White House and College Counseling

White House and College Counseling November 15 The White House has issued a report on college counseling that inspires us to sayduh. A White House report is emphasizing the need for enhanced counselor training on the topic of college admissions. In a report entitled Counseling and College Completion: The Road Ahead as reported by Harvards Graduate School of Education, the White House has concluded that there are too few college counselors across American high school and these college counselors often arent sufficiently trained in the college admissions process. This is utterly shocking. Not! Its something weve been saying on the pages of our college admissions blog for years. Most school counselors arent trained in the highly selective college admissions process and with so many students per counselor, students really cant get the attention they deserve. And attention from someone who doesnt know the ins and outs of the admissions process isnt helpful anyway The report coming from The White House proposes some ways in which school counselors can get some additional training and such but nothing that weve read in the report is exactly revolutionary. They need more training. Duh. There arent enough of them. Duh. Our favorite is: Approach technology thoughtfully.  Technology holds enormous opportunities of which counselors can take advantage for their own professional development as well as student support, but it should work in service of existing training and counseling programs, not for its own sake. No kidding. Technology is the future! Thank you, White House. The private college counseling profession exists because students cant get the expert advice and attention they need at their high schools. Not at their public schools. And not at their private schools. Yes, even at those fancy private schools in the mountains of New Hampshire or by the Pacific Ocean on the west side of Los Angeles. Even there. Anyhow, while youre here, read our newsletter on the school counselor shortage.