College Admission Training

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An Update on the State of Counselors and College Admission Training
By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

It’s been a little over two years since The Chronicle of Higher Education published a column on the lack of training counselors receive in college admission counseling. The piece concluded with a call to policy makers to determine how counselor readiness could be improved in college admission counseling, since less than 10 percent of all counselor training programs in the US offered any preparation in this area (you can see the entire article at http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/college-counseling-could-be-better-just-ask-your-school-counselor/29545).

The column has inspired a great deal of discussion and seed-planting.  Informally, dozens of school counselors have reached out to the colleges that trained them and offered to teach a college counseling class as an elective.  Formally, counselor educators and school counselors have joined together to create the Transforming School Counseling and College Access Interest Network.  The group meets regularly online to determine how to improve training in college counseling. 

At the same time, mounting evidence suggests progress could continue to be too small, and too glacial.  College Board’s second survey of school counselors showed little change in counselors’ perceptions of professional readiness in college counseling.  This sentiment was echoed in the recent book Top Student, Top School, where valedictorians from urban schools gave a scathing assessment of their counselors when it came to college advising.

If counselors are aware of the paucity of training, and students keenly feel the impact of this void, what can be done to make sure another two years and six million high school graduates don’t pass by without meaningful change in the availability of quality college advising?  These steps would lend crucial momentum to the effort:

• A White House Summit on Counselor Training The White House held a January summit highlighting colleges and universities committed to making college more affordable.  A natural follow up is a second summit, where the leading voices in college admissions advising would develop a blueprint for action that would lead to more coursework in college advising.  Conversations have occurred with the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, and the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.  The next step is to put action behind those discussions, and develop a timeline-based commitment to change.

•  Offering More Training as Topics Courses  Counselor educators in ACES and TSCCAIN don’t have to wait for a summit to give a green light to college advising classes.  Every counselor training program offers a course in current topics; offering a college advising course in this slot would show the vitality and viability of the class.  Ample course outlines exist, and practicing school counselors are eager to teach the course; all that’s missing is the opportunity.

• Engagement with State and Local Policy Makers  Online offerings of a college advising course make the course available to all corners of the world, throughout the year.  This access means school boards can easily change their hiring policies to require new counselors to take a course in college advising in their first three years of employment; state legislatures can do the same. 

Two years have shown an increase in interest in more training in college advising, along with six million reminders why better training is more important than ever.  It’s time for the conversations to shift into action; the opportunity is nigh, and the stakes have never been higher.

Posted by Gene at 12:24 PM No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Labels: Admissions, Counselor Training

Tuesday, February 18, 2014Top Ten Trends in College Admissions (with a few bonus references on Michigan)
By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

1. Competition for college admissions is up at many colleges.  More students are applying to college—and when they do apply, students are applying to more colleges than ever before.  Since most colleges aren’t admitting more students, this makes it harder to get admitted to selective and highly selective colleges.
2. This is especially true in Michigan, where Michigan State University and The University of Michigan are on track to receive a record number of applications this year, making admission more challenging.  This means more students are likely to start at another four-year college or a community college to transfer to U-M or MSU, a process that requires them to work closely with the transfer advisors in Ann Arbor or East Lansing.
3. More colleges are actively recruiting students from overseas. This is especially true among private colleges, making the applicant pool bigger and wider than ever before.
4. Test scores seem to matter more now than ever before at highly selective colleges, but students need more than high test scores to gain admission.  Seehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-oconnor/what-the-first-round-of-c_b_4646207.html
5. Colleges report that students are writing essays that don’t really tell the college all that much about the student, and that has a negative impact on the student’s application.  See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-oconnor/i-can-tell-you-nowtheir-e_b_3118268.html
6. Students are looking past a small question asked by many colleges that is a key part of the application process.  Known as the “Why Us?” question, this essay is used to make sure the student has really looked into what a college has to offer—but many times, the student doesn’t do enough research to provide a strong answer.  See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-oconnor/the-college-application-mistake_b_3982839.html
7. Students are borrowing more money to pay for college, making reliance on scholarships and merit scholarships more important than ever.  There are ways to cut the cost of attendance—look for colleges that offer merit scholarships (www.meritaid.com is a good place to begin), or think about other ways to earn college credit—seehttp://www.detroitnews.com/article/20090905/OPINION03/909050349
8. Parents are asking for more information about paying for college.  Now is the time to make sure paying for college is discussed with parents well before 11th grade, using resources like www.studentaid.ed.gov and http://www.finaid.org/about/Remember that financial aid officers from colleges are usually thrilled to come talk to high school parents about paying for college, and make great guest speakers.
9. Many colleges have stopped requiring ACT or SAT scores as part of the admissions process.  Many colleges are realizing that these scores don't give much additional information about a student the college doesn't already know from grades and letters of recommendation.  For these schools, students can can send the scores in if they want to, but they don't have to take the tests at all for purposes of admission. See www.fairtest.org/university/optional.
10. Many school districts are forming college-going partnerships with Local College Access Networks (LCANs) and the Michigan and Michigan State College Advising Corps.  These groups supplement the college-going efforts of school counselors in important ways, and create a larger sense of community support for college-going students.  For more information on LCANs, seehttp://www.micollegeaccess.org/grants . College Advising Corps information can be found at http://www.micollegeaccess.org/our-partners