New Guidance Counselors Take On The College Process

Many SHS students are concerned that recent staff changes within the guidance department will make applying to colleges more difficult for Swampscott High School seniors.  “It’s not fair that the guidance counselors have to write a recommendation about us when they don’t even know us” said Senior Melissa Gavin.

Mrs. Paquette, a career changer who worked at Lynn Classical and volunteered at Danvers High School, is filling in for Mrs. Barnum who is on maternity leave until January.  Ms. Mazzola was additionally hired as a permanent guidance counselor this year to compensate for shortages in staff after Mr. McLaughlin left.

Part of the college application process requires a student’s guidance counselor to submit both a recommendation letter and a profile of the student to Naviance, an American college and career readiness software used by high school students across the country.  However, for students who have had multiple different counselors this process poses a problem. 

Senior Colbie Cassidy said “A lot of people are nervous if they’ve never talked to their guidance counselor before or if theirs is new and they have no relationship with them, then their recommendation letter would just be based off one or two meetings that they squeezed in in the fall.”

In extreme cases, students have had a different counselor every year, making it difficult for the guidance department to write personalized letters.  “None of them know me and I still haven’t met this year’s guidance counselor” said Samantha Sinrich, a junior at Swampscott High School.

Even for students who have had the same counselor for all four years of high school, many find that come senior year they have not managed to build a strong relationship with their appointed counselor.  Colbie offered a solution to this problem: “I feel if that they [the guidance counselors] had a requirement for students to meet with them it would help everyone with the college process.”

To compensate for not knowing the students, the new staff members are using Aspen, a grade management website, to access student’s grades, transcripts, and a list of classes they have taken.  Additionally, Mrs. Paquette said: “I review the background profiles on students of immediate concern and the faculty has been extremely helpful on bringing me up to speed with students.”

In order to write recommendation letters and profiles, the guidance department requires from each student his college essay, his resume, a completed counselor questionnaire on Naviance, and a parent/guardian response form, also on Naviance. 

Mrs. Paquette reassuringly said, in response to parent and student concerns: “with face to face meetings, parent meetings, and faculty feedback I feel I will be able to write a thorough recommendation letter.”