High School Guidance Counselors Unable to Prep Kids for College

An opinion piece by Jill Flury in the September issue of Edutopia calls for a redefinition of college prep tracks to include “emotional, social, and self-care abilities needed for a major life transition.” Her premise is that the college drop-out rate is related, at least in part, to the fact that students are ill-prepared for independent living: “college demands a skillful shuffling of academic expectations with the excitement, pressures, and demands of living independently–often for the first time.”edutopia_mast.jpg
I don’t disagree. Moving away to college can be stressful. The experience and independence can overwhelm some students, and some can respond by making poor choices: falling in with the wrong crowd, experimenting with controlled substances, flouting responsibility, failing out of school.
I do disagree, however, with her blanket statement that the college completion rate is so low largely because students are emotionally stunted. More blame should be placed at the feet of our K-12 educational system, which churns out students who are academically ill-prepared: some state university systems have to put over 30% of college freshmen into remedial courses simply to get them ready for college level work. Another heap of blame can also be attributed to the poor retention practices at some university campuses, especially for at-risk and first-generation students. These institutions work hard to get students to matriculate, but do little to ensure they are successful once they enter.
But the biggest share of the problem, I believe, relates to poor high school counseling. Counseling is poor not because the counseling professionals are poor. It’s just that there are too few of them. Nationally, each high school counselor serves, on average, 315 students, according to the National Association of College Admissions Counselors. In larger high schools, the ratio goes up to 654 students per counselor. In Colorado, the average is 553 to one counselor. Each counselor is expected to look after students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental well-being. Plus they are expected to provide individual guidance to students as they make their postsecondary plans.
So while we mull over the question of who is to teach the curriculum Flury prescribes, what would this new, college-prep curriculum look like?

An ideal college-prep curriculum would be based in experiential practice and would emphasize self-reflection. High school students would explore various ways to prevent, manage, and respond to stress, and they would have the opportunity to discover what works for them before they succumb to the chaos of college life.

Whatever one thinks of this curriculum, it will not be implemented anywhere but in the most high-toned private high schools. With ACT, Inc., calling for increased rigor in the core high school curriculum because our students are academically ill-prepared, and with school district budgets increasingly strapped, there will be no one to teach this curriculum in our public schools–no matter how well-conceived.
So what to do? Well, for parents, the solution is to try to be aware of the social and emotional transition for their college-bound kids, and to do their best to “homeschool” their kids on this particular set of issues.
Further, it is crucial that students and their families choose the college or university that is the best fit for that student. Students who may be less independent probably ought not be sent to a huge state school with 30,000 students and left to fend for herself. And they ought to scrutinize smaller schools to ensure they have mechanisms to intervene with students who are struggling academically, socially, and emotionally.
And sometimes, in order to find that best match, it is important to get some expert advice. That’s where we come in.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
College Matchmaker
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The "Frenzy" Over Standardized Tests

A recent editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discusses the pros and cons of trying to prepare for the SAT in order to raise scores and make oneself more desirable for admission to top schools.
The author, Mitchell Schnurman, decries the fact that the SATs and ACTs are too important in judging the worth of students–or the worth of colleges themselves. He notes that the Fort Worth school district entered into a $1.4 million contract with Princeton Review to provide test prep courses for all students in the district. While Schurman, and the district, are not altogether happy about having to prep students for these exams, the reality is that in today’s competitive world of college admissions, there is little choice but to try to help students do the best they possibly can.

Just about everyone complains about the out-of-whack emphasis on the SAT and its rival entrance exam, the ACT. Parents, students, teachers, counselors, college admissions officers, think-tank experts — they all dis it to varying degrees, and some colleges have stopped requiring the tests.
But most keep playing the game and turning up the pressure.

Colleges, too, try to tell the public–and anxious students and parents–that SAT or ACT scores don’t matter all that much. Schnurman quotes a representative from Texas Christian University who says that test scores make up only about 20% of the admissions decision.
But in the next breath, TCU is bragging about the fact that its next incoming class has higher test scores than ever before. And while they don’t say so out loud, the higher the average test scores, the higher up the selectivity curve the college can claim to be. While some colleges have gone “test optional” in recent years, you won’t hear a single college boasting about how low its students’ tests scores are.
Like it or not, standardized test scores matter in admissions decisions. Depending on the individual student, they may make more or less difference as they apply to college, depending upon what other factors the applicant may be able to bring to the application (GPA, class rank, athletic prowess, teacher recommendations, and/or other special talents–to name a few). So I tell my clients to take them seriously as applicants.
But I also do what I can to remind students and their families that scores on standardized tests are no gauge of a person’s worth. They are not necessarily a gauge of raw intelligence or potential. While we cannot deny their importance in the admission process, we should do all that we can to find other measures of our humanity.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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Dartmouth Admission: "The Pool is So Deep"

The July/August issue of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine contains an article about Karl Furstenberg, the retiring Dean of Admissions at Dartmouth. It’s an interesting look at his 17 years of experience as the gatekeeper of one of the nation’s top undergraduate schools.


[Full disclosure: I’m an alumnus. My classmate, Maria Laskaris, has taken over from Furstenberg as the new Dean of Admissions. And Jacques Steinberg, member of the Class of ’88 and author of The Gatekeepers (which is an insider’s view of the admissions process at Wesleyan) wrote this interview with Furstenberg.]

During his tenure, Furstenberg saw applications to Dartmouth rise by 80%: from 7,900 to over 14,000. Steinberg asked him how his staff has grown in that time to meet the challenges of such a huge increase in applications.

The staff is virtually the same size today as it was 17 years ago. Which is kind of staggering. We’ve made up for that with the use of technology and the inclusion of faculty and alumni who work in partnership with us to recruit studetns. What has changed over time is the speed with which we have to read. As much as we try to make it personal, to read 14,000 applications–with 15 admissions officers–is a challenge. We try to be as thoughtful and fair-minded as we can be.

Two points here. First is about the use of technology. Numbers matter. Test scores. GPA. Class rank. Dartmouth crunches these numbers through an algorithm to see whether your application passes muster. If the resulting number is not high enough, your application won’t be read very thoroughly, if at all. If you’re a legacy, an athlete, or a minority, you might get passed through if your scores are lower than the usual cut-off, but no guarantee of that, either. While the numbers may not tell the admissions officers the whole story, in this very “deep pool,” your scores must begin to pull you from those depths so you can rise to the surface.

Second, with so many applications, the admissions officers get pretty bored reading them. Another essay about grandparents. Another prep school kid. Another who swears Dartmouth is her first choice. The all look the same. Unless your application really sings. It has to hook the officer. It has to ignite some interest in you as a person. The essay must be original. Something has to get the officer to wake up from his stupor and say, “hey, this kid is interesting and unusual…let’s give him another look.”

The competition for Ivy League admission is fierce. The pool, indeed, is very deep. And what with the Common Application, demographic bubbles, and savvy college counselors, the pool will only get deeper.

Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
Dartmouth Alumnus

Authenticity Is Key on the Application

The headline of an MSNBC article last week screams, “Typo On Your College Application May Get You In.” The insinuation is that if you make some mistakes on the application you look more human and less like an automaton.
But the real point of this article is on the essay: demonstrating some humility, a bit of human frailty, or a dose of self-awareness is likely to lead to a more informative essay than one that shouts out your accomplishments, your invincibility, and your ability to overcome anything life might throw at you.
Super-heroes are out. Real people are in.
Literally.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:

In an age when applicants all seem to have volunteered, played sports and traveled abroad, colleges are wary of slick packaging. They’re drawn to high grades and test scores, of course, but also to humility and to students who really got something out of their experiences, not just those trying to impress colleges with their resume.
The trend seemingly should make life easier for students — by reducing the pressure to puff up their credentials. But that’s not always the case.
For some students, the challenge of presenting themselves as full, flawed people cuts against everything else they’ve been told about applying to college — to show off as much as possible.

My advice to students is to not pretend. To be themselves. Not to be afraid to demonstrate their humanity.
I also make clear that the essay is theirs: I won’t write it for them. Of course I provide pointers and ideas for restructuring, and clarifying points. But I try not to put ideas into their heads or words into their mouths. As a professor, I taught college students for years how to write term papers, how to construct an elegant paragraph, how to develop the trickle of an idea into a gushing torrent of insight. It’s something that I enjoy, and frankly I’m pretty good at it.
My aim is to guide from the side, provide counsel, and set the course. The navigation of the essay is up to the student.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
“Mapping College Journeys”
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SAT Scores Down a Bit Nationwide

The College Board reports that 2007 average scores on the SAT I exams dipped slightly, bringing them to the lowest level in 13 years. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that a large part of the reason for this decline is the increase in the number of test takers, including some students who never considered themselves college-bound.
Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times article explaining what happened:

The declines for the class of 2007 were not caused by a single factor, College Board officials said. But the increase in the number of traditionally underrepresented minority and low-income students taking the test played a role, they said. So did a new requirement in Maine that all high school seniors take the exam, including those who would not in the past have viewed themselves as college bound.
Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, said in a news conference, “The larger the population you get that takes the exam, it obviously knocks down the scores.”
Wayne Camara, vice president for research and analysis at the College Board, described the declines from 2006 to 2007 as statistically insignificant.
The officials trumpeted the size of the group that took the SAT — nearly 1.5 million seniors — and the expanded diversity of the test-takers. Hispanic, black and Asian-American students accounted for 39 percent of the seniors who took the test, representing the largest proportion of minority test-takers since the SAT was introduced in 1926. In all, 35 percent of those taking the exam would be the first in their family to attend college.

So that’s the good news.
The bad news is that with more students taking the SAT, the tougher the competition will be for those kids in the middle of the pack to land spots in some colleges. With the number of admissions slots relatively finite, a greater number of applicants means greater competition for those slots.
The fact that more kids are taking the SAT won’t affect the competition at the higher end of the scale at the more selective colleges. But the further down the selectivity curve, the greater the competition for college admission may become.
So demographics and a greater emphasis on creating a college-going culture in many public schools may put actually be bad news for some kids.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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College Rejections Are Up (Way Up) in 2007

The Today Show reported last April that college admissions offices are rejecting applications in record numbers. The piece does a good job of demonstrating how a colleges, students, and demographic changes are combining to create a “perfect storm” for high school seniors.

Need help navigating in a storm? Consider hiring an expert to help.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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