Among the concerns you might have as you research online high schools is whether your child will receive sound counsel throughout their tenure at their school. Particularly as your student considers their future academic and career path, you want to ensure that no details are left to chance. That’s why, in an effort to emulate the in-person experience, some online high schools provide advisors or college counselors. Virtual college counselors can help your student select courses, choose extracurricular activities that align with their future plans for a university, narrow college selection, and fine tune their college admissions application. School advisors, on the other hand, might help your student navigate more of the day-to-day stressors of being a high school student. Advisors connect with their students, build relationships, and help their young charges excel in school and life.
Why Are High School Advisors So Important?
Today’s high school advisors can help students navigate a sometimes tumultuous time in their lives. The best advisors—whether in-person or online—serve as trusted confidants and sounding boards for decision-making. From connecting students to resources for success in the classroom to helping them learn how to self-advocate, advisors can prove invaluable to your student’s academic, social, and emotional development.
Here are some areas where advisors assist students:
- Setting goals and tracking progress
- Honing time management and organizational skills
- Connecting to resources such as tutoring services
- Resolving conflicts with classmates
- Identifying issues of anxiety and depression
- Providing techniques to reduce stress
- Identifying risky behavior or issues of substance abuse
What to Look for in an Online High School Advisor
Although there are some common characteristics that separate the great from good advisors, one area that is important to consider is how their values align with yours. You have provided your child with a strong moral foundation and sense of right and wrong. A school advisor should support and reinforce your family beliefs, not act against them. Look to the school and its mission to determine the likelihood that the faculty and advisors who will influence your child are people you want in their life. Will they support your child morally, intellectually, and spiritually? Will they help your student develop a good moral character and the ability to make wise decisions?
Additionally, an advisor should be available to your student. In large public-school settings, counselors wear many hats and average a caseload near 250 students, which means that out of necessity, they are likely to concentrate on the most troublesome cases. Even doing their best to accommodate the needs of their students, advisors often fall short because they are spread too thinly. An online advisor can offer significant one-on-one time to your child or very little. Before you choose a school, find out what their advisors will offer your student.
Gravitas is the global extension of the Stony Brook School on Long Island, NY. Our rigorous curriculum, values, and philosophy are all shaped by our 100-year history of academic success. Gravitas allows students like yours the ability to receive a top-tier high school education and access dedicated faculty and advisors in a flexible online format. Not only do we provide college counseling, but we also provide your student with an advisor for their tenure at our institution. To learn more about enrolling your 7th-12th grader in Gravitas, submit an inquiry today.
