Black female teacher in face mask standing in science class with masked students

Pandemic Problems: Resources to Share With Students

The pandemic hasn't been easy on counselors or students. Here's a comprehensive list of resources to combat the struggles you and your students are facing.

It’s been a hard year for everyone—especially school counselors who are doing the hard work of trying to keep students engaged and focused on their goals while coping with remote learning, the pressures of the changing college search, mental health setbacks, and more. Our counselor community shared with us some of the things they’ve been struggling with most in trying to do right by their students, and we’ve taken those responses and curated some blogs and resources to share with your students that will hopefully help everyone.

The college search process

The college search process has drastically altered for students, and they’re feeling the loss of all the fun aspects that they’ve been looking forward to. Here are some resources to help keep them on track toward their goals and motivated toward college.

“It has been challenging keeping up with the changes this year and communicating to students and parents to keep everyone informed.”

For me, the hardest obstacle to overcome has been finding ways to encourage and continue to engage in conversations with seniors about where they are in their application or decision process.”

“One of the biggest hurdles this year was motivating students to envision their future, to look beyond online school toward their future and complete their applications without amplified procrastination.”

The other difficulty I’ve successfully conquered is getting all of my seniors to apply for post-secondary education programs, employment, gap year programs, or military service. It took many gentle email reminders and Zoom meetings to encourage them that they can and should apply and then they have until May to make a decision about what suits them best for next fall.”

“Without a doubt, the hardest thing I’ve had to do this year is altering so many elements of what I do, incorporating different timing, criteria, and more to allow for the stress and anxiety that teens are feeling this year and the fact that they struggled to connect with colleges and this process through Zoom.”

“The hardest thing has been trying to advise students what is in their best interest given all the new test-optional policies for this year.”

Adjusting to online learning

Many students have been learning remotely for months now, but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy or has gotten easier. Here’s some advice for students to get a little more comfortable with this unconventional format.

“Assisting students with adjusting to switching from in-person classes to online classes even though they’re on campus.”

“In particular, my special education students are suffering very much during this time of remote learning. They need a teacher or aide by them, helping them with their schoolwork. It is very frustrating for me.

Your students’ mental health

Mental health for students has been at an all-time low with stress and anxiety at an all-time high. These resources offer advice for getting into a routine, coping with hard emotions, de-escalating stress and anxiety, and more.

“One of the most difficult situations to overcome this year has been trying to help students with mental health needs in a virtual setting. We have been meeting with students in many ways, including phone calls, Zoom or Microsoft Teams meetings, parent conferences, and home visits.”

“Student depression and disengagement have been a big issue. They are on screens all day, and then to have to connect with me virtually seems like just one more chore. They are having a lot of trouble dreaming beyond their bedroom walls.”

“One of the hardest things this year is managing the anxiety of students and parents. Nobody likes uncertainty, and COVID-19 made this year the year of unknowns and speculation. A lot of counselors felt like they were also psychologists this year!”

Getting students to engage

One thing that’s loud and clear is that students are struggling to stay engaged and checking out instead of connecting with you and striving for their goals. These blogs and articles will help them with their focus in school. 

“My biggest challenge is keeping students engaged in their virtual learning platforms.”

“The hardest thing that I have had to work on this year is connecting with students. I do not have a caseload, so my interaction with students initiates in the virtual classroom. Students are not required to turn on their cameras, so I don't "see" anyone and I have no idea if they are there.”

Preparing for the first semester

While no counselor specifically requested this advice or expressed concern for what comes after the admission process, you can’t just send your students off unprepared for college life. Here’s some of our best pandemic advice for when students are on campus.

We’re in this together

We know there’s nothing that can magically solve all the problems we’ve faced, but know that everyone is truly in this together, and CollegeXpress is here to do whatever we can to make working with your students through the college search process a little easier. We hope you’ll take these words of wisdom from a fellow counselor with you into your efforts this year: 

“My parents, who sent 11 children to college, always modeled that there’s no such thing as a bad day as long as you learn from it. That said, is there such a thing as a bad year? When all is said and done, on a real plus side, America's college-bound students who survived the trials and tribulations of being educated during the 2020 pandemic will most likely matriculate at the next level with a greater capacity for resilience than those during the past decade.”

The CollegeXpress Team wishes everyone a better year ahead! And if you have any questions or ideas to share with other counselors, be sure to connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Heather McCarty

Heather McCarty

High School Class of 2020

CollegeXpress has helped me with the college application process. The tips and tricks for important essays were so helpful. I also gained useful knowledge about college life. Even though I’m fully online, CollegeXpress has helped me develop a sense of how college is in person. The experiences from college students that were featured on their Instagram page have shown the good, the bad, and the “secret” life on campus from a reliable perspective. Not to mention, they relieved my feelings of anxiety about the workload. I can now understand how it can be stressful, but it takes self-control and willpower to get assignments completed on time and with quality.

Melanie Kajy

Melanie Kajy

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school. I started off using the college search to find more information about the universities I was interested in. Just this tool alone gave me so much information about a particular school. It was my one-stop shop to learn about college. I was able to find information about college tuition, school rank, majors, and so much more that I can't list it all. The college search tool has helped me narrow down which college I want to attend, and it made a stressful process surprisingly not so stressful. I then moved to the scholarship search tool to find scholarships to apply for because I can't afford to pay for tuition myself. The search tool helped me find scholarships that I was eligible for. The tool gave me all the information I could ever need about a particular scholarship that was being offered. The CollegeXpress scholarship search tool is so much better than other tools offered, like the Chegg scholarship search. Thanks to CollegeXpress, I was able to apply to tons of scholarships in a relatively easy way!

Ida Akoto-Wiafe

Ida Akoto-Wiafe

High School Class of 2022

I wanted a school that wasn't too far away from home and could provide me with a full-ride scholarship. CollegeXpress helped me put into perspective the money I had to pay to attend those schools, which ultimately drove me to choose to attend a community college first to get used to being in college before transferring to the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, one of the colleges I was able to research further on CollegeXpress.

Keydi Banegas

Keydi Banegas

Scholarship for Students of Color Winner, Class of 2022

CollegeXpress is a great application that helped me search for many different scholarships, and it narrows the scholarships depending on how you set your profile. Not only that, but it helps you choose different colleges to apply to by finding matches through the description of your profile. It was the best experience for me.

Farrah Macci

Farrah Macci

High School Class of 2016

CollegeXpress has helped me in many ways. For one, online searches are more organized and refined by filtering scholarships through by my personal and academic interests. Due to this, it has made searching for colleges and scholarships significantly less stressful. As a student, life can already get stressful pretty quickly. For me, it’s been helpful to utilize CollegeXpress since it keeps all of my searches and likes together, so I don’t have to branch out on multiple websites just to explore scholarship options.

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