Whether you student is just entering high school or preparing to apply for college, collaborating with a college counselor for these college applications can be a big help to you and your student. Before you hire or seek one out, however, it’s important for you and your student to ask this important question: what are your academic and career goals? Spend some time with your student brainstorming what they’d like to do and achieve. If college is part of the equation to achieving those goals, then seeking the advice and guidance from a college counselor might be a good investment.
Here are some ways that hiring a college counselor can help your student along their journey:
1. To help identify the right colleges that match your student’s life goals.
College counselors know quite a bit about all the different colleges, university, and academic tracks available to our students. They may be able to give unique and particularly helpful insight into where your student should apply based on their interests, personality, grades, etc. Sometimes that right school for your kid isn’t the one you may have been considering!
2. To help your student formulate the most robust application they can.
Depending on the target schools, college counselors will know exactly what your student will need to be a competitive applicant. From grades to extra-curriculars to other unique qualifying factors, they can help you and your student better understand how to position your teen’s candidacy.
3. To help you stay on track and focused.
We can’t always know if our efforts on certain tasks and projects are the best use of our time. A college counselor can help you refine where you’re putting your much-valued time and energy and make sure you’re making the most of it.
4. To offer placement exam advice.
SAT or ACT? What scores are needed? College counselors can help you and your teen understand what is required for a competitive application to desired schools. They may even be able to personally help with test prep or can direct you to who and where to go for this specialized help.
5. To help reduce the stress of the application process.
Applying to colleges is stressful and there are many moving pieces and components that need to get completed. Having a counselor to help manage and organize this process can ease the stress of applying to school.
The earlier you approach a college counselor, the sooner your student will have the opportunity to find the right focus and direction to achieve their goals. Approaching a college counselor when your student is a freshman in high school is not too early! In fact, it’ll help better prepare the next four years of their high school time by focusing on the academic courses and resume building activities they need to be competitive college candidates at their schools of choice.