Behind the Curtain: September

This is the first in a series of monthly posts intended to assist a number of categories of educators with interest in college counseling. These monthly posts will provide a summary of the typical or recommended work of a college counselor, including providing a link to our monthly Cheatsheet, a daily task of 30-minutes or so for college counselors. In addition to these ideas and suggestions for those in the college counseling realm, they will also include some suggestions for those ancillary to this world, such as administrators, board members, etc.

September: Drinking from the firehose. 

Whether the school year begins at your school this month or not, September is a busy time in college counseling offices. While catching up with the seniors and laying plans for how best to support them, college counseling offices are trying to provide information and support to a wide array of different constituencies: faculty writing recs, anxious parents, worried new students, eager younger students, etc. And there is plenty of work to do, which makes September feel like drinking from a firehose. 

Here is a swath of the items that might be on the docket:

• Set the programming for the year. College counseling offices need to set and communicate deadlines, policies, and expectations for the entire year. Everything from when and how teachers must submit their letters of recommendation to how students request transcripts. Much will be the same as previous years, if you are lucky, but each needs time and attention. 

• Transcripts. The official record of academic achievement — the transcript — needs to be revisited for the seniors. Different schools have different practices about transcripts and sharing, but it is generally a good idea to allow seniors to see — and to double-check! — their transcripts. Also included here is what can be the cumbersome practice of tracking down transcripts for students who were not enrolled at your school for all four years of high school. 

• Senior focus. The seniors (and their parents) require a lot of attention in the early going. With all that is going on this month, it is important to prioritize seniors.

• Junior courses. While it is wise to do as much with the juniors before the start of the school year, it is common for college counselors to be pulled into conversations about course selections with juniors. What works? What is not working? What fits? What might they require given their university aspirations? How do their choices impact options later?

• Parent meetings. Parents often want to meet with a college counselor early in the academic year to seek counsel on how best to support and direct their students in the name of university applications. Sometimes these are individual meetings, but often these manifest as evening presentations. 

• Early applications. Some seniors are already gearing up to submit applications. Perhaps most notably, UK medical and veterinarian applicants as well as applicants to Cambridge or Oxford will have October 15 deadlines. (And in other years, sometimes the deadline to submit to be eligible for international interviews is even earlier!) 

• Broader Communications. College counseling offices also want to provide information to all of their constituencies as they might need it. These constituencies include each grade level, parents, faculty, administration, boards, etc. Providing information is a recurring theme throughout the beginning of the academic year. September tends to be a time for a reflection on the previous year while also providing updates to the administration and school leadership. Additionally, this is when the college counseling office needs to update the School Profile and reach out to university representatives to schedule visits (on-campus and/or virtual). 

• Teacher Recs & Trainings. Particularly for the current seniors, the month of September is time to set deadlines for teachers to submit their letters of recommendation in a time and manner so that the college counselors have the opportunity to review them and provide feedback.

• Counselor Letters of Recommendation. While things are certainly busy in September, a top goal for college counselors is always to get started on their own letters of recommendation. Given the whirlwind of other duties and responsibilities, their recs can often find themselves taking a backseat and then later relegated to evenings and weekends. Still, we all always try to get them done ahead of time!

• Essay Review. September is also a time for beginning essay review with students, particularly those with application deadlines in the first semester. It is time-consuming work but better done now than later, and so much effort is often expended in motivating students to find the time to get this work done. 

This being the first monthly “Behind the Curtain” post, I wanted to introduce the closing sections here. After providing an outline of the duties, tasks, and responsibilities within the college counseling world in a bite-sized approach so anyone can follow, I provide some suggestions for counselors and for admin who support the counselors. Here goes!

Suggestions for Counselors:

• College Counseling Cheatsheet. Over the past several years, we have been developing the Cheatsheet, which are typically 30-minute or less tasks that appear on your calendar each weekday and that are designed to improve your counseling practice. These include everything from reminders to more advanced guidance to some unique tips. 

• Time Management. During this time of year for the college counselor, time management is essential. I’ve recently shared some of my own practices in a blog post here. Manage your time to conserve your energy and to preserve your sanity!

• Take care of yourself. Suffice it to say that when work is chaotic and bordering on overwhelming, it is essential to take care of yourself! Carve out time from each day to do things that you enjoy and that bring you peace and calm. 

• Seek help. Whether you are a seasoned veteran, a mid-career counselor, or a rookie, remember that you do not have all the answers and seek assistance. One of many possible suggestions is to consider working with us here at Lamplighter. Take a look at what we might be able to offer.

Suggestions for Admin:

• Provide focus. It tends to benefit college counselors when leadership is narrow in its provision of direction. For example, I have always found it helpful when my supervisors have championed a fundamental focus on the grade 12 students at the beginning of the school year, reminding me and my team not to worry about the other grades or constituencies until the seniors are well-situated with their college applications. This sort of support is invaluable.

• Alleviate distractions. Similarly, affording the college counseling office the time to get their letters written (on top of everything else) can provide terrific assistance. Excusing the college counselors from additional responsibilities or meetings can often be enough. 

• Express appreciation. No counselors I know do the work we do for recognition, but when leadership is aware of the chaos and turmoil of our work during this time of year, simple expressions of appreciation go a long way!

Be sure to let us know if you have any questions or suggestions. We are always happy to incorporate and share others’ feedback. 

College Counseling Cheatsheet: September 2021

September is like drinking from the firehose in the college counseling world. More on that later. However, it is our hope that this month’s cheatsheet will help keep you on track!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do to improve his or her counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the September 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Starting New

During this past summer’s virtual College Board Summer Institute, I had the opportunity to share my thoughts on starting at a new school or in a new position. I have also had the opportunity to experience the start to a transition to a new school myself this summer. As such, I wanted to share a couple thoughts and takeaways.

First and foremost, I strongly recommend The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins. Some of the book is focused upon the business world, but so much of it is wonderfully applicable to any sector but especially, in my experience, to education. 

Here are some takeaways from my presentation…

1. Put time into planning. Carve out time to plan out your transition. This will not happen on its own.

2. Buy yourself time to understand culture. So much of any transition is dependent upon the culture of the school, so it is essential to make time and to put in effort to understanding culture.

3. People. Mentors. Allies. Relationships. Find people to support you in your transition. Don’t only rely upon those assigned to you.

4. Live the growth mindset. Be positive, open-minded, and reflect on those times when you feel yourself reverting to a fixed mindset.

5. Establish new routines. Make new habits and establish new ways to go about your days. 

6. Maintain old routines and relationships. Keep some of what is familiar and be deliberate and intentional about maintaining contact with your people from your previous post.

7. Over communicate. Make sure you let others, especially those with whom you work closely, know what you are up to and how you are spending your time and how you are feeling.

8. Expect that it will be difficult and be kind to yourself. Above all, make sure you are finding time for you and to take care of yourself. 

While these pointers have been instrumental in my experience — positively when I’ve actively adhered to them and negatively when I’ve neglected them — I’ve subsequently encountered this article in the Harvard Business Review on credibility. In starting any new position or role, establishing trust among your colleagues and constituencies is essential. While the article focuses on the particular context of individuals with no experience, it strikes me that none of us have experience with the aforementioned culture when we begin our new roles, and, as such, the advice seems germane.

1. Leverage your research skills. Get to know your work, your colleagues, your school, the history, the culture. Research means a lot of things, but it all helps.

2. Identify (and embrace) your specific contribution. Sometimes we enter roles knowing what is expected of us and having been hired based on a particular skill set. If you know this, be sure to stick with that. If you do not know this, either ask your supervisor or reflect on what you think you are best at and how you can make a difference.

3. Volunteer willingly. Get involved. Don’t compromise your own wellness or mental health, but get involved as much as you can. This will make it easier for people to know you and for you to grow your perspective and understanding. (And it is a form of research!)

4. Manage your workload and communicate proactively. Again, be committed to your own sanity and wellness; however, it is important to set parameters about what you will NOT do and work that you will not (or not yet) take on. And then be sure to communicate this with others, especially those with whom you will work closely.

5. Work to build a network of close relationships. Meet people. Ask to be invited to meetings. Ask to observe. Invite others to meet. Get to understand others perspectives of your work, office, team, role, etc. 

As I work to transition into my new role, all of these things are at the forefront of my mind. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts. Send me an email!

My Time Management Strategy

Last week I had the privilege of helping to run the College Board’s 2021 Summer Institute for International Counselors, a virtual reboot of what has previously been an on-campus, in-person event. While disclosure agreements prevent my sharing the slide decks, recordings, and the like, I do hope to share some takeaways from my end. 

A colleague and I led a session that shared a thematic approach to establishing a college counseling curriculum and then what an annual timeline might look like for a college counseling office/program. At the end, in the final few minutes of the session, I shared a few thoughts about how I personally go about managing all of these competing pieces of the puzzle, the workload of the college counselling life. The number of emails I received about this little bit was surprising, and so in response to the many requests, I wanted to flesh out a little bit more of what works for me to manage the demands of the job. 

I want to begin by sharing a few guiding principles that have helped me shape my approach. However, first, I think it is essential to start with the fact that what works for me might not work for you! Of course, we all go about our jobs in our own ways. I’ve come to my current practice through years of trial and error, but hopefully there might be a tip or trick here or there that might work for you! That said, it makes sense to think of what parameters, objectives, and goals are most important to you as you do your work. Here are some of mine that guide my approach:

1. I prioritize keeping my work within the work day. I don’t want to bring work home when I can help it. Time management at work has become such an important part of my ability to be present for my family. Of course, I do sometimes need to break this commitment, but the occasions are more the exceptions than the rule for me. As such, I do try to cram as much into my work days as possible.

2. I prioritize face time with students. Ultimately, the best way I can spend my time at work is by being present for my students and their families. By managing my time effectively, I feel that I am able to be there for them whether through planned meetings or for last-minute, more urgent needs. 

3. I prioritize calmness. The college process can elicit stress in my students and their parents, of course, and so by managing my time effectively, I feel that I am able to maintain a sense of calm and not contribute to their anxiety and, if anything, counterbalance some of the chaos. My being on top of my work affords me a great deal of composure, especially when things don’t go as planned. 

So, in light of these fundamental premises, I have cobbled together over the years a time management strategy that works for me. What follows are a few of the salient points that I think others might find beneficial… and certainly the ones that I heard from colleagues through the CB presentation about!

1. Pomodoro Technique. Learn more about this approach here. Long story short, this is an approach to productivity where you set a timer and focus intently on one task for 25 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break before starting another 25-minute “pomodoro,” so named allegedly after an old fashioned tomato timer. (I use this online timer to keep me honest.) I find that this scaffolding works incredibly well for almost every task and can be adjusted as needed to fit between the various immovable meetings and appointments of the college counselor’s day and week. Seldom am I able to string together more than 2 or 3 rotations in a row, but I am able to book my days accordingly, and I feel the boost in productivity.

2. Timeboxing. Again, read more about this one here. Essentially, this is an alternative to the to-do list. As such, instead of maintaining lists and trying to squeeze in the time to do things in between meetings throughout your days and weeks (which, for me, inevitably resulted in lots of evening work), this is a practice whereby if I need to get something done, I put it on my calendar. For me, I block off 25-minute, Pomodoro-length appointments with myself for every task that needs to be done. When I know something will take longer than 25 minutes, I will book more than one time slot in advance, but most of the time, when a 25-minute span is done and I am not completed with the task, I merely just create a new appointment with myself later in the day or week. One thing that I have found is that as a result of this practice, I am able to more accurately judge how long something will take me to complete. For example, I know that — when I am in possession of all the accoutrements such as transcripts, questionnaires, essays, etc — I can write a near-final draft of a counselor letter of recommendation in 2-3 Pomodoros. 

3. FedEx Days. This is a real game-changer. I’ve been doing this for probably 15 years after first encountering the idea in Jim Collins’ book From Good to Great, I think, but here is a summary of the concept from Dan Pink, of whom I am a huge fan. Essentially the idea is to devote 20% of your time for unstructured work with the research showing that productivity and creativity are boosted. Throughout the months of August through December, I have religiously blocked off one day per week to be free of meetings and other engagements (as best as possible) in order to focus on writing those letters of recommendation. So aside from unanticipated or relatively urgent unplanned interruptions and pre-scheduled periodic meetings, I select one day per week to chunk up into Pomodoros to write letters of recommendation (and do various other tasks). Throughout the rest of the year (January through June), I find that I am able to use these days more for that essential creative and productivity work that the concept is so well-known for, from writing to preparing presentations to innovating programming and curriculum. One huge benefit that I have found is that when I do not take FedEx days and I am trying to squeeze writing (and everything else) in between meetings with students or other commitments, I have a hard time meeting with more than 5 or maybe 6 students in a day. I am just too frazzled, and I get really exhausted. However, when I have this one day per week to really focus on writing recs (or to do other work), I am able to meet with 12 or more students on those other days without a problem. As such, by sacrificing one day per week in one sense, I am able to be more attentive to my students. In this way, though I have been transparent with this approach with each boss/supervisor I’ve had, I have never faced any pushback at the outset or negative feedback later on.

4. Calendly. There are a number of other applications out there, but I have long been using Calendly to allow people to book directly into my calendar. Of course, this requires some careful maintenance of your calendar, but the various features of Calendly allows me to send a link to people (and to include the link in my email signature) to allow people to see common availability and to book directly. I found that it is an enormous drain of time on email to go back-and-forth with students, colleagues, college reps, parents, etc trying to book meetings. Especially when navigating time zone differences, sending off a link and inviting people to book directly saves a ton of time. I tend to offer 15-minute and 30-minute meetings open to the public, but I have hidden meetings for college reps and parents that I can modify to be outside of office hours, if need be, and the number of which I can limit per day. (For example, when scheduling hour-long family meetings, I limit them to just 3 per day so as to maintain time for the other things I need to do.) There is also functionality to choose where a meeting takes place, either in person or through Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc. And I love the features that automatically send reminders and follow-up emails. Each time I use it, I seem to learn of new bells and whistles. Again, others have recommended other software, but I’ve never explored any others because of how satisfied I’ve been with Calendly.

5. Calendar Grooming. This is perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned with this approach: while it makes me servant to my calendar, I am willing to make that sacrifice to commit to the guiding principles above, especially affording me more time with my family; however, it requires constant vigilance in maintaining and grooming my calendar. Additionally, it requires that everything gets booked, including calendar grooming time and more menial tasks like checking emails. Still, it has become a habit. For me, what works is that at the beginning of the week, I go through and map out my week, placing in my Google Calendar everything I need to do for the week in 25-minute appointments. (For more pressing items, I list them as “busy” so I cannot be double-booked by Calendly, while others are marked as “available” so students can still book meetings. Additionally, I mark most everything as private so my daily to-dos are not for public review.) I have a handful of tasks that I do on a weekly basis that I set as repeat calendar events, all at 7pm on Sunday nights, so when I get to work on Monday morning and it is time to plan and evaluate my calendar for the week, I just drag them to wherever in the week works best. I do this again for the following day as the last thing before I head home each day; this way I have a concrete plan for what needs to be done the following day, especially if things that I had planned to do didn’t get done and in light of any new meetings that have been scheduled in the interim through Calendly or otherwise. 

One thing that this plan has given me a new appreciation of is how I spend my time. For example, I color-code my work, and it allows me to see generally what I’m putting time into. I use orange for meetings with adults and yellow for student meetings; I also use green for work-related tasks. In looking through a given week, I can see pretty clearly whether I am remaining committed to my goal of prioritizing student attention. This sort of focus is more consistent with social-emotional counseling, which tends to track minutes spent. This can be helpful when articulating needs to supervisors, such as perhaps when making an argument for additional counselors, etc. 

I mentioned this previously, but this approach gives me a great sense of how long different activities take me. In really focusing in on one task at a time, I’ve found that I don’t need 25 minutes for everything I do, so I’ve taken to grouping things together. For example, first thing every morning is sometime like “Groom Calendar, Check Email, and Prepare for Meetings,” a time during which I get myself situated for the day and handle emails. These began as three separate 25-minute duties, but over time they merged as I realized I didn’t need all that time.

One final word about this approach for me is that commitment to calmness from the guiding principles shared at the outset. It is certainly possible to become too zealous in keeping to the planned schedule for the day, and it can result in a sense of inaccessibility to students who sometimes have immediate needs, not to mention colleagues, etc. What I have found is that this approach actually allows a great deal of flexibility for me; when sometime comes up, since I know what is essential to get accomplished in the current day, I can move things around easily and bump to later in the week those things that are less urgent. 

Again, hopefully there is a pointer or two here or there that might help you with your work or that you might try out. In chatting with a friend about this, he pointed out that all of these tips would work for people not in college counseling or even education as they apply well to other industries and domains. That said, he also reminded me that these are also effective tactics to teach our students! And, of course, I have tried to find ways to teach these approaches in my work with kids, lest that point be missed.

Finally, as I shared at the outset, what works for me is not guaranteed to work for you! I don’t claim to be providing the end-all, be-all of time management for college counseling, but maybe something works for you!

If you have thoughts or feedback on these or other tips that work for you, I’d love to hear them!

Valuing Student Satisfaction with Outcomes

A point of objection! 

In response to the recent series of posts, a colleague (who does not work in the college counseling domain but who is a parent of a recent high school graduate) wrote to articulate a welcomed, contrary point. His argument is that the previous post on student satisfaction suggested that we discredit a student’s perspective on their outcome. His interpretation was that the argument is that students don’t know enough about what is reasonable for any examination of their satisfaction with outcome to be worthwhile. Articulating his experience as a parent, he felt that his recent graduate would have answered the outcome question with a very low level of satisfaction. As he shared, his son had a dream school from the very beginning, and, in working with his college counselor, he was led to believe that this was an appropriate fit and a place where he had a legitimate chance of earning admission. Accordingly, the counselor assessed his chances as “reach” (where “far reach” indicated a remote if non-existent chance) and never disabused the student of his chances. Then, when he was not offered admission, the counselor sought to assist the student in moving on to consider his other options by acknowledging that he “never really had a chance, as we both know.” This came as a crushing and upsetting blow to the student and the parents. 

So, this colleague was expressing his belief that not asking this student this question about his satisfaction with outcome -- especially in light of the fact that he would probably have indicated a far higher level of satisfaction with process -- would avoid gathering information about this scenario. His contention is that we should ask the question because there is counselor accountability when a student and/or family does pursue an unrealistic goal. Our job in part, he shares, is to educate and to inform so that students and families adjust their expectations and account for an understanding of reasonable outcomes. 

The point is a good one! That being said, I don’t agree with the perspective that we should not ask students about their satisfaction with outcome. The school that I referenced was questioning whether or not to continue the practice in the future based on their experiences with it. However, I think that the more information gathered, the better. Additionally, I feel that this is an important question to ask free of the guesswork that anonymity would provide. Put differently, this question is important to understand in context. On one hand, I recall a student who was admitted to a hyper-selective institution where he had applied early who then gave the highest marks for process but the lowest for outcome: he felt railroaded toward that particular place by his parents and never really wanted to go there. On the other hand, I recall plenty of students who were unmoved by my explanation of there being little to no chance of admission and persisting with the application process and with the school being the top choice. And, of course, there are dozens of other situations where the context matters in understanding the situation. Effective growth and learning comes from each. The first example led me to think long and hard about how I might have worked more closely with the boy’s parents while the second led me to reflect on how to diversify my tactics and strategies for trying to shake a student from being fixated on a far reach… and also to reflect on where the line exists in my practice between informing and influencing! Is it even actually my role to convince such a family or merely to provide the professional assessment and recommendations? 

In any case, student satisfaction, in my opinion, is an important part of the dashboard approach, which we will examine more carefully soon. I have appreciated all of the rigorous and invigorating discussions surrounding this thread of posts. Keep it coming!

Accounting for Student Satisfaction

A relatively quick post this week, here at the end of the school year with a lot of moving pieces and things to do… 

In consulting with a school looking to implement a student college counseling survey (probably a post for the future!), it was shared with me that part of their motivation was the feedback provided in other, anonymous surveys that students were not overly satisfied with “the results” of recent graduating classes. This meant that the surveys reflected an anonymous desire for graduates to end up at “better” universities. The college office felt some pressure, and so they sought to examine this more closely. 

That being said, the undertaking smacked of yet another example of a disconnect between data points thought to relate to college counseling and an understanding of root causes.

First, the survey referenced asked a general question of all students about their satisfaction with the college process and outcomes. It did not ask students to comment on their own processes and outcomes. In this way, the question solicited an overall sense of things. Additionally, the survey went to all students, including students who had not yet entered the college counseling process in any formal way (at this school, grade 9 and 10 students). As such, the question itself seemed designed to reflect more of a reputational, “word on the streets” sort of metric. Certainly, it did not reveal anything concrete or quantifiable. As one of the counselors put it, “we are asking grade 9 and 10 students to provide an opinion on a topic that we have not taught them about yet.”

In light of this, the college office made a number of decisions in regards to their own student survey:

• They decided for it not to be anonymous so they could understand the specific responses within each student’s specific context; the other question from the other survey would remain, though. From their thinking, this would allow them to understand student perceptions.

• They broke down their survey questions into two parts: one focusing on process and one focusing on outcome. In regards to the process section, they asked several questions asking students to reveal their level of engagement and benefit from different elements of their programming from the time spent in classes, to the time spent in individual meetings, to additional programming. Then they asked students to reflect on their individual satisfaction of their overall process in a Likert-scale evaluation. A similar process ensued for the outcome part, with some initial questions about their outcome before a direct request to evaluate their overall satisfaction with their outcome. The team there thought that this would allow them to see the juxtaposition between process and outcome, honoring the reality that outcome is largely outside of anyone’s control.

• Finally, the office spent a great deal of time in deliberation about who should receive the survey. In the end, they decided to ask the survey of all grade 11 and grade 12 students at the end of the academic year (June). They had begun the process with all grade 11 students in January, and so things were well underway with that group, and with most of their graduates headed to North America, the vast majority were concluded with their process at the time of the survey in grade 12. The one adjustment between the two grade levels was not to ask the outcome questions of the grade 11 students, although the process questions remained. From their perspective, the college office wanted to hear from seniors when as many had completed their process as possible but also from juniors at a time when they might adjust their tactics to better support students mid-process.

They rolled out their survey in recent weeks, and then we enjoyed a robust conversation about the real value of student satisfaction with outcome. What they discovered is that they received tremendous feedback about their process and the ways students felt that the process might be improved. 

However, the outcome results, they found, were entirely dependent upon a number of variables outside their control. For instance, they shared examples of students with low outcome satisfaction who were disappointed that they did not get into their dream school, which was far outside of their ability to gain admission; students who felt forced to go to one institution because their parents or finances dictated as such instead of another place they preferred; recruited athletes who did not end up being recruited by the level of school they had hoped for; and so on. 

For their part, the office feels now firmly in possession of data and metrics to support their programming and also the adjustments they are moving forward with making to better support their students. They certainly feel able to articulate a response to any doubts suggested by the separate, anonymous survey.

In the end, the office concluded after this first year of surveying that they needed to revisit whether they would even continue to ask the outcome satisfaction question given how unhelpful the results were. Looking ahead, they next plan to roll out a similar survey to parents. However, again, understanding what satisfaction means is a tricky business and one that requires a great deal of examination and thoughtfulness.

Reflecting on the Matriculation List

One point that was made a few times over the past few weeks in response to the various posts and conversations on metrics is the central case of seeing matriculation lists as reflective of the “quality” of a college counseling office. This is a common pitfall, it seems, made by people from all quarters: students, parents, admin, and even counselors.

The matriculation list -- the listing of where your graduates are headed to university -- was articulated as being a “seminal case” by one colleague because, as they framed it, a given school’s matriculation list for a certain year is a complicated constellation of factors, most of which are completely outside the control of college counselors, even though the counseling office faces scrutiny for the list. Furthermore, several pointed out that the matriculation list is the perfect case in point to put forth the value of the dashboard, a series of metrics that might more accurately reflect the work of a counseling office. Still, others will point out that the matriculation list, even when reflected as a series of metrics and data points, largely avoids the value add of the college counseling office. At best, this perspective holds, a dashboard might reveal more context about why the students were able to be admitted to and perhaps chose to enroll at certain universities. 

One perspective of the matriculation list is that it really is a reflection primarily of GPA and standardized testing (particularly SAT and ACT), in line with the annual NACAC report. However, the college counselor has no actual control over these elements. Additionally, others would point out, the matriculation list reflects subtleties of parental income and legacy status, not to mention other hooks or talents (e.g. sports, arts, etc). In this way, in order to more fully understand a matriculation list, seeing things like a GPA distribution as well as average SAT/ACT scores, correlation of financial aid applications, and denotation of other hooks would provide more context. Putting them on a dashboard where all of these elements might be seen at the same time could arguably aid in understanding a high school’s list, but, again, these elements are not ones that counselors can exert influence over. 

Instead, the matriculation ends up being touted as a reflection of the value-add of a school when so much of the matriculation list has little to do with the function of the school, let alone the counselors. Nevertheless, counselors are often called upon to defend their work and programming in light of the outcomes. This is a similar concept in regards to evaluating rankings. For example, some schools will examine how many students/graduates were admitted to or are enrolled at “top 50” schools, according to one ranking or another. At one point in my career, I was compelled to evaluate the “ideal” matriculation list for my school, which was a request to produce a matriculation list comprised of the highest ranked school that each student was admitted to, whether or not they chose to enroll there. For example, if a student was admitted to the #15-ranked school according to a particular ranking but chose to attend the #22-ranked school, this list included the #15 (even though, for example, the student chose the lower-ranked school because their program of interest did not exist at the higher-ranked place). 

A recent New York Times article by Ron Lieber has stirred up some controversy around this topic. It is certainly worth the read. In light of this, the matriculation list, as Mr. Lieber’s article explores, is often seen as a reflection of the work of the college counseling office or of the quality of the education when it, as Emmi Harward is quoted as saying by Lieber, really reflects “multiple, untellable stories that communities are co-opting into their own achievements.” As one colleague wrote, “I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but, as a counselor, I have as much control over the matriculation list as I do the weather.” 

So, while it might be true that a more diverse set of factors on a dashboard could provide greater context for the matriculation list, it is nevertheless a reflection of a number of factors difficult if not impossible to represent. Certainly, though, the matriculation list has very little to do with the efforts and work of the college counselor, which is ultimately the purpose of this piece. 

More soon on some other metrics and some thoughts shared by colleagues. If you have any ideas to share, please post below or write to me privately!

On Indicators…

These recent posts on levers and dashboards have been fun in that they have drawn a slew of responses, additional insights, and quite a bit of empathy from similar situations. It is always great to engage with others on these sorts of things away from a conference… 

In light of this, I wanted to share this relatively quick, short post in response to a couple questions and comments. 

I received a few messages surrounding indicators, mostly around the differences between the leading and trailing (or lagging) varieties. So, first from a position of definition, leading indicators are measurable metrics that anticipate/predict a change or type of outcome. For example, hours spent studying might be a leading indicator predicting performance on a test. On the other hand, trailing (or lagging) indicators are those that are really outcome based. For instance, in the previous example, the score on the test would be a trailing indicator. From the perspective that this series of posts is advocating, the “dashboard” would be a host of different metrics, some leading and some lagging, providing a robust, multifaceted perspective on a college counseling program. 

It is certainly a worthwhile endeavor to take some time to reflect on what metrics you champion either in your own college counseling practice or when you are evaluating another. What stands out to you? Why? Are they leading or lagging? 

Many of the conversations after my last post point to a particular dynamic endemic within college counseling: that the lagging indicator of college matriculation list (and it’s proxy of highly “ranked” universities) is the only metric that decision-makers (administrators, boards, parents, etc) concern themselves with and not the many, various, process-oriented leading indicators existent within college counseling programming. I need to reflect more on this claim, but it certainly feels right in supporting the on-going work of college counselors in deemphasizing rankings and championing fit. 

In light of this, several other indicators and perspectives were shared, and I hope to examine some of them in upcoming posts! More soon! But please continue to pass your thoughts along!

The Red Herring of Counseling Loads

Since my last post about levers and dashboards, I’ve heard from a few individuals who wanted to share their experiences with different levers meant to improve their college/university counseling program in some way. As such, what I thought would be a good idea would be to go through a couple of them to deconstruct them as a way to explore the complexity of college counseling and also to support the use of the dashboard approach, which I will get to down the line, eventually. 

I wanted to begin with the concept of student-to-counselor ratio. Often this is seen as a panacea for all that might ail college counseling offices; however, as with so many such “levers,” there is a complexity hidden not too far (or subtly) beneath the surface. 

To begin, I’ll share the experience of one colleague who reached out after my last post. She shared that one end-of-year survey instrument that her school uses revealed a concern in the student and parent feedback about counselor availability. It seems some students and parents felt that the college counselors were not available as readily as students/parents wanted. She explained that the comments on the survey suggested an expectation by some of the parents that the college counselors be available for immediate meetings, whereas the student feedback revealed that sometimes students had to wait several days before being able to get in to see their counselor. This feedback elicited the desire for the administration to respond. Our colleague reports that there was great sympathy expressed given that the administration was aware of “how hard” the counselors were working, but there was no substantive investigation or discussion into the root causes. As such, the admin carved out an additional FTE and added a college counselor to the team for the following year. Of course, no counselor resists the idea of adding an additional teammate to help shoulder the counseling caseload, and so a new person was hired, thereby dividing what had been about 100 students per graduating class split evenly between two college counselors (50:1 student:counselor) to a three-counselor model (~33:1). (It should be noted that this was a “split” counseling model where there was a college counseling office and a social-emotional counseling office.) However, the following year, the same feedback persisted with some more frustrated comments ostensibly since the addition of the third counselor had been trumpeted so broadly. This time, however, the response from the administration reflected disappointment, and they sought further investigation to understand the problem in order to apply behavioral modifications directed at the counselors to remedy their lack of availability. It seemed that the cure-all of “improving” student-to-counselor ratios did not have the intended effect and, consequently, the counselors -- three of them now! -- found themselves under fire. 

Put more simply, pulling on the lever of student-to-counselor ratios did not lead to the desired outcome of greater availability by the counselors. In this case, our colleague pointed out that this solution was destined to fail for a number of reasons endemic within the job descriptions of the counselors and arguably within the school culture itself. 

Here are some of the points:

• Our colleague shared with great frustration that she felt the administration was conflating counselor availability with responsiveness. She shared that her office had a rule that all emails needed to be responded to within 24 hours, and she reflected that she and the rest of the office felt no challenges in meeting this. As such, when a student or a parent would reach out to meet, the counselors would reply within the set timeframe, but that it was not always easy to carve time out right away for either party. 

• (Additionally, it is worth noting that this counselor and indeed her whole office, subscribe to the “there is no such thing as an emergency” in the college counseling world. Some may disagree with this take, of course, but in adhering to it, she still maintained that no one would need to wait longer than three days for a meeting anyway.)

• It is also worth pointing out that in this school’s model, there was no dedicated college counseling classroom time. As such, the counselors were forced to meet individually with each student during students’ free periods, and, consequently, their schedules were chock-full of 1v1 student meetings. 

• Student availability was also a contributing factor here. At an IB school with a fairly traditional schedule of 8 class periods including all 6 IB courses and a seventh course for TOK, Extended Essay, and CAS, students in the Diploma Program (grades 11 and 12) were only available for individual meetings during their one free period. As a relatively small school, most students had similar free periods, thereby increasing the demand of the counselors during those limited times, putting pressure outside of the academic day. (The same held true with students in grades 6-10 in that they were fully booked with no free periods, leaving them free only before school, during lunch, or after school.)

• In regards to the before school, during lunch, and after school availability, the counselors at this school were asked to contribute to the various shared duties that so many schools require of faculty: campus supervision before and after school, lunch duty, detention (though they didn’t call it that) duty, coaching responsibilities, faculty meetings, parent coffees, PTA meetings, Extended Essay or Personal Project mentoring, advising, etc. Though none of these responsibilities individually amounted to a significant imposition, their impact was felt on the aggregate. 

• Further complicating the question of availability, each of the three counselors contributed to “the life of the school” (a common refrain at independent schools) in unique ways. One taught an English class, one taught TOK, one was testing coordinator, and two were head coaches of sports teams. The impact here, again, was to limit the availability of the counselors during these times when they might be with students or parents. 

• Another point that might be disputed by some was, as reported, the prevalence of standing meetings to which the counselors were always invited. From admin to counseling to wellness to academic team meetings, there were a slew of dedicated times that impinged on the counselors’ availability during the academic day on a weekly basis. 

• A final point our colleague made that sits heavily with me was the social-emotional counseling load. Although the college counselors were not necessarily trained nor specifically responsible for social-emotional support of the students, there was only 1 “personal” counselor and 1 psychologist for the high school of roughly 400 students. As a result, it was reported, as is often the case, that students would naturally gravitate toward the college counselors because of the lack of availability -- usually due to triage and crisis management -- by the social-emotional staff and (ironically) the relative availability of the college counselors. This dynamic thereby again occupied the time, usually in a somewhat urgent way, of the college counselors as a student struggling with social-emotional challenges leaps to the top of any of our workloads.

To be clear, none of this is even to address the issue of student ownership over their own college application processes and planning in advance to avoid the need for last-minute attention. It also does not address whether parents ever actually need immediate attention for college counseling related topics. However, it all does go to support the reality that at this school -- and at many others -- they chose to address counselor availability by decreasing the student-counselor ratio, and this was unsuccessful for lots of reasons. Ultimately, they pulled on the lever of caseloads but did not achieve the desired outcome. 

Ultimately, in the case shared, our colleague reports that the administration was able to eventually see the challenges within the situation and eventually added college counseling classes and all but eliminated duties external to the college counseling role. While no scenario is perfect, it seems that the concerns about availability have since abated.

Before concluding, I would not want to be perceived as not recognizing the privilege of working in schools with such minuscule caseloads. We work in enormously privileged places when compared to so many across the globe with soaring student-counselor ratios and an absence of college-specific supports. At the same time, I would not want to be perceived as suggesting that counseling loads don’t matter! They do! I have long encouraged admin to think of the perspective of the counselor letter burden and to consider how many intimate, well-written letters they feel they can place on a counselor at their school and in their specific context without compromising quality. There are many other ways in which a smaller student-counselor ratio can positively impact the work and culture of a school, but, in this case, lowering it did not positively impact the perception of availability. 

In closing, the suggestion I want to return to and to emphasize is that singular indicators within the college counseling world often mistakenly lead to the perception that single levers may lead to specific results. After examining a few more such levers and situations, I plan to return to this concept of the dashboard, whereby college counseling offices are examined according to a host of indicators unique and germane to their particular school culture and context. More soon, but I’d love to hear from others with thoughts or perspectives or additional stories of such metrics being misleading!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: June 2021

It is amazing that June is almost upon us. With June come graduation for many of us and the start of summer. That said, there is still a lot left to do on those task lists! Hopefully, this month’s cheatsheet will help keep you on track!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the June 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Dashboards, Levers & Metrics

Recently, I have found myself reflecting a lot on a conversation I had with a head of an international school earlier this academic year. My role was to provide ideas on ways to respond to the feedback of a college counseling audit that had been recently concluded as part of an accreditation review, and, as such, I shared a host of suggestions and ideas for how to address the variety of points of positive, constructive criticism provided. However, the head was determined to focus on just one idea, a perfect panacea; it was his clear hope to focus on just one solution, to embrace it fully, and to move on. I persisted with sharing ideas with the hope of exploring with him which ideas we might select and employ while he wanted me to identify which single one would be most effective. This disconnect reflects a phenomenon I have seen time and time again throughout my career in college counseling: the underestimation of the complexity of college counseling metrics and their controlling mechanisms. 

Firstly, a bad metaphor to emphasize my perspective… What I have found is that while college counseling is much more akin to a jet airliner, many folks often persist in seeing it more like a fixed gear bicycle. The difference in complexity between what actually is and what many want to see is profound in many cases. So, while some hope to find that college counseling is a matter of simply adjusting one variable to improve one performance indicator, the reality is that there are an incredibly diverse array of variables that can impact a wide host of indicators. (And none of this is even to address that many indicators do not necessarily reflect that which some might think!) To push the bad jet metaphor, while some want the false bicycle of college counseling to be merely a function of how hard you pedal, the reality is that the altitude, thrust, lift, and drag of the airplane of college counseling (not to mention the internal factors of temperature, compression, humidity, etc) confound those basic conceptualizations. It is essential to see this complexity and all the various levers when seeking to adjust outcomes or indicators.

Secondly, as with so many features of education, so many of the levers that we might identify as being available to trigger changes within a college counseling office or program are entirely dependent upon the school culture. This is to say that there are not necessarily universal levers that definitely lead to improvement in certain desirable outcomes. School culture determines values, and those values are reflected in so much that goes on in a school as well as within college counseling offices. 

Each of these two points leads back to the scenario at the outset of this piece in regards to the head of school. What he was looking for was a lever, but what I advocate for is a dashboard. He was looking for a single outcome to manipulate through the modification of a single attribute, a single lever to pull. Instead, I advocate for a series of metrics and data points -- what some might call leading and trailing indicators -- that would comprise a dashboard that collectively reflects the health and success of the college counseling program. In adhering to a dashboard approach, it would be my contention that the dashboard would suggest certain investigations that might lead to recommending certain modifications. 

More on levers, dashboards, indicators, and metrics soon!

Regarding Gap Years

Although the pandemic has certainly accelerated things, the number of students inquiring about and then pursuing gap years after high school graduation has gradually been increasing over the last decade or so, in my experience. That said, I have long been a proponent of gap years. In fact, a few years back, I changed my essential questions -- those questions I expect every student I work with to be able to answer -- to be as follows:

1. Why are you going to college?

2. Why are you choosing to apply to the colleges on your list? (Eventually, with their final list, why are you applying to each school on your list?)

3. Why do you need to go to university next year (if not already pursuing a gap year)?

This final question is, of course, particularly germane to gap years. Frankly, some students have good reasons to head to university right away, but most do not. (This is not to say that they are not ready to go to university! Instead, it is more that most students don’t spend a great deal of time, in my experience, reflecting on why they feel compelled to head to college right away.) Additionally, there is something powerful in terms of motivation when a student has a clear reason in mind at the outset. I think it is therefore important to try to get all students to engage in thought about the gap year. 

That said, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there about gap years. In recently speaking with a colleague involved in the college admissions process in the US, I gleaned one interesting perspective on the situation for students who are undecided and their consideration of gap years. Essentially, what he shared with me was that 20 years ago, when a student was genuinely undecided, it was common practice to encourage students toward liberal arts colleges where they might develop a host of competencies in support of any one of a variety of career opportunities. (Of course, there were other tactics, but this colleague asserted that this was a very common one, for him at least.) However, things were different when costs were so much cheaper. In essence, he argued, a family could justify paying $20K per year for college even if the student were undecided, but now when those same schools are in the neighborhood of $80K per year, parents and students alike are more inclined to take a year to explore their options. Parents, in particular, are far more cost conscious and often want their child to have more direction. On the surface, this makes some sense: wait a year and try to get a better plan together.

However, I see the need to offer a few words of caution to this lens as well as to dispel some of the other myths here:

• In regards to the college application process (at least in the US), a gap year is not fully reflected in the application: students taking a gap year still qualify as first-year applicants and are still beholden to the same application process, including the same timeline. As such, if a student hopes to use the year to explore possible majors, they really only have an additional summer and likely a few months in the autumn before applications are due. It is possible to make good use of this time, but it needs to be approached strategically.

• A gap year is not recommended for students who didn’t “do well” in the college admissions process. It works best when done deliberately, in my opinion, and not when used as a last resort because things didn’t work out. 

• Relatedly, a gap year is not a way to get into “better” colleges, which is a question I face each year when typically parents are disappointed in their child’s results. The transcript, arguably the most important piece of the application, is locked in after graduation. The student could take new tests (SAT, ACT), but universities will see when they took the tests. And, similar to the previous point, there is not a huge runway for a transformative experience. Typically, in my experience, the gap year allows students to find better fits, not more selective acceptances.

• A gap year does not mean that a student enrolls in a program. The term “gap year” does not connote anything other than a year off between high school and university. How it is spent is up to the imagination. That said, the common fodder for this year includes, but is not limited to: travel, jobs, internships, community service, independent study, and foreign language immersion. None of this necessitates paying for a program. While I have seen students take advantage of programs such as Where There Be Dragons, Outward Bound, and Rustic Pathways or the like for more glamorous experiences, I have more often seen students cobble together thoughtful and meaningful series of internships or jobs or service. Additionally, I’ve seen highly successful gap years spent on particular projects or duties: finishing an art portfolio, learning an instrument, writing a book, etc. The key point is the intentionality! 

Here are some other resources most of which I borrow from Julia Rogers at EnRoute Consulting for families looking for high-quality gap year information:

• Gap Year Association

• How to Write a Deferral Letter 

• GoOverseas 

• TeenLife

• The Gap Year Radio Podcast

• Julia’s TEDx Talk 

Be thoughtful about considering a gap year! It can make a huge difference!

Let us know if you have any additional resources or ideas! We would love to share them!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: May 2021

May is almost here! There is a lot of work left to do on a relatively short runway, so hopefully this cheatsheet will help things along some!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the May 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Verb Mood in Student Essays

As a trained English teacher who has continued to keep a foot in the classroom throughout my career, I’ve long struggled with verb forms in student essays. In particular, when providing guidance to students on supplemental essays -- especially those of the “why us?” variety that so many universities request -- there seem to be two major schools of thought: first, there are those who employ the future tense (indicative mood), and, second, there are those who use the subjunctive mood. 

Consider the following sentence from a recent essay I reviewed with a student. She presented it as such:

Studying under a world class faculty will give me the opportunity to engage with the leading minds in the field. 

This sentence is one that employs the future tense, indicative mood whereas it would seem that it should employ the subjunctive mood because it is considering the hypothetical situation of his being admitted and enrolling at this university. In that case then, it could be argued that the sentence should be:

Studying under a world class faculty would give me the opportunity to engage with the leading minds in the field. 

Of course, I would love for all of my students to know when and how to apply the appropriate grammatical structures, but I wonder whether some of these choices students are making in these regards have to do with more intentional or responsive considerations. 

It might be argued that the indicative mood sounds more confident, almost as if it is inevitable that they will be admitted, which is what my student argued, so is this a potential tactic of argumentation or style rather than merely grammatical accuracy? While not technically correct as students write about futures in which they enroll at a particular university (a hypothetical), employing the indicative mood could convey a greater sense of confidence to an envisioned admissions reader. For example, the sentence opener “When I enroll at Bowdoin, I will…” (future) could be seen to reflect a greater amount of faith that this future will happen than the more grammatically appropriate, “If I were to enroll at Bowdoin, I would…” 

Additionally, in line with one criticism of some admissions writing, it also might be considered that word count could help make this decision? The subjunctive can often contain more words. 

In any case, deep, grammatical thoughts on a Thursday!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: April 2021

Be sure to download the April Cheatsheet! There is a lot going on this month, so we hope these pointers help you out some.

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the April 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

The LID of Extracurriculars

A couple weeks back, I shared some thoughts on passion and a model for how it might be seen to factor into healthy development (as well as the university search process) that initiated quite a few conversations with various folks. To build on that, I wanted to share an additional point on extracurricular activities. In a follow up conversation about the passion post, a colleague reminded me of a handy tool for evaluating extracurricular involvement that came from some training as an outside reader for UCLA. Their perspective is to look at three attributes of extracurricular involvement: leadership, initiative, and dedication. Of course, from the university perspective, this lens is used to evaluate the choices a student makes in regards to how he/she spends time outside of school, but from the perspective of an individual student, this is a good way to think about the significance of the commitment. 

First, leadership. Are there ways in which you serve as a leader? This can be in terms of title or influence. Perhaps the leadership you have shown has been over particular components or areas of the extracurricular. So much of this one is the way in which you interact with others surrounding your extracurricular involvement. Being able to articulate this is the important piece!

Second, initiative. How have you taken it upon yourself to pursue this extracurricular? What efforts or lengths have you gone to in order to engage with this? For example, if your school does not offer computer science, what have you done to try it? 

Third, dedication. What has your commitment over the years looked like here? Lots of people bemoan their piano lessons, but not too many talented pianists will! Dedication is a function of consistency over time. 

In examining your current extracurriculars, how might you articulate the choices you have made? And, of course, take some time to consider the argument for finding a passion (or trying to find one)!

What Can Lamplighter Do For You?

Over recent weeks, I have received a number of questions from folks about the services that Lamplighter Consulting can provide. With a focus broadly on educational consulting and some particular focal points on systems thinking, university application processes, and leadership/mentorship, there is much to share. Of course, the website does share some general information, but this tends to be broad and vague information, not to mention anonymous, given the requests of the clients. As such, I wanted to run through a handful of recent projects to share some ideas of the ways Lamplighter Consulting might be helpful to you.

• Coaching sessions with college counselors. I have arrangements for periodic, individual check-ins with a handful of counselors. These individuals have sought these sessions for a variety of reasons. Additionally, these individuals are experienced directors, new directors, counselors making the transition from social-emotional counseling to college/university counseling, and counselors new to the profession. These discussions range, as you might imagine, from the day-to-day minutiae of the work to emerging trends and best practices. Finally, these conversations are a mix of informational and mentorship, from discussions about germane topics to support sessions facing the emotional and psychological rigors and demands of the work.

• Meeting with Boards. I have spent time working with trustees and boards and members thereof about trends and concerns within the university admission world. As one colleague humorously represented it recently, I have served as an “expert witness” in the constant interrogation of the complex and ever-changing university admission landscape. In these cases, the boards sought to gain additional perspective on the admissions world. (In one case, I served as part of a two-person panel during a trustee meeting alongside a university admissions director.)

• Advising Heads of School. On several occasions, I have met with heads of school for specific conversations about, typically, specific elements of the college counseling or university admissions process. For example, some of these conversations focused around the process for hiring, ways to evaluate college counseling programs and college counselors, and trends in the industry.

• Supporting Counseling or College Counseling Audits. Given my focus on systems thinking, I have been engaged in two capacities related to formal audits of programs: one, I have been asked to provide an independent audit of a comprehensive counseling program with concrete strategies and recommendations; and, two, I have engaged in many discussions in the aftermath of having received an audit from another organization, working to design and to implement responses to the recommendations. Of course, some of the conversations with counselors often revolve around audits as well.

• Consulting with agencies and firms. A variety of different organizations have engaged seeking perspectives on establishing college counseling programming. These have run the gamut of student-focused non-profits to athletics-oriented groups to tech companies, typically examining how best to serve students or how best to enable other adults to support students. 

• Supporting students and families through the college process. Of course, Lamplighter Consulting was formed with the intention of supporting students with independent consulting services; however, as things have emerged, as the above suggests, the bulk of the work has shifted from students to adults, but the commitment to working with students remains at the heart of the work we do, and we do support students and families directly. 

• Engaging in the Discussion. In addition to these interactions with individuals and organizations, Lamplighter also engages in discussions and trends within the world of education. One way is through the routine sharing of current news through the Lamplighter Facebook page, and another is the monthly College Counseling cheatsheet. 

If any of these services -- or others that you might have -- sound interesting, I strongly encourage you to reach out for a conversation. Please be in touch if you have any ideas for how Lamplighter Consulting might be helpful to you or your school!

College Counseling Cheatsheet: March 2021

It is halfway through February already, which means it is time for the March Cheatsheet!

The intention of the College Counseling Cheatsheet is to provide counselors with a 30-minute (or less) activity each weekday that a college counselor might do today to improve their counseling practice. Furthermore, the monthly calendar is designed to be uploaded as a CSV file into your Google (or other) calendar so you can get reminders and even move the event to whenever you want within your busy schedule.

Here is the March 2021 Cheatsheet! Try it out, and give me some feedback! Did I miss anything? Do you have any good ideas to share? Any thoughts? See the bottom of the August 2020 Cheatsheet for instructions on how to download and use the Cheatsheet!

Passion

Passion. I have been up and down and around and around this discussion with colleagues, students, parents, and others for over two decades now. While some out there abhor the use of the word “passion” when talking to high school students, I see it as an instrumental component of a particularly helpful model for seeing the purpose of the high school years. I hope to explain this in the following post. 

To start off with, I think that “passion” gets a bad name, at least in part, through the university application process. On one hand, there are universities that ask students to expound upon their passions in essays and the like, the implication being that each student should have one, and, more problematically, suggesting that there is something wrong with them if they do not. On the other, students sometimes articulate their current interests as “passions” so as to try to convince admissions officers (or themselves) that they are a good fit for a particular field of study because they already are possessed of a passion for the topic, no matter how advanced, removed from the life of a high school student, or esoteric it might be. I concede that it bothers me just as much when I read an essay prompt put out for an application that assumes passion is the norm for high school students as it does when I read a student essay about some student’s lifelong “passion” to study some arcane or specialized subject that reflects more insecurity than confidence or commitment to the subject. These are admittedly challenging facets of this concept. 

Of course my experience may differ from the broader perspective, but my twenty-plus years of working with students on their post-graduation plans has left me suspicious of the contention of passions being typical of high school students. Consequently, I have explored this idea over the past 10 years or so at three different schools, on three different continents. At each high school where I have worked, I have engaged students with an annual survey, one question of which inquired about this concept of passion. The survey is always conducted at the conclusion of the university application process, ostensibly therefore minimizing some of the posturing that students sometimes pursue. When asked if they have a passion as they graduate high school, roughly 90% of the students I have worked with have shared that they do not! Annually these numbers fluctuate some, but in this span, the highest percentage of seniors who claim to have a passion has been 14% with the lowest being 8%, typically landing around 10%. These samples have been collected from a boarding school in Ohio (USA), a day school in Taiwan, and a day school in Senegal, and there is little deviation from these findings despite the tremendous variance in schools and student population. Furthermore, to me, it feels about right! 

Let me just add that when examining those students who claim to have a passion, the numbers are disproportionately reflective of areas that the students have been able to engage with through their studies and extracurricularly. (I make this statement in counterpoint to those various, occasional claims of student passion in esoteric, specialized fields with which the student has had no opportunity for formal or informal exploration.)  In particular, students intending to major in the arts (fine arts, photography, dance, theater, film) are disproportionately represented. Beyond that, as a colleague who has examined these results with me has cited, the other main category of passions reflected are pure/core subjects, including math, science, literature (as opposed to their more specialized cousins, which we might assume would appear, of engineering, computer science, physics, medicine, journalism, etc). This speaks to a common point of concern of a student claiming to be passionate about a subject that he or she has never actually studied -- and cannot typically study -- in high school. It begs the question of how they might know and leads us back to that point of wondering what pressures we (or our culture/society) puts on our kids to feel that they need to have a passion in order to engage with this university search process. 

What is passion? 

In engaging in discussion with a colleague about this, it was asserted that perhaps some confusion for students comes from their misunderstanding what passion actually is. This certainly may be the case. For our purposes, we define passion simply as a “monopolizing pursuit.” The key to understanding this term is to realize that this definition is incredibly subjective and individualized. Put differently, what passion means for me might look different to you. Generally speaking, though, passions are activities or concepts that we are drawn to and are motivated to pursue. Often people talk about the experience of pursuing their passion, which is a “flow” state where they lose track of time. Still, though, this is a nebulous concept, especially with high school students, and passion looks different to different individuals.

The reality is that very few students actually have or find a passion. In fact, I know plenty of adults who do not have a passion either. Although the purpose of this piece is the plight of high school students, these realities lead many out there to demonize the word “passion” and the pursuit thereof. However, one point that I think this group overlooks is a secondary point: passions can be cultivated. For every kid I know who fell in love with something the first time they encountered it, I know someone (often adults) who came by his or her passion through constant return to something interesting; over time, these interests developed into expertise, greater interest, and, yes, even passion. 

Pursuit of Passion Model

All of this leads inevitably to the model that I have found to be helpful in guiding high school students. Much to the chagrin of some opponents of passion out there, I do recommend that students pursue their passion. However, in my way of thinking, this proposes two different paths.

Path #1: You have a passion. If you have a passion, then you need to do that thing. Find ways to continue to do it, not at the expense of other components of a healthy life (e.g. exercise, sleep, school, friends, and continued exploration, etc) but in your free time. Find new and novel ways to engage it. Use your free time and summers and vacations. Talk to people about your passion. Find your people! Find ways to read about your passion. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to do this well; stay within your means and be creative in how you pursue your passion. Continue on this way and one of two things will happen: one, your passion will continue to grow and sustain you, or, two, you realize that this thing is not your passion. In this latter case, you should then revert to…

Path #2: You don’t have a passion. If you don’t have a passion, then you need to actively search for one. This involves some exploration and some commitment. In regards to exploration, you need to try new things. Join clubs, sports teams, activities, etc. Try new classes. Consume a variety of different media, including books, articles, movies, YouTube videos, websites, etc. Keep looking to find things that pique your interest. And in regards to commitment, keep on doing some things that you find interesting but that you wouldn’t necessarily call your passion. Keep developing competence and even expertise in these areas. By combining exploration and commitment, one of two things can happen: one, you find a passion (in which case, see Path #1), or, two, you keep searching and growing.

So, in this model, students are encouraged to pursue their passion OR to find their passion. The difference may be semantic, but this has been well-received by students and parents alike. It has been helpful to collect the data about who actually finds their passion in order to share and to remind everyone that this is all a part of the growth process. In particular, I think that it helps students to stick with some things they enjoy. Furthermore, asking additional questions about, for example, which pathways they have explored (#1 and/or #2 above) as well as some overall feedback about how the student feels this model has helped them grow, have proven to be particularly helpful.

What does this look like in the application?

I hesitate to share this out of fear that it might be misconstrued and mis-applied, but the reality is that this model does assist with the university application process. To be clear, though, it helps because it facilitates good, healthy, appropriate human growth first and foremost, regardless of which “path” a student finds him or herself upon. One additional benefit is that this model allows students to see and then articulate their own journey in a thoughtful and deliberate way that makes a lot of sense to admissions offices. For example, in many cases, a student on Path #1 with a passion -- who has had this passion for some stretch of time -- will naturally reflect this passion in the application process: through the resume, activities, coursework, and often awards or recognition. This type of applicant is commonly seen as being “pointy.” On the other hand, students who have genuinely engaged with Path #2 and who have searched for a passion will similarly reflect their trajectory on their applications by sharing the many ways in which they have explored the world around them. This type of applicant is commonly called “well-rounded.” 

Truthfully, both types of applicants -- pointy and well-rounded -- are valued in the admissions process. While I must admit that not all universities are the same in how they read candidates, it is my professional experience that there are only a handful of institutions that are really looking for pointy students with passions instead of well-rounded students without passions. In the end, this pathway ought to be seen as a criteria for a university search: if you have a passion, then you should be prioritizing how you can continue to pursue that passion in college; if you don’t have a passion, then you should not be looking at institutions that champion pointy applicants and instead you should be looking for places that can help to continue your search. 

In the end, while discussing this model with a handful of university admissions officers, I was left with a couple takeaways with which I want to conclude. First, the point of the model is not to find a passion but to encourage individual growth and exploration of the world. With the exception of some majors at some institutions that have a limit on the number of seats in the program, universities are not necessarily looking for a particular passion when they find it in a student; they are aware that these things may change. Instead, though, they value pointy applicants for the fact they reflect the capacity for passion, that a student knows how to capitalize on their strengths and attributes. According to at least a handful of college reps, this is important. Second, though, my colleagues from universities have shared that they appreciate this model because it helps to steer students away from a particular archetype: the student who has never experienced the world around them. Particularly in competitive applicant pools, there are plenty of students with good grades but without a developed sense of self. It might be the thing I appreciate most about this model: while none of us can ever have a fully developed sense of self, we can always learn more about ourselves, the world around us, and our place in it, and this model assists us with this. 

Standardized Testing Recommendations in a Changing Landscape

I am routinely asked by students, parents, teachers, and administrators how to make sense of standardized testing. The world is changing around us, and the pandemic has cast a shadow of doubt over the enterprise of testing. With so many institutions having moved to a test optional evaluation model and with the announcement this week from College Board about their doing away with SAT Subject Tests, the landscape certainly has changed, and so I hoped to provide some clarity in regards to the advice I am providing at present.

Keep in mind that my priorities in shaping these recommendations include: 1. minimizing the number of sittings, while 2. maximizing the potential for high scores and 3. keeping as many options open as possible. Ultimately, each student needs to determine a standardized testing plan as part of their college search process, ideally in consultation with a counselor or advisor who can help craft a plan that works best for the individual.

Although previous recommendations (and those from elsewhere) continue to endorse a recommendation that students test when it is ideal based on their prep and coursework even if they do not know definitively if they will need testing, I am encouraging a bit more work in advance. For example, it has been often recommended that students sit for their first SAT and ACT in close proximity to each other without test prep in the sophomore (grade 10) year to verify which test is better to focus energies upon, with so many institutions now on a test optional policy, I recommend that students do a bit more work on their college list. Put some time in, hash out a list, even if it is large (20-30 long), and take a look at what those schools are requiring in regards to testing. Based on recent work with several students, to do this work for a list of 30 schools takes less than an hour and is a small price to pay for the clarity that it can provide. Of course, just because your schools do not require testing does not mean you automatically should not test, but it gives you more information to work with. And, it should be gauged how likely the student is to modify their list of schools, of course. In the end, though, this research should result in more students choosing not to test and instead to focus their efforts on far more effective uses of time, including their academic work and hobbies.

If you choose to pursue testing, consider the following points:

• SAT & ACT. We recommend that students take the SAT and ACT in the junior year, without test prep, to determine which of the two tests is the best fit and to get a baseline score. Previously, we have recommended students to sit for the SAT/ACT only if they know they will apply to college or university in the United States or think that they might, but it is increasingly the case that the SAT/ACT can provide an alternative pathway to admission to non-US universities. Ultimately, we recommend that all students sit for the SAT/ACT during the junior year. (Also, it is helpful for students to have taken the SAT/ACT in the fall of the junior year to inform the beginning of their process second semester.) Additionally, if you can find a way to sit for legitimate mock tests, then it is entirely possible to avoid sitting for the actual tests: explore this option with your counselor and local prep agencies (but keep in mind that fee-charging agencies may have a vested interest in encouraging students toward one test or the other).

• SAT Subject Tests. Given that the College Board has announced the phasing out of the Subject Tests, we do not recommend sitting for these tests. For international students, there still may be a lag of adoption of this policy by some universities, but still we recommend waiting to see if the test is required before sitting, and we do not recommend that students take these tests just to see how they do.

• SAT Score Choice. Score Choice is a system through the College Board where students can choose to send only their best scores instead of allowing an institution to which they are applying to see all of their scores. Please read this additional piece on Score Choice.

• TOEFL, Duolingo, or IELTS. We recommend that students take these tests only if their applications require them and as late as possible or if they have not been in an English-speaking high school for all four years (grades 9-12) of high school or if they have received ELL/ESL support during high school.

• Test Prep. We recommend that all students prepare ("prep") for all standardized testing. There are many types of test prep before you should feel compelled to pay someone to tutor or provide test prep. Talk to your counselor before you spend money!

Additionally, we recommend that students put together a plan! Every student's plans are motivated by different factors and considerations, so be sure not to do too much comparing with others and instead focus on having good reasons for your decisions.

Of course, as the landscape continues to shift, so too will these recommendations. Stay tuned!