Education: College Bound, Without a Map

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To hear Marti Brewer tell it, the fact that she made it into the college she wanted is a small miracle. Although a good student, she decided she needed a special summer course to improve her chances. But the counseling office at her high school in Fayetteville, Ark., bungled the course application by reporting the wrong SAT scores. Fortunately she caught the mistake in time. Looking back on her experience from the safety of Rice University, the freshman-in-spite- of- it-all sighs, "Counselors are overwhelmed with duties. They don't know how to help."

Marti's lament is a common one among seniors now coming to the end of their labors and juniors about to start theirs. Some 60% of this spring's graduates will enroll in college, and though the choice of where to go is the culmination of twelve years of schoolwork, many will make the decision knowing little about the place they choose. They must sort through a choked mailbox of color brochures from student-hungry colleges, face down a blizzard of intimidating forms, and assess parental advice that is based either on no college experience or 20-year-old impressions. Enter the college guidance counselor to champion the student's cause. Too often, though, such a paladin is battered with overwork.

Those assigned to give guidance typically have 400 students to deal with, says Executive Director Frank Burtnett of the National Association of College Admission Counselors, and "unfortunately, in some urban public schools, you will find ratios in excess of 1,000 to 1." Many advisers are responsible as well for more dramatic concerns. "We're dealing with drug problems, alcohol, pregnancy and broken homes," notes Counselor Jean Brown of Dallas. "We've got to squeeze all that in too." Their time is also regularly eaten up by daily snags and such petty bureaucratic requirements as monitoring lunchrooms and scheduling classes.

The best counseling, unsurprisingly, tends to be offered in public and private schools attended by the middle class, but even that is often not enough. "Anytime you have a situation in which very desirable options are available to students, you have parents trying to beat the game," says Harold Howe II, chairman of the College Board Commission on Precollege Guidance and Counseling. The result is a growing industry in private advisers. Says Barbara Wolfson, who sent her son to a private counselor in Atlanta: "There's a limit to what the school counselors can do." For fees of up to $2,500, private advisers take the time to find out a student's strengths and interests, put together a list of likely choices and assist with the application process. Most stress that their aim is to help the student find a match with an appropriate college, not package him for acceptance at an elite institution. Says Maurice Salter, a private consultant in Los Angeles: "We work long hours with students. We don't do anything magical."