What High School Counselors Don’t Understand About Financial Aid

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  kari_marie

  05/20/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  I did the UCLA College Counseling certificate a few years ago, and penny for penny, they've been the best classes I've ever taken with regards to giving college advice to my students. I'm "only" an English teacher, not a counselor, but I've run a program for several years that helps first-generation students get into and succeed at universities, and it was the lack of knowledge and misinformation by the guidance counselors that led me to spending my own time and money on the classes.
  
  I completely understand your frustrations with counselors not knowing enough about financial aid, but you need to understand something. I've looked into getting my counseling credential, and virtually every single counseling program I've looked into has one class (3-4 units) that deals with college and career counseling... yes, colleges and careers combined into one class! Somehow the counselor prep programs think that they can impart all of the knowledge that UCLA gave me in 36 units in a 3-4 credit class. I've brought this shortcoming up with guidance counselors before, and they've all said that the counselor prep programs expect that they'll learn all of the college counseling knowledge on the job as they go along. Unfortunately, this definitely isn't the case, and it's infinitely frustrating to me that there are so often these huge gaps in their knowledge.
  
  This year I'm at a school where our one guidance counselor is brand new to school counseling, but thankfully she's only too willing to admit what she doesn't know and look for answers (including coming to me to help find out something if she doesn't know.) Most other counselors I've worked with haven't been as open and willing to admit their ignorance, and it's very frustrating.

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  The College Solution

  05/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  Thanks Kari for your insights. It's nice to receive affirmation from someone who is in the trenches. It's astounding that the typical counseling program combines careers and college into one class. That sure helps explain the financial aid black hole at many high schools.
  
  

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  kari_marie

  05/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  The typical guidance counselor preparation program prepares students for very little of what the typical comprehensive high school guidance counselor actually does on a day to day basis: college/career counseling, testing, scheduling, and meeting with parents and teachers regarding students at risk of not graduating. Most counseling programs are focused instead on, well, counseling--the whole mental health aspect of counseling that guidance counselors just don't get to usually spend much time on because there are so many other things that take precedence (especially in states like CA, where the average student:counselor ratio is 900:1.)
  
  In a perfect world, counselors would be left to counsel, but then who would do all of the stuff that they do now? I think that, in CA at least, there needs to be some sort of new secondary (7th-12th grade) credential created for people who do college/career counseling, scheduling, testing, etc. Then maybe the preparation program can focus on the things they'll actually need for their job, instead of classes that prepare them to deal with students' mental health needs (not that that's not important, because it is, but students can't keep getting the shaft when it comes to college and career assistance either, just because their counselors weren't prepared for those things when they received their credentials.)

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  The College Solution

  05/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  Kari -- I didn't know that the average high school counselor/student ratio in California is 900-1. It's easy to see how counselors can only trouble shoot and the kids who have the most problems will probably get the most attention.
  
  My sister-in-law is a counselor at a large high school in St. Louis and she's got her hands full with teenagers who are suicidal, sexually abused and have other serious issues.
  
  I do think adding college admissions/financial aid education to counselor training would be wise.

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  kari_marie

  06/01/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  As if CA's ratio wasn't bad enough (we're the worst in the nation, from what I've read), for about half the time I was at my old school, there was one counselor for all 1100 students, and he was also a coach two seasons a year, so pretty much you were out of luck if you needed a counselor after 1:45 or so. So insanely frustrating.
  
  And even if a counselor is at a school with a better student:counselor ratio, they're still going to most likely have to focus on the students at risk of not graduating (and with other serious issues, like the ones your sister-in-law deals with.) It's frustrating as heck, but the truth is that the kids who are already thought of as college-bound are perceived as being lower-needs than other students.

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  MFallon-StudentAid.com

  06/11/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  As Kari confirms - high school counselors are the primary resource to help students navigate through college planning, but are overwhelmed with a growing list of responsibilities.
  
  In her 2004 doctoral thesis, Esther Hugo, Ph.D. recognized the role of a high school counselor as often fragmented, undefined, and perceived as quasi-administrative.
  
  Six hundred and ten counselors who participated in a 2008 survey by David Childress (Univ. of Texas MBA program) confirmed Hugo?s findings. When asked to segment the amount of spent on their various responsibilities, counselors said 55% of their day is spent on tasks not related to college preparation.
  
  The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a ratio of 250 students to each high school counselor. However, those public high school counselors surveyed by this study average 379 students. One public school reported a ratio of 2,200 students to one counselor!
  
  In a 2005 report commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), Patricia McDonough, Ph.D. determined that the typical high school student receives only 38 minutes of college preparation counseling a year.
  
  The leaves the making the very personal decision about which of the 6,800 colleges, 1,200 degree programs, and more than 10,000 careers to choose from without adequate professional, structural, and procedural support for prospective college students ? some of whom are the first in their family to pursue a college education.
  
  No wonder why so many students drop out from college, transfer, and choose colleges that don't match their academic needs, career goals, or bank accounts.
  

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  krishintz

  06/18/09 | Report as spam

  RE: What High School Counselors Don't Understand About Financial Aid

  I am also enrolled in UCLA Extension's excellent online College Counseling Certification program. My MBA taught me marketing, and an MA in Psychology taught me counseling, but this program is so rich in the content tools that a guidance counselor or independent college coach needs. I would encourage colleagues to check into this program, which can be done completely at one's convenience if working full time. I'm currently enrolled in the three month Financial Aid course.
  
  If a college counselor knows nothing else about financial aid, here's somethng to pass along to students: Financial aid adds a second complex layer to the college process, with its own strategy and deadlines, that should be considered in tandem with the college application regimen.
  
  University-sponsored merit scholarship program deadlines may actually precede regular application deadlines, and proceed along an alternate reality, while most students are simply dealing with a Jan. 1 deadline (or earlier for early action).
  
  For example, Emory's Scholarship Program requires high schools to nominate students, and students to complete special applications with essays, by 11/1 (regular application deadline 1/1). UVA has a similar schedule for its Jefferson Scholar selection. Vanderbilt's Ingram Scholarship, based on community service, requires its application, essays and recommendations by 12/1 (regular deadline 1/1). Scholarship applicants wait to see whether they will be invited to campus for a selection visit in Feb. or Mar., and will learn whether they are selected for scholarship by Mar. or April.
  
  It's complicated. But in this economy, more upfront research and planning is required to find college funding. The best favor a college counselor can do for students is to convey that there is a "scholarship process" in addition to the "college process."