We’re starting to wrap up Senior Season at Collegewise (all of our students finish their applications before the holiday break). This is also the time of year when our counselors receive nice expressions of thanks (cards, flowers, candy, etc.) from the families they’ve been working with. And every time it happens, it completely lifts the spirit of the counselor who receives it. It fills our emotional tanks to know that the work we did was appreciated. And it reminds us why we got into this gig in the first place. Yes, we’re doing a job that they’ve paid us to do. But that doesn’t make the appreciation any less meaningful for us.

Seniors, if you take the time to thank your high school counselor, your teachers who wrote your recs, and anyone else who invested time and energy into helping you with college applications, you should know how much it will mean to them if you take the time to give them a sincere thank-you. It doesn’t have to be a gift—a thoughtful note is all it takes (my mom taught high school English for 30 years and keeps a shoe box with the thank-you notes she received from kids over the years).

Parents, this is an area of the college process where you can and should insert yourself. Encourage your student to write thank-you notes. Help them with the verbiage if they don’t know what to say (here’s a past post with some advice if you need some help).

When you look past the anxiety and complexity of the college admissions process, what’s left are a lot of good people trying to help good kids get where they want to go. Recognize the humanity in play, and give some of it back with your thanks.