Hi College Confidential,
I am new school guidance counselor at the high school level. I come to you all seeking advice on one basic question: How do I help my seniors start/complete/finalize their college selection list? Also, this is a semi-long post but I'm very passionate about helping my students. Please and thank you for reading it in advanced and I welcome feedback from students, parents, counselors, teachers, anyone willing to help!
Now, before everyone states the obvious, let me proclaim the following:
(1) I know conventional wisdom states that it might be "very late in the game" to barely be brainstorming your college list.
To which I respond: "It is what it is, I need to help my students move forward."
So, here is what I would like from your unofficial expertise:
(1) Read my plan of action.
(2) Provide feedback on my plan of action
My plan of action.
I made a worksheet to help my students start to answer some basic questions. This work sheet has eight sections.
Section 1 - What do you think you might want to study while in college?
Here they list up to five potential majors/minors/concentrations. I inform them not to put any "pre-professional" programs because you can't major in those programs. I tell them put at least three subjects because they might wake up one day on a random Tuesday in October and hate biology! So they are at least in a place to select something else!
Section 2 - Variables
This is a section with ten questions about the college they might want to attend. Trust me, I know there are a million questions to ask, but I broke it down to ten questions to get the ball rolling on selecting a college. These questions are "What size of school to you want to attend?" "What kind of city do you want to be in?" etc...
Section 3 - Non Negotiable
This is a section were they state, "I won't go to a college if it has this..." or "I will only go to a college if it has this"
Section 4 - "What do they bring to the table?"
This is a section where we talk about numbers - GPA/Rank/SAT/ACT/SAT 2 This section, in my opinion, is important because I want the kids to know where they stand "historically" to the previous entering classes - this also helps them understand if the college they are applying to is a "safety / match / reach"
Section 5 - Brainstorm List
Some kids come in with a list of 25 colleges and some come in with none! If they come in with some colleges, and based on how they answered sections 1-4, then I can filter the brainstorm list into sections 6-8.
Section 6 - Safety Schools
I have them select at least 3
Section 7 - Match Schools
I have them select at least 6
Section 8 - Reach Schools
I have them select at least 3
So that is the worksheet. Based on what they answer in sections 1 - 4, I help them begin section 5 if they have no idea on where to go.
Here is my problem! I need help! It's tough to find colleges kind of randomly for these kids!
I've been using this site from the University of Texas - Austin that has every college in America via state.
https://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/
How do you all do it?
Feed back to my method?
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