As a professional educational service, the coaching of high school students for college entry, once an oddity for remedial necessity or the privileged few, is now rapidly gaining traction as the new standard in the experience of college bound seniors. As application statistics reveal and predict, universities continue to be inundated with an avalanch of well qualified high school seniors. Not surprising, only a fixed number of available freshman positions exist in these schools. As a result, colleges across the country on every level have tightened their admission requirements. The swelling applicant body has in turn responded by turning to a modern type of tutoring for college admissions in the hiring of coaching services.
Thus arises the burgeoning industry known as college admissions and application coaching. Coaches have a critical part to play in the lives of parents and students with whom they are working. They provide useful conversation, sort through repetitive paperwork, but most importantly ask clear, pointed questions and listen with careful attention to the answers.
Adopt a healthy skepticism when interviewing or hiring a college coach. Make certain the individual meets specific moral and academic standards. Use some conduit to vet the coach such as a counselor or parent referral. You can easily verify academic credentials and background experience as well.
You must also feel at ease with your coach. Don’t ever feel intimidated or uncomfortable so that you won’t ask a question. Coaches must be relatable and genuine if they are to make a substantive impact on your child’s education. Among the benefits gained are the building of vocabulary, the inculcating of discipline and organization, and the general goal to bring out the best your child has to offer. If the coach takes a condescending approach towards your family, the time has come to terminate this relationship.
As more and more parents pay for this service, which proves time consuming as well as costly but often necessary nonetheless, make sure the coach knows exactly what needs to be done.
What does your child need to work on? Can the coach efficiently assess grades, writing needs and weaknesses, and make realistic recommendations for improving test scores? Is the coach adept at managing time efficiently? Role playing and acting prepare the student for a possible interview with an admissions counselor at the target college, so this exercise is always helpful. Have you found the coach in tune with the great variety of student extracurricular activities? Is the coach sensitive and perceptive enough to evaluate your child’s particular talents and interests? Is the coach conversant with appropriate target colleges and universities for your youngster?
Make sure the coach challenges you to fully participate in the session. An ethical coach will demand your feedback by respecting boundaries and never writing an admission essay or personal statement for you. Rather, a responsible coach will monitor your progress periodically and ensure you continue working on the things that have been discussed in prior sessions. A truly professional college coach strengthens your own work, teaching basic writing and verbal skills, so that suggestions help you learn to develop coherent, grammatical speech and text patterns.
You will witness a lot of guidance counselors supporting coaching services in the coming months and years as they themselves become overwhelmed by the sheer number of student and parental inquiries for help with the college admission process. As the field expands, and coaching services become more user friendly and common place, remember that a good coach will not try to befriend you. They ought not to let you off easy but instead hold you accountable to standards and tangible improvement in your written work and test scores. On the other hand, a co-dependent relationship should not develop either. This is not a love affair in the works, and at some point the string has to be cut.
Of course, like the clergy and the physician, you should expect strict confidence. An ethical coach neither gossips nor betrays your trust. No material should never find its way into the hands of a third party.
Further, a coach who assures you that your child’s situation can be fixed in one session is a diletante to walk away from. Follow up should be included in the service to close out the relationship and make sure that at least some forward progress has taken place.
Ultimately, the coachee, the student, winds up doing the hard work and all of the work. The coach helps, but the student shapes his academic plan, his own educational future and decides whether he himself chooses to succeed. No doubt coaching for college will continue to flourish as a supporting academic service, although in many cases an indispensible one. High school guidance counselors and parents must develop a keen eye and sharp ear to separate the professional who delivers the best possible help from the unethical time waster who will indulge your son or daughter. A good coach understands what he or she is up against and understands the complexity of academia and admissions work. There is a sobriety and seriousness in the realization that there is always room for improvement.
A boxer continues to train even though he may be the world champ. It is never the case that those at the top of the class have no room for improvement. Everyone can benefit from the input of the right coach.
