I know, I know … you don’t want to be that nerdy kid who is seen making an appointment with your high school guidance counselor. Even worse, you don’t want to be known as the kid that the counselor says hi to in the hallway because she’s so familiar with you. I understand. But your guidance counselor could be your single biggest resource when it comes time to taking care of the college admissions process, so you need to swallow some of your pride and make that appointment. Don’t worry; in the end, everyone in your school will end up seeing the guidance counselor anyway so you’re just a little bit ahead of the college admissions game. And when it comes to college, ahead is a great place to be!
Still not convinced? Here are some of the things that your guidance counselor can help you with as you go through the process of applying to college:
– Course planning in high school. Knowing the right classes to take to be better prepared when application time rolls around gets you started on the right foot. Your guidance counselor can start helping you with this as early as second semester of your freshman year. – Research into different colleges. Your guidance counselor probably has an entire file cabinet filled with information about different colleges, including their brochures and promotional videos. Rather than contacting all of the different colleges that you might be interested in yourself, you can get help from the guidance counselor in focusing your research or edit my paper. – Applications. Your guidance counselor will probably have application forms for many colleges available for you to use. Even if not, she’ll know how to complete them and will be able to help you with the small details that will improve your admissions opportunities. – Testing information. College applications require you to take tests. Your guidance counselor will be organized about when these tests can be taken and how to best study for them. Get her advice! – Letters of recommendation. Not only an your guidance counselor act as a resource for writing your letters of recommendation, but she can give you great advice about which teachers write well enough and are deadlines enough to be your other sources for recommendation letters. – Personal statement. Having someone who knows you but is objective to edit your personal statement is important; the guidance counselor can be this person. – General advice. College application and admissions time is really stressful and sometimes it helps just to have someone there who really understands the ins and outs of the whole process. The guidance counselor’s job is to not only know this stuff but to be able to help you with it. So, you can see why working with your guidance counselor is important. Now what? You should start to get to know your guidance counselor as early in your high school career as possible. Depending on how your school is set up, this person may change from year to year, but familiarity with the department is still a good thing. Make an appointment just to talk about your college dreams in general and to start outlining your high school academic and extracurricular plans. Stay in touch with your guidance counselor as the semesters continue. This positive relationship could be the best thing that ever happened to you. |