Tips for counselors
Counselors, you play a really important role in encouraging students to go to college. But, we know that you have a number of other responsibilities that often keep your from counseling and advising students about college in the way you'd like to.
Here are some tips to help you encourage your students to find their right path:
Resources:
- Take advantage of the resources available to help you with college advisement. Encourage students to visit www.riseupms.com, and encourage parents to visit this site, www.parentguide2college.com.
- There are a number of college advisement workshops offered in the state each year, as well as workshops on financial aid.
- If GEAR UP is active in your school district, rely on the GEAR UP coaches to help you advise students about college.
Course Selection:
- College planning should begin before the junior or senior year of high school. Really, it begins in kindergarten, but specific conversations about college and life after high school should start in middle school. Work with students to develop a six-year plan for high school and the two years following. Review each year.
- Begin working with students as early as possible, preferably before the 9th grade to ensure they are taking the classes that will make them ready for college. Click here to view the Mississippi College Prep Curriculum.
- Urge students to pursue challenging courses, and work with parents to support and reinforce those choices.
- Even if your students have completed all the requirements needed for graduation by senior year, encourage, or even require, that your students take a math, science, and language class their senior year. With some critical subjects, if you don't use it, you lose it.
ACT and Other Entrance Tests:
- Encourage your students to take the EXPLORE test in 8th or 9th grade and the PLAN and PSAT/NMSQT in 10th grade. If your school doesn't offer these, enquire about making them available.
- Make sure your students understand that waivers are available to help students with financial need pay for these tests.
- Encourage students to take the ACT more than once, beginning in their junior year.
College Advisement
- Don’t put down vocational or community college programs. The most important thing is that your students pursue some kind of education after high school.
- Resist the temptation to look at students as either “college-bound” or not. You don’t want to discourage a student who may be the exception to the rule.
- Realize that some students, particularly those from lower income families, are not encouraged to go to college and may receive very little information about it. These students need your advice and guidance most of all.
- Correct the misperception that college costs are much higher than they really are. False beliefs about college costs and financial aid can keep lower income students from even considering higher education.
- Communicate the importance of higher education. Make sure students understand that a college education is becoming increasingly important in today’s society.
Career Planning
- Encourage students to identity a career path that they want to work toward, and help them choose their courses accordingly.
- Take advantage of the interactive career planning software Mississippi Choices® (grades 9-12) and Career Futures (grades 6-8) which are available to all students through a statewide license.
- This site also offers some career planning advice, including access to some interest and skills assessment tools that you may find useful.