512 to 1: Are you willing to bet on those odds?

That’s the average number of students that each Georgia public high school counselor is supposed to serve: 512 students per counselor. With budget cuts, counselors are challenged to do more with less in terms of helping students prepare for college. Furthermore, the counselors have to spend time being social workers--handling problems with bullying, drugs,dropping out, etc.

“In addition to huge caseloads, budget cuts have forced counselors to increasingly contend with duties unrelated to their traditional roles, such as monitoring the school cafeteria or proctoring exams,” according to Time magazine (12/3/2013).

The median caseload for counselors in private schools is 106.

What’s a parent to do?

You need to help your student slog through the process for all-things-college. You need to become the career adviser. In my next post, I’ll walk you through how to coach your student on picking the right college major.

Student gets a welcomed reality check

I am so fortunate to get to talk with high school students about their future. I just received this note from a student at Lakeside High School.

“Dear Mrs. Scott,
I would just like to thank you very much for the information you shared with my class at Lakeside. My goals of becoming a lawyer have been more realized, and I now have a realistic idea of how I need to prepare myself for this career. Thank you so much.”

How cool is that? I love this work!