Choosing the right college can be a difficult decision for students and parents alike. Guidance counselors strive to provide the best resources to aid in the decision, but it is ultimately students and parents who have the weight on their shoulders for the verdict.

Students are considering various pros and cons like distance from home, student to faculty ratio, and student housing. However, parents may place importance on a different factor – getting the best bang for their buck.

Choosing the one perfect college or university out of selected few can be difficult; actually getting to the top choices can be even more taxing. You can start by weighing the pros and cons of public vs. private colleges. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have a few days off from school and aren’t going on any exciting family trips, check out this list of suggested reading to make the winter days go by a little faster. We at Counselor Companion have compiled a list of classics and not-so-classics (yet) that we consider a little more entertaining than some required reading. Enjoy!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R.Tolkein
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The World According to Garp by John Irving

Your last year of high school is already half over. If you were considering applying for college scholarships and had not done so yet, now is the time to take action. But don’t apply without reading these tips from an article by Rebecca Vara on Collegebound.net.

“If winning a college scholarship was as easy as learning your ABCs, this article would be meaningless. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, students have to submit their best stuff to be in contention for an award.

Every high school student in America is looking for the ultimate answer to winning a college scholarship, but we all know it’s no simple task. With as many as thousands of applications per competition, you need to do everything you can to make your application flawless. Using the advice of these scholarship judges is a good start in keeping your application out of the trash.

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Lexington High School Guidance and Counseling offers these tips to consider during the bustle of your second semester of Senior year.

Course Selections

While the grades a student earns in course work completed during the second semester of the senior year do not usually enter into the admissions decision, colleges do request that students provide a list of courses in which they are enrolled second semester. It is assumed that this course selection will reflect the same high quality as a student’s previous work in high school. Read the rest of this entry »

Article by Stephanie Armour, USA Today

College graduates are experiencing the best job market in four years as a stronger economy leads more employers to ramp up hiring.

Employers expect to hire 17.4% more new college graduates in 2006 and 2007 than in 2005 and 2006, according to a new survey by the Bethlehem, Pa.-based National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Signing bonuses range from $1,000 to $10,000, with the average at $3,568. And employers reported plans to boost their starting salary offers by 4.6% over last year, nearly a full percentage point higher than increases for the classes of 2006 and 2005.

“This is the fourth year in a row that employers have predicted an increase in hiring,” says Andrea Koncz at NACE. “It really is because of the economy and more demand. Companies are growing.” Read the rest of this entry »