WHY PRIVATE COACH?
Your Guidance Office connects students and their families to private college coaches. Our friendly team has extensive experience supporting students’ academic achievements and the college admissions process.
School-Based Guidance Counselors: Why They Aren’t Enough
You might think that a school guidance counselor can offer all of the college coaching services your child needs. But in fact, they typically do not. According to a study of undergraduate students funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the services provided by school-based guidance counselors consistently fall short of what students truly need. The study reveals that:
Following the release of these survey results, the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) responded with the following statement:
School counselors are increasingly called on to do work outside of their mission, including: “discipline issues, and sorting out scheduling, and other administrative mix-ups with the high school.”
In other words, school guidance counselors are being overburdened with duties not related to college coaching and academic planning. This prevents them from giving students the guidance and support they need to successfully navigate the path toward higher education.
Two-thirds of those surveyed rated their counselors as “poor or fair” at “helping you decide what school was right for you.” More than half gave similar ratings to their counselors for “explaining and helping you with the application process.” Nearly half said that their counselors made them feel “like I was just another face in the crowd.”
Guidance Counselor-to-Student Ratio
In addition to being overburdened with non-college coaching duties, school guidance counselors struggle to get kids ready for post-secondary education because there simply aren’t enough of them to go around. ASCA recommends that schools have no more than 250 students per guidance counselor. Yet, reality is quite different:
464 to 1: The nationwide average ratio of students to counselors
1 in 5: The number of students in a school without access to any guidance counselors
It might seem as though we here at YGO are not advocates of school guidance counselors. In truth, we’re enthusiastic about the work they do and we appreciate their efforts on behalf of students. It’s not our goal to replace them, but rather to bridge the gap between the services that students need and the services they receive in school.
It’s simply not possible for a school guidance counselor to provide every single student everything they need to succeed, and that’s where YGO steps in. Above all, our top priority is the success of our students and the satisfaction of their families.
Why Choose Your Guidance Office
At YGO, we are genuinely passionate about the personal growth and academic success of the students with whom we work. We believe that our college coaching services can make all the difference in a student’s academic career. To that end, consider the following:
“A full 26% of students surveyed used a paid consultant or service in the college decision process.” – 2009 study by the Lipman Hearne Organization on high-achieving seniors.
When you work with YGO, your family enjoys the following:
1 Access to financial aid assistance via licensed financial services professionals
2Flexible scheduling, with evening and weekend appointments available with YGO coaches
3Access to a private coach with a small caseload, allowing for a high degree of personalized guidance
If you’re still not sure whether hiring a private college coach is the right move for your student, we invite you to schedule a Student Enrollment interview. We’ll discuss the YGO process and our services, and determine whether our college readiness coaching can be a good fit for your child. The interview is free and there is no obligation. Get in touch today to begin planning for a brighter tomorrow!