Brother, can you spare me a college counselor?

The dearth of good counsel has sparked some parents to pressure schools to improve. Parents of students at Simsbury High School in Connecticut, a mostly white, suburban school where 90 percent of graduates go to college, were concerned over why their kids kept getting rejection letters from competitive schools like New York University. The school responded by hiring a consultant to revamp its counseling department. It also plans to hire another counselor.

"We decided that in these changing times of more competition, it might be to our students' advantage to do more marketing of our school ..., devoting more time to college admissions," says Joan Ramsay, director of guidance at Simsbury.

That's the approach of many private schools, which have built up a well-oiled machinery that slips into action each year. Many such schools have college specialists who network with colleges and coach students and parents on making a perfect match.

Julia Eells, college counselor at Miss Porter's School, a private girls' prep school in Farmington, Conn., says simply that college prep is at the core of the school's mission. As a result, she adds, "the college counseling office gets the appropriate support." The school has 80 juniors and 80 seniors.

In January of junior year, she shows girls the ropes behind college admissions, meets with them in small groups and individually, and helps them craft college wish lists.

"We have a special junior parents weekend, a college admissions panel comes and talks to juniors," she says. "We bring in a college speaker in the fall to talk to seniors about essay writing. We write the school letter of recommendation for each senior."

After applications are mailed, Ms. Eells calls colleges to make sure students are assessed accurately. "I've known them since freshman year.... I want these girls to have good homes."

She concedes that her meetings have close to 100 percent attendance. Public school counselors deal with many more distractions, she says.

Because of that, many parents in overburdened schools are turning to a new route: hiring private admissions consultants. Erin Horne, a junior at Joseph Case High School in Swansea, Mass., enrolled in a five-week admissions course by Kaplan when she felt lost.

"When I first started looking at different colleges, I didn't know what to do. The high school guidance counselor comes in and explains how to apply, but they don't spend any time on you as a person," she says.

Erin's Kaplan instructor suggested college essay ideas, helped her pick schools, and covered financial aid and interviewing. "It's easier for students ... and parents ... to get frustrated during the preparation process," says Marc Bernstein, president of Kaplan Learning Services. The college-prep class was launched last fall and costs $699 for the traditional course and $299 for an online course.

The importance of time

Spending more quality time with students and parents tops the list of ways to improve the college-counseling process nationwide, but counselors see other possibilities as well.

Ms. Gallagher of NACAC suggests that, in addition to hiring more counselors, schools shift paperwork to support staff. "Guidance counselors can be overworked and get burned out after a while," Savitz says. She maintains rigorous 12-hour days, helps with lunch duty, and coaches track. She gets to paperwork late in the day.

Web sites are also popping up to help students. Kids can log on to the Department of Education's COOL site to investigate some 9,000 colleges, find out about financial aid and scholarships - even apply to college.

At Simsbury, Ms. Ramsay's new role will be to network with colleges to promote her school, an effort that she sees as vital to improving the admissions process. More follow-through with students and parents on scholarships, applications, and financial aid would help as well, she adds.

"The role of guidance counselor is changing. I met with my counselor in high school twice," Savitz says. "It's a much more comprehensive job."

*E-mail cooks@csps.com

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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