Topic from August 2007
Should academic advisers advise high school students? Many high school students begin their college careers unprepared to handle college-level course work, lacking in study skills, and ill-informed about the curricula of most majors. Would high school students have a better understanding of and easier transition to college academic life if academic advisers reached out to these students, perhaps even before the students' senior year in high school? Would high school guidance counselors be likely to object to this idea, or would they applaud it? What are the pros, cons, and issues involved in this type of an arrangement between high schools and colleges? What's your opinion?
Readers' Responses
This raises many questions, and I assume several opinions. I am eager
to read both.
It seems important to note that FERPA rules for high school students differ from
those in college. What if the advising session becomes something that would
normally involve the parents? HS tend to want to immediately notify, but what
if the 16 y/o is a dual-credit student, officially enrolled as a college
student. Is it appropriate to have students sign a waiver from the beginning?
We don't advertise that for college students. How are these issues best
addressed?
-Rusty Fox, Tarrant County College Southeast Campus, August 9, 2007
As the admission adviser for teacher education programs in the college
of education, I certainly advise high school students who come to see me in my
office, but I don't do outreach in the high schools. Our University Admissions
Office visits every high school in the state every fall to give group
presentations about college in general and specifics about applying to WWU. I
think that only a small minority of high school students are interested in
understanding the details of college—how credits differ from HS, how to plan a
schedule, what is declaring a major, how much time do they need to spend on
homework, what are good study skills, how to talk or meet with professors, etc.
They assume that they will figure it out when they attend college or when they
realize they need to register for courses the summer prior to attendance.
That's when it becomes real to them. My personal opinion is that we often put
too much pressure on high school students to know more and do more. It's okay to be a high school student when one is in high school
and okay to attend to high school academic and social life. High school
students don't need to know details about college beyond admission requirements
for the colleges to which they will apply. Life is developmental
stages—people learn what they need to know when the time is right for them.
Of course we should be there to advise and guide them—when they are ready,
whatever time that is. They need to be responsible for asking, and we should
endeavor to make ourselves and our services known and available, but not
necessarily in the high school setting.
-Gretchen Anderson, Western Washington University, August 19, 2007
I agree that high school students are not graduating from high school
with a true sense of the skills they will require to succeed in post-secondary
education, whether it be college or university. Neither do they have the
information they require to make decisions about careers or the appropriate
type of education that would be best for them.
I see some challenges in having post-secondary advisers do the advising—where
do you draw the line between objective “advising” and “recruiting.” From which
institution do you bring in the advisers? How do you decide which students to
direct to which adviser?
I would like to see all high school teachers take a program in career
development, so that they understand the job market, the educational options
and, most importantly, how high school courses relate to careers and real life
and what kind of skills students need in high school to succeed in
post-secondary. Each school should have a guidance counselor, who also has
extensive knowledge of careers and post-secondary options. College and
university faculty and advisers would be excellent resources to call on by both
instructors and teachers. A bigger presence in high schools would be good.
I'd also like to see a forum for dialogue between secondary and post-secondary
education, so that there is a mechanism for feedback in both directions.
-Judy Bartel, Assiniboine Community College, Canada, August 19, 2007
I think if we, as college and university academic advisers, started
doing what this question is suggesting, high school guidance counselors would
regard us as presumptuous and arrogant. I know high school teachers as well as
guidance counselors do their level best to help high school students understand
what college is like and help them prepare for it.
Throughout the year, I see high school shoppers schlepping their parents from
university to university around the country, doing comparison shopping for the
best college for them. These students have been in college-prep mode since
pre-school and are much more knowledgeable about college and how to prepare for
it than most of the students I had when I was teaching high school and
community college. The dual-credit students taking college courses while they
are in high school are also savvier about study skills and college in general.
Many high school students, though, are not ready for college. Either college is
not on their radar screens or they assume they will be able to breeze through
college without studying as they have through high school. I doubt that all
of the high school teachers, guidance counselors, and university academic
advisers collectively preaching their preparedness sermons will make believers
out of those high school students. Those students will learn the same way I did
when I got into college—the hard way.
-Phyllis Mendenhall, Miami University, Oxford, OH, August 19, 2007
I think academic advisers have a responsibility to advise whomever
seeks their assistance - be they high school students seeking information about
specific institutions or returning adults seeking to expand their minds, among
others. When an adviser answers questions and/or makes referrals to other
professionals, it not only satisfies the prospective student's curiosity, it
might also be the beginning of a trusting relationship. It builds goodwill for
the institution. And, the prospective student has a way to reconnect with
someone they already “know” when they are ready to enroll. Planting the seed
for higher education cannot wait until the student is an 18-year-old senior in
high school. Ideally, adults will be encouraging life-long learning among all
children from infancy. It benefits the entire society.
-Deborah Renner Hull, Arizona State University, August 19, 2007
This would be easy enough. The appropriate time could be the ubiquitous college visit. We would like to think that we in education are above territorial behavior, but I worked at the high school level for a number of years and many high school counselors would feel annoyed if college advisers stepped into their turf to discuss a subject they feel they already cover through large group informational parent/student meetings and individual student appointments. The only reason I can think of to conduct high school outreach would be to assist students in becoming better prepared for college. I'm not convinced that visiting high schools once or twice would have any measurable effect on college preparation.
-Claire Hilgeman, The Art Institutes International Minnesota, August 21, 2007
I believe that a new position requires creating. There should be a position called regional academic adviser. These advisers have knowledge of community college and university requirements for their regions or at least access to this information. Students do not gain enough knowledge to prepare them for higher education. As an academic adviser in a university setting, I believe that it would be beneficial if there was an intercessory to assist in student transition to higher education. School counselors are so overwhelmed with testing responsibilities that students are not getting the information needed. Either a transitional academic adviser position should be created or a testing administrator position be created and assigned to each school so that school counselors can counsel and advise again.
-DeQuetta Sanders, Texas A & M University–Commerce, August 21, 2007
I thought this question should be posed to an actual guidance counselor. I asked a friend who worked for a high school to ask the counselor who works with seniors the question in the Advising Forum. Here is what he wrote me about his conversation with the counselor:
I spoke with [name], our senior guidance counselor. At first, she smiled and said, “Because we are doing such a horrible job?” I said I thought it might be taken that way, but I really don't think that was the intent. She said that actually she would be all for it. She felt like that the more people there are telling these seniors how it's going to be and what they really need to do, the better. The seniors might not think that she knows what she's talking about because they “heard” something from a friend of a friend or some other such nonsense, but if they heard the same message coming from someone representing the college of their dreams, they might be inclined to take it more seriously, and her thinking is that she will do whatever works.
-Susan Bates, Tidewater Tech Online, August 24, 2007
I believe that most students need guidance and information about the college selection process and about attending college period. There is plentiful literature out there that recognizes unrealistic expectations as a primary reason students prematurely depart from an institution. I personally did not have any assistance. I did not receive any from my high school, parents, or community. Everyone held everyone else responsible. Times have changed since my parents went. They thought they were involved, but they had just as many questions as I did. It was convenient and just seemed right to listen to anyone who worked at a post-secondary institution.
I was confused a lot, lost, and just plain overwhelmed at what I didn't know. That made it hard. I did not know of the many majors the importance of a minor. I wish someone would have told me more. I am not placing blame because I got through it and eventually went back for my M.S.Ed. in Higher Educational Administration so that I can help implement programs that will help freshmen and college students adapt. I think that it is unrealistic to ask high school children to grow up so quickly in so little time. It is rough going to college not knowing anything. You need a transition period and it is not ok to think your first step on a campus as a registered student starts it.
-Andria Haley, The University of Akron, February 8, 2010
I believe that as a college student I was ill-informed and came to an university directly from high school that did nothing to prepare me for college academics. A college prep course is offered yet this course is not required. This is a problem. I was never place in the course did not know that I missed crucial information.
-Portia Duckworth, March 15, 2010
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