We all know senior year is supposed to be the most fun year. Junior year is notorious for being the hardest year, but senior year really is stressful. For a lot of McMahon students going through the college process is really confusing and difficult, even when your parents may have already done it, due to the changing process.
McMahon offers school counselors, who are there to be available to help with the application process; however, their caseload can inhibit this help. Our senior class has a graduating class size of 496 students. These 496 students all need help with college applications and post-secondary plans, and these school counselors also have students from the 3 other grades. Our school only currently employs 10 guidance counselors, who also are in charge of scheduling. After speaking with Mrs. Leeds (who has 86 seniors on her caseload) I learned that they really start the college process even as a freshman.
As the school year starts, these counselors who are split up between 1,770 students have to fix any issues in about 200 students’ schedules each and need to start helping seniors with college applications. As of the third week of school, seniors were still having trouble getting in contact with counselors and making appointments to meet with them, due to scheduling issues.
This poses an issue because early application and early decision deadlines are approaching, and the school year is already getting hectic. Most counselors ask for a month in advance from your earliest application deadline, and for some of us, those deadlines passed before meetings were available. Fall sports seasons have started, and work in classes is beginning to take off. The college application process is stressful and lots of work, and the school should be more helpful and supportive during this process.
After talking with Mrs. Leeds, I was able to get more details on what their job looks like. I asked Mrs. Leeds what part of her day was fun, and what part was difficult. She said, “I really enjoy helping students but want to help all of them, and not everyone wants help.”
She also was able to tell me about what her day normally looks like. She said “When I get to school I start with checking my emails and seeing what appointments I have for the day. Then my day continues on with appointments and checking on grades and students.”
I also asked what part of her day as a counselor was her favorite, and she said that it had to be seeing students grow and realize what they want to do after high school, and her least favorite part is that there aren’t enough hours in the day.
It’s not fair to the counselors or the students to be stressed out about their schedules, college applications, or post-secondary plans, or just want to talk to their counselors and not be able to reach them.
