Happy National School Counseling Week!

Counselors,

As we celebrate National School Counseling Week this year, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank each of you in the school counseling community for the invaluable support you provide to students each year.

Studies have shown that students are more likely to be accepted to college when counselors are able to provide specialized attention and guidance. But we also know that with the average school counselor-to-student ratio at 455-to-1, this isn’t always the reality. 

There is so much the higher education community can do to support and invest in counselors. I hope counselors everywhere know we have tools and resources that can support your efforts, including right here at Common App.

Take advantage of some of the college planning tools, including Common App Ready - resources designed to help you walk students through each step of the application process to help them successfully submit their best application on schedule.

Through Reach Higher, our UpNext texting campaign can help current and future college students receive free text messages with application deadline reminders and customized support. 

Common App and Reach Higher also joined forces recently to create a brand new parent and family engagement resource, designed to help families understand every critical stage of the college application process.

And of course, Common App’s 24/7/365 Solutions Center team is here to help address your ongoing needs.

We hope you will always let us know what more we can do to support you. We welcome your feedback and hope you will continue to share with us your questions, concerns, and suggestions - and your celebratory moments, too!

We know that there often aren’t enough words to express our gratitude for all the work you do to help students get closer to their college dreams. And we can’t help but “thank you” again for all that you do.

Eric Waldo is the Vice President of Access & Equity for Common App.