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High School Guidance Counselor Knowledge Gap: Why a Great Resource Often Fails Students

Posted on Sep 19, 2011 - 09:00 AM | Guidance Counselors | Comments (0)

It’s a common high-school memory, the student getting help from his guidance counselor in picking out classes and reviewing college choices. It’s almost as common a memory as the one where the guidance counselor provides very little help, has too many students to see and is distracted by student disciplinary problems.

Unfortunately, that second scenario is becoming all too common.

What Students Say About Their Guidance Counselors

According to Public Agenda, 48% of high-school students say their guidance counselor saw them as “just another face in the crowd.”
35% gave their guidance counselor a rating of “poor” for their help with picking a college, applying to college, and financial aid advice. It’s no wonder, when counselors spend an average of 13% of their time on college prep and admissions.
54% said their counselor didn’t help them fill out an application correctly. Becoming a guidance counselor may require a master’s degree, but that doesn’t mean they’re able to get your student into college. Many counselors don’t take classes in planning for college.

The Effects of Poor Counseling

Poor advice from a guidance counselor, whether from overwork or undertraining, has a major impact on student development and career goals.

Nearly 20% of students who said they were badly counseled in high school delayed going to college.
40% of college freshmen need remedial classes because they didn’t take classes that prepared them for higher education.
Only 15% of high schools offer personality tests, meaning high-school students often have no direction, don’t know what college majors they want, what careers are right for them, or what colleges can help them reach their goals.

Advantages to Working With Private Guidance Counselors

Many of these problems with public school guidance counselors are addressed by experts who specialize in college prep:

– Personality tests give students direction with majors, colleges and careers.

– SAT & ACT prep questions and practice tests help students strengthen their verbal, literary, math and critical thinking skills.

– Students consider high-school classes that help them in the careers and colleges they want.

RSC's handbooks and video tutorials feature reams of advice on completing college applications and building a strong résumé. Our program may be online and over the phone, but we spend as much time working with our students as they need because we don’t want to see you as “just another face in the crowd.” In fact, we love it when our students and their proud parents update us on their accomplishments, college acceptance letters, career choices, and more.

RSC Your College Prep Expert works long and hard to make sure our students are

prepared for college. We don’t want you to delay enrolling on the belief that their high-school guidance counselor didn’t give you the right advice, or didn’t know you well enough to help you identify their goals. RSC works with you to make sure you don’t become mere statistics in the guidance counselor knowledge gap.

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