Repost from the new Google Group, 'Linda Christas Counselors':
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Linda-Christas-Counselors
Subject: Linda Christas Counselor Comments
From: LaTracy Renner, Linda Christas Volunteer
Steven Jensen sent this piece to me today. I thought it was worthwhile
posting:
The Chairman of the Linda Christas Advisory Committee, and the Academic
Dean have asked Linda Christas counselors to contribute something from
time to time to public bulletin boards. The hope is that by doing so,
we will be able to assist students who have general issues regarding
college choice, financing, attendance, etc, but, don't have access to
ongoing counseling at their respective high schools.
I know that when I was counseling at a public high school, I was unable
to adequately serve the four hundred and fifty students to whom I was
assigned. I had all I could do to counsel emotionally damaged members
of the student body.
Very few parents or students are aware that public high school
graduates who go on to four year colleges graduate at a rate of only
48%. That is, 52% of all public high school students who enter four
year college programs never receive their bachelors degrees.
There are many reasons for this, most of them avoidable with the proper
counseling. However, in order to provide proper counseling, those
departments on public high school campuses would have to be expanded
dramatically.
With over 3200 colleges in the United States, unless counselors make it
their job to know where the strong departments are, and how well
college mission statements translate to compatible experiences for
graduating high school seniors, there isn't much that they, the
counselors, can do for their charges in terms of educational direction.
Many well known colleges are actually much stronger on the graduate
level than the undergraduate level, despite their having marvelous
football or basketball teams or large endowments. For example, I think
it is im****tant to know which current undergraduate colleges are
placing the highest percentage of their graduates in top ten graduate
schools; which undergraduate colleges produce the highest percentage of
graduates who go on to become executives in Standard and Poor's listed
companies; which undergraduate colleges eventually have the highest
percentage of their students listed in Who's Who in America;which
schools have the highest percentage of students contributing back to
their undergraduate college upon graduation. I believe that all of
these numbers are im****tant reflections of the quality of the
experiences students enjoy during their undergraduate years.
This kind of information is not available in publications such as U.S.
News and World Re****t. Those listings, although interesting, are a
reflection of what the colleges themselves think of each other based on
their own criteria. (Generally, the elements that are im****tant for top
rankings in magazines revolve around publi****ng, successful grant
writing and research, and other things that are significant at the
graduate level, but have little to do with the quality of the
undergraduate experience. The listings are still interesting. However,
they should not (in my opinion) be used as a tool to select
undergraduate colleges.)
This whole area of counseling high school students going on to college
is exciting, if counselors have the time to develop proper methods for
capturing relevant information regarding undergraduate institutions.
For example, Question: Do you think it would be valuable to know to
which undergraduate college professors who teach at Ivy League
institutions most frequently send their own children? These kids all
have an excellent chance, if not guaranteed, of admittance to the Ivy
League.
The answer to that question is: EARLHAM COLLEGE. Never heard of it?
That's the point of having a counselor with the time to do research for
the benefit of his or her student body.
My hat is off to the counseling offices at the public schools
everywhere. They are excellent people.
Steven Jensen, LCC
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