Counselor of the Month

Dear College Counselor... The Year's Best Advice from our Counselors of the Month

Posted on Wed, 11/06/2013 - 13:57

October is the cruelest month for high school college counselors, besieged on all sides with seniors intent on applications and juniors beginning their college search and testing -- as well as issues with the Common App this year. So we give counselors a pass at this time of year. Instead of our Counselor of the Month feature, we bring you a round-up of best advice from the counselors who have graced our website with their guidance and wisdom in the past year. Read on to learn their best advice for students and parents, recommendations for financial aid, guidance on the college search and mistakes to avoid.  One of our personal favorite sound bites? Niles West High School's Dan Gin who advises students, "Have fun… Everything will work out in the end." Next year at this time, you'll all see how true this is. In the meantime, take advantage of this advice from the experts on the college counseling side of the desk.

The College Search

Laura Stewart, Ensworth School, Nashville, Tennessee

How do you encourage your students to broaden their college search and look beyond the four or five schools that they know best?

College Admission is On the Road Again...

Posted on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 09:28

College Admission is on the road again... We'll be traveling for the next ten days to speak to students and parents in northern and southern California and Oregon. We'll still be posting and Tweeting and Pinteresting, but it will be lighter for the next week. Nevertheless, don't miss our weekly advice for juniors and seniors, the Q&A with our Counselor of the Month next Monday and the next guest post from Will Dix, aka The Crabby Counselor, who has some excellent advice for students about the college search. And, in the meantime, we'll be finding out what's on the minds of juniors and seniors -- and their families -- so we can provide even better advice about the college application process.

Valerie Velhagen of Albuquerque's Eldorado High School is Counselor of the Month

Posted on Tue, 08/06/2013 - 09:48

Valerie Velhagen thought she would be a professor or a lawyer like her father. But some time off before graduate school -- working in her father's law office and studying for the LSAT -- lead her to take a different path. Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a long way from Brooklyn, New York, where Velhagen was born and raised. But after graduating from Massachusetts' Brandeis University with a BA in English and Pennsylvania's Duquesne University with a Masters in a program centered on existential/phenomenological psychology, Velhagen, now the College and Career Readiness Counselor at Albuquerque's Eldorado High School, made her way from New York's largest borough to the city on the banks of the Rio Grande.