How Guidance Counselors Can Play a Crucial Role in College Acceptance

Summary: Guidance counselors are useful resources for you and your child. Take advantage of them every chance that you get.

Many parents choose celebrated private schools, as opposed to a boarding school for troubled boys, in the hopes of improving their child’s admissions odds. Now, many private schools enlist guidance counselors that are essentially on a first-name basis with the staff of prestigious Ivy-league schools and the such. However, it takes more than simply sending your child to a prep school and earning the golden ticket to a snazzy college. Here are some tips that will help you and your child stay a step ahead of the competition.

Celebratory Bragging Sheets

Some counselors will provide a questionnaire to both their students and parents that ask about the student’s activities, ambitions, strengths, and other factors that relate to college prep. Be sure that you take advantage of this sheet as many counselors will quote from this when writing a recommendation. Rambling on about a childhood memory that has nothing to do with your child’s strengths is likely to be ignored. Rather, focus on his or her current achievements as well as productivity.

Build a Relationship

Not every counselor will take the time to develop a relationship with a student. While they know them on a first-name basis, they’re likely to know little about the student unless something stands out. Allow your child to take advantage of the assistance that a counselor offers. It’s not about how many times your child visits the counselor, but the impact he or she makes. By developing a unique relationship, your child will not only be able to prepare for college, but his or her letter of recommendation may have a few more sentences added – and one foot in the door. Wood Creek Academy can help provide your child with the right therapy one needs to succeed and thrive.