This post is part of 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.

November: A Deceptive Dichotomy. 

For a college counselor, November generally signals a certain return to calm after the chaos and turmoil of all that leads into the large November 1 submission deadlines for US schools offering Early Decision and Early Action. This time can be deceptively disarming, though, as there is plenty of work still to do. We like to think about it as a dichotomy in terms of work output. When a student has submitted his or her first application, the college counselor has completed 90-95% of the work that needs to be completed for any subsequent application; for counselors, the remaining work of submission, depending upon your software, platform, or process, is a matter of mere minutes usually. However, depending upon the remaining universities and their various and varying application requirements, the student may have only completed 50% of each remaining application! Complicating this is the challenge of getting high school students, with their still-developing prefrontal cortexes, to think and plan ahead about those remaining applications, especially those with deadlines far off in the distance. For college counselors, this tends to be the challenges of this time of year. 

In light of this, here are some of the topics and concepts that should be occupying the to-do list of college counselors this month:

• Remaining Deadlines. Students tend to be motivated by deadlines, and there are still many coming up this month, with the University of California apps due in November, with schools like USC and Boston University with scholarship deadlines at the end of the month, and with all evidence suggesting international applicants to Canada and the UK needing to apply by the end of November. These applications still need counselor support.  

• Motivating Student Applications. Despite the previous item, when students who have submitted applications for early November deadlines, it is often hard for them to think about putting time and attention into applications due later on in January (especially if an acceptance to one of those schools would obviate regular decision applications). Nevertheless, November is a month of working to get students to work on those applications. I have never heard a student admitted to an EA/ED school say, “I am really upset that I put time into those applications for schools I am no longer applying to,” and I have never heard a student say, “I am glad that I didn’t put time in earlier so I wouldn’t be in this jam now.” Conversely, mid-December is season for the student lament about not having put time in, and November is the time to combat that. 

• Motivating Student Academics. After working hard to get grades to wherever they are and putting time into the application process, some students lapse in terms of their academic commitment in November. Of course, the students need our support and to be reminded that -- at most schools -- midyear reports will reveal any lapses. 

• Plan B Considerations. At this point in the year -- whether a student has submitted applications already or not -- it is an essential time for counselors to revisit considerations of likelihood of admissibility and the back-up plan (Plan B). Especially if the student has submitted applications, it is important to recenter the conversation about expectations of outcomes; I have found many students overly focus on the perception of the advantage gained from early applications without fully acknowledging that they are not guaranteed admissions. As a result, students need to revisit all contingencies in regards to admissions results, seeking to augment or otherwise modify regular decision lists to support positive outcomes. While all college counselors embrace some variation of a list that supports such ends, few lists ever guarantee admission to a student, and so this is an important time of year to gently get students to think about what their back-up plan might be, whether a gap year or alternative pathways. Planting the seed now, in my experience, can help later on.

• Finalizing School Documents. Because of the release due to the completion of the work leading to November 1, it can be easy to forget that there is still plenty of work to be done, especially for those students who have not yet applied. Counselor recs, transcripts, teacher recs and the like all still need to be completed, and carving time out this month helps. I have heard of many offices around the world that use the beginning of the US Thanksgiving holiday as the deadline for all internal work so that counselors might use that holiday break for some relaxation before the final push in December.

• Preparing for December. The week leading up to November 1 deadlines is considered by many to be one of the most stressful weeks of the year for counselors; the week (sometimes weeks) heading into the December holidays is considered by others to be one of the worst weeks. That time is coming. While the challenges of those weeks are dependent in large part upon school culture, there is much counselors can do to prepare for these weeks and, in particular, be ready to provide as much student support as possible. 

Suggestions for Counselors:

• Engage Parents. November is a great time to tap into the parent community, especially in preparing for December but also in seeking support for students in regards to maintaining motivation with applications and academics. 

• Seek Student Reflection. While November provides its own set of obstacles and challenges and work, it is a great time to get seniors to take some time to reflect on their own plans and purposes. This is a great time to crack out your Maslow and get students thinking about why they are making the choices they are. Simple written reflection makes a difference. 

• Framing Conversations. While many counselors are anxious about contributing to the stress or panic of already stressed seniors by making them consider what might happen if they do not gain admission to a university, this conversation can productively be framed as an opportunity. Instead of “what will you do if you don’t get into college?” sounds and feels very different from, “how would you choose to spend the next year of your life if you had no expectations placed upon you?” Of course, this latter question might not be effective for every student, but the reframing is the important part. I’ve been successful as well with asking students what they might do if their dream school (favorite school, etc) told them that they must take a year off. 

• Continue Thinking About Juniors. While the dichotomy of work as mentioned above in the introduction occupies so much of our mental process, this pertains only to the current batch of seniors in their final year. We often begin to work in earnest with the juniors after the holiday break, and now is a great time to begin putting plans in place (and avoiding trying to do so in December). 

• College Counseling Cheatsheet. The Cheatsheet provides roughly 30-minute or less tasks that appear on your calendar each weekday and that are designed to improve your counseling practice. From tips to strategies to reminders, this can help you stay organized.

• Seek help. Consider the ways that we here at Lamplighter might be able to assist. Take a look at what we might be able to offer. 

Suggestions for Admin:

• Express Appreciation. Find ways to let your counseling team know it is appreciated! Counselors certainly do not do the work we do for recognition, but feeling seen, especially if your school has a large November 1 contingent, goes a long way. However your school allows you to do so, tokens of appreciation are well-received now. 

• Clarify Holiday Expectations. Looking ahead to the holiday break, it is important for leadership to protect counselors. Each school is different, and the expectations vary; however, this is important. Leadership often wants to let counselors determine what their work commitments will look like over holidays, but, in my experience, this does not help and shifts the burden on counselors (and our bleeding hearts) to establish practices that are not necessarily healthy. Conversely, it is not helpful for leadership to dictate rigid practices that cannot be met; I worked at one school where the head indicated that counselors were not to be working when classes were not in session, end of story. While, depending on your school culture (especially vis-a-vis parent expectations), it can be very helpful for leadership to be the voice explaining counselor availability over holidays, I have seen this work best when there is a mutually agreed upon policy. One way to approach this conversation, particularly if there has never been a policy or if the counseling team is new, is to have a pre-mortem: what are the worst things that could happen over this break, and how would everyone around the table want them to be handled? Now is the perfect time to work through this conversation so as to be able to communicate it ahead of time.  

• Encourage Reflection. The life of the counselor throughout the month of October is often chaotic (remember “Suck-tober” or “Rec-tober” as some call it). When we are existing in such a moment-to-moment frenzy, we can often lose perspective. November is a great time to refocus and to look backward to learn. Getting counselors to reflect on their experiences is often a great way to learn how they might do things differently (better) in the future. This is a supportive and encouraging conversation to have with leadership. 

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