Parents: Know Your Key Role

You know your child best, so it's important to help guidance counselors understand them too —and you can play a key role in helping them work together to produce the best possible college application.

A good relationship with your child’s high school guidance counselor should be a high priority for every parent. Not only does the Common Application require a Secondary School Report to be filled out by the counselor, but they’ll also provide a critical letter of reference that is a high priority for admissions committees. Teacher recommendations remain very important, but the guidance counselor letter can help place the student in the context of their entire class of students at the school, as well as the last few years of students. These professionals will also make sure all the required paperwork (transcript, mid-year report) is also submitted to colleges on time. 

Partnering with the guidance counselor to help them do their difficult job well on behalf of your student is a worthy investment.

Many guidance counselors ask for parental input before they begin writing letters of reference on their student. Even if they do not, during the fall of senior year, be sure to provide them with useful information about your child; this helps a busy guidance counselor significantly.

This doesn’t mean a parent needs to send a full resume or highlight every achievement their child has enjoyed. A guidance counselor will have a good working knowledge of this from working with the student and viewing their Common Application. Instead, give them insight into the likeable qualities of your child, and the journey and growth they’ve experienced at the counselor’s school. This can make the difference between a generic letter of reference and one that really stands out. 

Three basic areas to focus on are examples of your child’s:

1.    Resiliency

2.    Empathy

3.    Curiosity

If possible, give examples to the guidance counselor of how your child fits one or all of these characteristics, especially if that can be tied into their high school years. Describing the person that your child is becoming is more helpful than simply listing and re-telling their achievements. 

In sum: describe how your child has grown over four years at the high school through examples of resiliency, empathy, and curiosity. You’ll make your guidance counselor’s job easier and help them put together a compelling letter in support of your child.