Students Need Support: Additional college advising positions should be increased to better support college planning

*Names are fictitious

Senior *Sally Sue has her eyes set on Stanford University. 

With a harrowing 4% acceptance rate, according to U.S. News & World Report, and eight supplemental essays, she’s overwhelmed with all the requirements to apply — she has to get them all near perfection just to stand a chance against 60,000 other applicants.

Sally makes an appointment with her counselor asking for a recommendation letter, and to her relief, they agree.  

But this is the first time Sally has even laid eyes on her counselor, let alone had a one-on-one conversation with them. Now, the counselor is tasked with writing yet another recommendation letter, on top of their existing 20, going into Sally’s already difficult application. 

And, the lack of in-person contact isn’t the counselor’s fault. 

SM East needs to add a counselor advising position to support college preparation and create more personal relationships. 

The position of a college advisor isn’t a far-off fantasy for East. In fact, every other Shawnee Mission School District high school has one specific college advisor, according to their school websites. 

College advisors at schools such as SM Northwest, according to smnw.com, meet with students to discuss their post-high school goals — including college, the workforce or the military — and develop plans to reach them.

A counselor, on the other hand, prepares and maintains files involving general administrative and confidential information, according to the Shawnee Mission School District job description.

Although the addition of a college advising position would make over 400 students’ course loads fall on one individual, they wouldn’t be from differing grade levels.

Currently, the Class of 2026 needs help with its college applications. But, there are simply not enough hours in the day, or more realistically, counselors on the fourth floor, to answer the individual questions from over 450 seniors.

Because of this, students like Sally are stressed.

They’re stressed because of scholarships. Stressed because of letters of recommendation. Stressed because of the lack of contact with their counselors.

But it’s not directly the counselor’s fault, they’re also facing three other grade levels that have problems other than college applications.

It’s simply too much for a person to handle.

To expect counselors to dedicate enough time for emails and conversations with every senior in their designated section is unreasonable. Not to mention write a letter of recommendation to persuade admissions offices.

But with the added advisor position, Sally’s dreams of Stanford would be one step closer to reality.

And it’s not just the students that are affected by the lack of a college advisor — parents are too.

When a student needs a letter of recommendation from the counselor for a college or university, the parent must fill out a Google Form detailing their child’s strongest moments. Although the form is accessible and intuitive, the hardest part is actually finding the form.

Although they can sign into a parent Canvas account and access the Student Services page that way, it’s many extra steps that could be easily solved with a quick email sent to a college-specific counselor. 

Having a college advisor at East would allow all students, like Sally, to build connections with the advisor. Students would be able to have meetings with the advisor more often than their singular assigned counselor.

In these personal meetings, students would learn about scholarship opportunities and resumé building activities — aspects of an application that can’t be learned from a two-minute YouTube video. 

Even more, the college advisor would be able to avoid slideshow presentations half-heartedly given by seminar teachers during the 35-minute advisory period on Thursdays. 

Let’s be honest, no burnt-out, sleep-deprived senior is studiously taking notes over such presentations.

Instead, these presentations could be given to small groups of students. Or even better, individually to each college applicant.

So, for the sake of students and counselors alike, let’s provide more college advising support.