Seeking Counsel

By CARIN RUBENSTEIN

Published: April 17, 2005

The high school guidance counselor may be the most important person in a college-bound student's life. The counselor writes a recommendation and coordinates all others, and makes sure the student's transcript, test scores and fees meet all deadlines.

For college admissions, this year was the hardest that many area counselors can remember.

"Westchester kids are competing with each other, and the overabundance of applications from here makes for a certain disadvantage coming from this area," said Bob Sweeney, a counselor at Mamaroneck High School .

But competitive as seniors may be, when it comes to public-school guidance departments, they work with what they have. Departments vary dramatically in student-to-counselor ratio. At Byram Hills High School in Armonk, 183 seniors share 5 counselors; that works out to 35 to 40 seniors per counselor. Scarsdale High has 8 counselors for 282 seniors, or about 35 per counselor. At New Rochelle and Mount Vernon High Schools , whose senior classes number over 500, counselors handle 50 to 80 seniors each.

Parents sometimes hold guidance counselors responsible when students are rejected.

"I've heard of lawsuits," said David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. "They say he told the child to apply to schools he couldn't get into."

When rejection causes anger, said Suzanne L. Schafer Skalski, a counselor at a New Jersey private school, "understanding the disappointment behind the venom doesn't always make it easier to hear." Her strategy: "I just try to be understanding and not to get defensive."

To avoid getting an overworked college counselor, some parents go private. At IvyWise in Manhattan , Katherine Cohen promises that no paid counselor will handle more than 20 students at a time. For this special help, families normally pay from $1,000 to $24,000. The most expensive package costs $33,000, which includes two years' work with Ms. Cohen herself.

"Many students are underserved by their high school," she said, pointing out that counselors are often responsible for several hundred students ranging from 9th to 12th graders.

"No human being could do that job well and thoroughly," she said.