to say:
Okay, well, from hearing that, here's a high level picture of what I recommend,
Or
Here are some questions that I have, to understand more about you.
So, Pay attention to the kinds of questions that they ask.
How comfortable you feel with their demeanor? Are they rushing or taking their time during your conversation? Do they seem engaged?
When you ask them questions, what are they like? Do they look like they know what they're talking about? Do they get defensive?
Lastly, talk to their previous students and find out how well they do in the “What Really Matters” categories.
This would be a great way to get a good insight into the counselor before you sign up with them.
Good Luck!
December 2022 Podcasts Curated For You
1.Dean David Jenemann of UVM Honors College.
Prof. David Jenemann did not grow up dreaming of being the Dean of an Honors College. He didn’t think he’d be working with such extraordinary people either.
Today, he is the Dean of University of Vermont Honors College - which traces its model to the philosopher, education reformer & an 1879 graduate of UVM, John Dewey.
In this podcast, Dean Jenemann introduces the UVM Honors College, Highlights of Key Programs, How to Apply, UG Research, Study Abroad and Career Opportunities.
Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:
Faculty
Program Highlights
Student Participation
How to Apply
Scholarships
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights with Dean David Jenemann of UVM Honors College. (2.5-Minute Listen)
2.Timothy O’Neil of UC Boulder: UG Research is a Relational Activity.
Timothy O’Neil is the Asst. Director, Undergraduate Enrichment Programs at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Tim discovered undergraduate research as a student at Oklahoma State University. A peer introduced him to this idea of partnering with Faculty and doing research. Tim graduated with 3 different UG degrees - in English, History and Political Science, each one with a thesis project.
In this podcast, Tim O’Neil talks about UG Research at UC Boulder, the role CUR plays, Impact of Research on Students, and finally the Advice for high schoolers.
Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:
Research is Teachable
Students Begin UGR
CUR’s Role
Research Impact
Advice for High Schoolers
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights with Tim O’Neil on UG Research at UC Boulder. (3-Minute Listen)
Finally, A Big Thank You again, to all of you who make my podcasts possible.
Have a Great Week!
Venkat