Dominion Welcomes New Senior Counselor, Laura Laiti

Welcoming a new senior counselor to Dominion comes with new introductions and new recommendation letters.

The tasks and requirements for seniors applying to colleges can be difficult to complete in such a short period of time. Students may not realize, however, that their senior counselor shares a huge part of the responsibility regarding college applications.

High school counselors typically have four years to get to know their students. In Ms. Laiti’s case, however, she only has one.

The senior Class of 2014 has a new counselor for the third time, starting this year. Last year, Ms. Laiti came to Dominion as an assistant to the Class of 2014 counselor, Mrs. Khattar. Laiti, the new counselor, must start building relationships with her students in order to write letters of recommendations that colleges will find helpful.

Ms. Laiti started building these relationships with her students last year. She said that insight sheets and meeting with students in Titan Time helped connect her with her students.

Insight sheets “must list activities and organizations [that the student has participated in] for me to get to know the student,” Laiti said.

Some students might have traumatic experiences that may not be included in their application. Mrs. Bush, counselor for the Class of 2013, said that “some students go through hardships that affect their school work and class load. College admissions would not know of these without the counselor recommendation.”

The counseling director, Mr. Terry, said that the most difficult aspect of writing a letter of recommendation is “making sure that we are making [the student] stand out,” essentially “what we can say for [college admissions] to understand that you’re unique.” The biggest difficulty with writing multiple letters is not writing the same thing for every student.

Schools put pressures on different aspects of a college recommendation. Doug Hartog, an admissions dean from the University of Virginia, said “counselor recommendations help the college understand the student’s curriculum.”

“The counselor recommendation is mostly about rigor,” said Hartog.

Mr. Terry says that the importance in college admissions typically goes from the student’s grades and GPA to the student essay, counselor recommendation, and finally teacher recommendation.

Ms. Laiti must work with Mr. Terry to write about 250 letters of recommendation, depending on how many students turn in their transcript request form.

In addition to writing recommendation letters, Ms. Laiti must help the student develop a post-secondary plan and write a Secondary School Report.

A post-secondary plan regards the student’s strategies and ideas for after high school. This typically involves attending college or getting a job.

The Secondary School Report, or SSR, is a form sent to colleges that shows all of the classes, including electives and AP’s, that the school offers. The SSR allows colleges to analyze the student’s choices of classes chosen.

The senior counselor is responsible for writing the SSR. However, other counselors in the school often offer advice with the writing of the report.

Mr. Terry, Mrs. Bush, and Ms. Laiti all agree that the counselors work as a team. Mrs. Smith, the career counselor, helps Ms. Laiti fill out SSR’s while also helping students choose colleges to apply to.

Last year, Ms. Laiti came to Dominion as an assistant to the Class of 2014 counselor, Mrs. Khattar. Mrs. Bush was in a similar situation when she came to Dominion in 2009.

In January of 2010, the freshman counselor for the Class of 2013 left for maternity leave. Mrs. Bush then filled in the spot for the freshman counselor.

As an assistant for the senior counselor for a period of time, Mrs. Bush knew about some of the responsibilities. This helped her when she graduated her Class of 2013.

Gaining experience as a senior counselor allows Mrs. Bush to help Ms. Laiti with the application process. Mrs. Bush has helped with presentations about the application process, explaining the pink transcript forms, and ordering diplomas. Mrs. Bush is also responsible for making sure all of the seniors (of the Class of 2014) have passed their SOLs.

This year, Mrs. Bush is a freshman counselor once again. Her role in the senior application process is similar to her previous role as an assistant.

“I essentially do what the fifth counselor would have done,” Bush said.

In the past, Dominion has had five counselors: one for freshmen, sophomore, and juniors, and two for seniors. Mrs. Bush acted as the assistant to the senior counselor for the Class of 2010.

“It is an overwhelming but exciting time for students,” said Laiti, hoping that she can help her students with the college application process.