High School Counselor Week

How U.S. colleges are navigating cuts to grants for research after Trump restricts federal funding
PBS News Hour – March 28, 2025
The squeeze on higher education underscores how much American colleges depend on the federal government — a provider of grants and contracts that have amounted to close to half the total revenue of some research universities, according to an AP analysis. It adds up to a crisis for universities, and a problem for the country as a whole, say school administrators and advocates for academic freedom. America’s scientific and medical research capabilities are tightly entwined with its universities as part of a compact that started after World War II to develop national expertise and knowledge. The cuts endanger millions to billions of dollars funding university research and development on cancer, drug abuse and addiction, aging, AIDS, and numerous other health areas, as well as other scientific and technological research, including some Department of Defense research.

Podcast: How AI Is Changing How Young People Connect
The 74 – March 26, 2025
This “Class Disrupted” education podcase welcomes guest Julia Freeland Fisher, director of education research from the Clayton Christensen Institute. We explore the potential and challenges AI presents in the educational landscape. Julia shares her insights on the importance of using AI to enhance personalized learning experiences and facilitate real-world connections for students. She also voices her concerns about AI’s impact on human connection, emphasizing the risk of AI replacing genuine interpersonal relationships. (Full transcript included)

What do the massive Education Department layoffs look like? See for yourself.
K-12 Dive – March 25, 2025
K-12 Dive obtained an organizational chart from the Education Department detailing the offices impacted by the March 11 layoffs, as well as a list of about 970 union employees out of 1,300 employees who were let go, which offices they had been employed in and their positions. While the list of employees isn’t comprehensive, it gives a general idea of where cuts were concentrated — and what that might mean for education in the long run. Based on those documents, here are eight visuals to help understand Trump’s multi-phased gutting of the Education Department and its widespread impact:

Cognitive dissonance: how to advise students who are set in their choices
Times Higher Eduation – March 31, 2025
“I want to study engineering.” The student’s last semester grades are in front of us. His mathematics grade is a 2 (a D). Three months pass. Peter and I sit with his new grades in front of us. His mathematics grade is still a D. “I’ll do better in the finals,” he says. “… I really want to do engineering,” I ask him the motivation behind this desire. I show him the past three semesters’ worth of mathematics grades. I provide him with the details of a university engineering curriculum. He is undeterred. Why do some students choose to ignore the evidence in front of them, no matter how incontrovertible? And what can we as counsellors do about it? Here are some possible ways in which we can support students through the process of resolving these conflicts.

Schools must share child gender identity info with parents, Education Department says
Chalkbeat – March 28, 2025
Schools cannot withhold documents that discuss a child’s gender identity from parents, the U.S. Department of Education said in a Dear Colleague letter to educators. The letter said many school districts have formal or informal policies of treating “gender plans” as something other than educational records so that they do not have to share them with parents. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said some schools, by using students’ preferred names and pronouns and generally respecting their new gender identity, have set children and teenagers on a path toward medical transitions that they later regret. Sarah McDaniel, president of the Portland, Maine, chapter of PFLAG, said it’s not true that schools are encouraging children to become transgender behind their parents’ backs. Any policy on parental notification has to prioritize students’ safety, she said. “Parents who are unsupportive can be extremely unsupportive, to the point that they kick their kid out of the house,” said McDaniel. “A high schooler who is scared to tell their parents what their pronoun is, they know their parental situation and they should not be forcefully outed.” Dear Colleague letters are not equivalent to federal law or regulations, but do represent a presidential administration’s interpretation of the law. State policies vary, and in cases where parents have sued their school district, alleging that officials withheld critical information about their child, the courts have generally sided with the school districts, or the situation has been more complicated than initially presented.

Colleges have to be more honest with themselves, university president argues
CBS News – April 1, 2025
Since taking office just 10 weeks ago, President Trump has moved quickly to put financial pressure on America’s top colleges and universities. Greg Weiner, president of Assumption University, joins “The Daily Report” to discuss his New York Times op-ed “Colleges Have to be Much More Honest with Themselves.”

What Parents Should Know About the College Admissions Timeline
U.S. News & World Report – March 27, 2025
Navigating college admissions deadlines can overwhelm high school students. However, by understanding the admissions timeline and key milestones, parents can provide critical insight and guidance. Experts say staying informed and offering encouragement are the best ways to help your child stay on the path to college acceptance. Here’s a helpful timeline and some tips for doing that.

Teens are losing their minds over college rejections — we need to give them some perspective
New York Post – April 1, 2025
College admissions decisions are pushing kids off the deep end. Of the 1.2 million kids who applied to college this year, many of them won’t get into their dream school, which will be a huge gut-punch from admissions officers they will never meet, analyzing factors beyond their control. As results come out, we have to remind them of something that seems far less obvious when you’re seventeen: the college you go to does not define you, even if 76% of high schoolers say that the college admissions process is a life-defining event. For the sake of youth mental health, we have to instill in young people that life is worth living, even at your backup school. It might not feel true when you’re a senior in high school, but you absolutely are so much more than the school you go to.

‘Moving in the right direction’: The push by wealthy institutions to enroll more low-income students
Higher Ed Dive – March 28, 2025
Wealthy colleges have long faced criticism for catering to high-income students while under-enrolling low-income ones. But recent research from the Brookings Institution shows that wealthy private colleges have indeed made progress in enrolling low-income students at higher rates. Test scores at wealthy colleges also remained stable over time, for both Pell-receiving students and their wealthier peers, suggesting the institutions had not lowered their admissions standards.

Is College Worth It In 2025? It Depends On How Much You Spend
The College Investor – April 1, 2025
Is college worth it? The answer depends on how much you spend. That’s it. If you spend too much on college, it’s not worth it because your lifetime earnings will never recoup the cost you spent so early in life. The impact of a degree can outpace the pain of loan debt on future financial well-being as long as the amount is minimized…or be a poor use of your money if your career earnings are less than if you’d used that college money a different way. Here’s how to dive in and see if college is likely to be a sound investment for you.

Is the FAFSA Poised for Another Fiasco?
Inside Higher Ed – March 27, 2025
Last year the financial aid world was thrown into chaos after a newly overhauled FAFSA launched with glaring technical errors and user issues. Now, government officials and financial aid professionals say the current administration’s mass layoffs and spending cuts at the Education Department are threatening to cause a repeat. The current secretary of education is assuring higher ed that they have avoided cuts to the team that works directly on the form, headed by a newly created FAFSA program executive director. However, financial aid officers say that deep cuts at the Office of Federal Student Aid, which oversees the FAFSA, could undermine its capacity to fix technical issues as they arise, field questions from families still wary from last year’s botched rollout and manage the third-party contractors responsible for much of the form’s functionality—all issues that plagued the department last cycle.

As Millions Of Boomers Retire, Here’s How To Rethink Skilled Trades As A Path To Job Security
Forbes – April 1, 2025
If you’re a college graduate looking for a job, would you consider a career in the construction trades? What about an electrician or another skilled trade? The answer, if you have a four-year degree, is probably (definitely) no. These jobs don’t have the same status or prestigious pay associated with traditional white-collar jobs. But as 76 million baby boomers are set to retire, creating mass job vacancies in critical industries such as health care, construction, retail, and food service, we should all be concerned about who will fill them. In fact, our economic well-being and quality of life depend on it. So how do we get Millennials and Gen Z to consider jobs they wouldn’t normally pursue?

Gen Z is facing a career apocalypse
AOL News – March 31, 2025
Roughly 2 million students are set to graduate this spring into an exceptionally shaky job market. Things were already looking tough for the class of 2025, given the steep hiring slump in industries like tech, finance, and consulting. But now, as DOGE takes a chainsaw to the government, many college seniors are in panic mode. Some have seen their offers at federal agencies rescinded; others have received no word on jobs they applied to months ago. It’s not just government positions, it’s also jobs at a host of businesses, nonprofits, and universities that rely on federal funding and contracts. And going to graduate school — the traditional backup plan — may not even be an option, if the Department of Education winds up being unable to deliver financial aid in a timely fashion.