Seniors,
You’ve finally reached senior year! You’ve worked really hard to get to this point, and you’ve been working with your McMillan consultant all summer to write your essay and supplements. We can answer questions and provide guidance with most of your college application process, but your school counselor is still an essential person in your team of people supporting your efforts.
Here are the tasks your counselor will complete to support your applications:
- Preparing official transcript
- Preparing Secondary School Report
- Writing counselor recommendation letter
- Compiling, reviewing, or tracking down teacher recommendations (at some schools)
- Reviewing your application, final list, and deadline choices
At many schools, your counselor will need you to submit to their office – often via Naviance or SCOIR or Maia Learning but also sometimes still via paper hard copy – your list of colleges, your chosen deadlines and decision plans, and your names of teacher recommendations. They MUST have this information by the deadline they set in order to gather and submit the official school materials in support of your applications by the due dates.
At some schools you’ll need to plan ahead and make an appointment with your school counselor, so look at your calendar and plan that immediately. At smaller schools sometimes you can just pop in with your updates.
Be sure to read all communications sent to you from your school college office – you will be held responsible for meeting their deadlines and completing their requirements whether you read their announcements or not, so make sure to stay aware of your school communications.
Please, please go talk to your school counselor to make sure they are aware of your plans. They are there to support your efforts and provide their guidance, and keeping them informed of your list and deadline choices is a crucial piece of the process and, ultimately, your success in your applications.
Ask your McMillan consultant if you have any questions about how to contact your school counselor!
