This research study analyzed the curriculum of school counselor preparation programs and programs' emphasis on preparing counselors to support students in their college admissions and college choice processes. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, including surveys of counselor education department chairs and document analysis of the…

Parents and guardians often have more fear than their students about the journey off to college. They are unsure about fit, cost and value, distance, health and safety, an empty nest, and more. COVID-19 has added even more factors into the mix. The pandemic drastically changed the way many colleges deliver instruction, as well as the ways students…

There are a growing number of creative new ways that college admission professionals are reaching students and their families, but often, experts say, the biggest payoff can come from the simplest technique: building relationships. And those relationships may extend beyond the short-lived connections to the student who is inquiring or enrolling,…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine school counselors' preparation for college admissions counseling, strategies counselors utilize to stay current on college admissions processes and trends, and professional development needs related to college admissions counseling. Study findings indicated school counselors did not complete…

This phenomenological study examined the impact of school counselor relationships on the college application process for Black or Hispanic students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Each of the six participants in this study met the criteria as a student who qualified for "free-lunch" status during high school. This status indicates…

This study examines a new profession in China and those who inhabit it--admissions counselors who advise Chinese students on how to apply to colleges in the United States. This study was conducted in the international divisions of eight Chinese public high schools in five cities in China and aims to fill the void in our knowledge of the vital role…

High school counselors play a vital role in helping students prepare for attending college. They are the link between students and families and institutions, providing counseling, information, and motivation to help students make it through their enrollment journeys. Along the way, they have to help students cope with a wide variety of challenges:…

While many high schools reproduce social inequalities in college access, little is known about the schools that successfully reduce them. To this end, Gorana Ilic and James E. Rosenbaum studied an urban high school that expressed a strong commitment to supporting all students' college applications. In this article, they describe the organizational…

Applicants from high-performing high schools routinely enter the college admission process overscheduled and overwhelmed. Stress and sleep-deprivation have reached epidemic proportions at competitive high schools, while rates of depression and anxiety among US teens and young adults have skyrocketed. For this generation of students, the stakes…

School counselors are a primary source of college and career information for students and families, including students interested in pursuing a degree in fine arts. The admission process to fine arts programs can be complex and involve multiple steps; however, providing this guidance is clearly in line with the role of school counselor, as defined…

Drawing on interviews with 88 middle school counselors tasked with implementing New York City's high school choice policy, we show that counselors largely question the policy's legitimacy and the equity of the high school assignments it produces. By highlighting issues of transparency and procedural fairness that threaten counselors' acceptance of…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine the high school counselors' perception of their ability to influence low socioeconomic students' postsecondary enrollment decisions in seven Title I high schools in southern California. Perna and Thomas' Student Success model and the Delivery System of the American School…

This paper reports the results of a pilot study, using a randomized controlled trial to provide college counseling to high-achieving students from relatively poor families. We followed 107 high school seniors through the college admissions process in 2006-2007; we selected 52 of these students at random, offering them ten hours of individualized…

The girls of girls' schools, the author believes, are a kind of Platonic Form of American girl, an ideal to which most of the rest of society, of the country's meritocratic system, aspires for their daughters, a reflection of one's deepest values. She believes girls all over the country, in all high schools, want The Dream. They want to achieve…

Every school has an organizational habitus that represents its allocated resources, mission, perception about students' cultural capital, and the school counselor's expectation and behavior related to college admissions. A school's mission, resources, and assumptions about students and their families affect the college choice process of students…