<p>Need help:</p>
<p>My daughter will apply college in fall. I do not know lots of imformation about college and her writing for assay need help too.</p>
<p>I want to use college counseling Service, do you think it will be helpful? Can you share some idea?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>There are some GREAT college counseling services and then there are some not so great ones. I will share my thoughts and experiences on this with you.</p>
<p>When my first child went to college in 2000, I did not use a college counselor. I felt, quite frankly, that it would be a waste of money. With that said, my son went to an incredible high school, with amazing support from his guidance counselor and teachers with regard to essays and their thoughts on what might be of interest to him. With that said, I also went to Borders or Barnes and Noble, and read EVERYTHING about colleges with regard to stats, admission factors, size, location, etc. My son was not proactive at all with this (I thought maybe it was the fact that he was a boy, but I think it just depends on their personality) I felt that I knew my son better than anyone. I also was very aware of his grades. I started by going through states that I thought he might be interested in going to and then read about each college in the state. Again, I looked at all books about colleges, and probably spent a small fortune on them. I came up with a large list and then my son and I edited it from there. I would suggest that you begin asap if you are going to do that route. Also, with both of my kids they began their essays over the summer (the schools generally post their applications in August, so you can see what questions they will have to do an essay on). In addition, we began a "resume" so to speak of so that we would have the info necessary for the apps. Will get back with more info later.</p>
<p>some questions:</p>
<p>Has your daughter taken SATs or ACT? SATIIs? How did she do?
Has she visited some colleges? What kind of schools is she interested in in terms of size, geographical location, type of student body?
Does she have a good GC at her school? has she met with the GC to come up with a list?
What kind of classes is she taking? She should approach the teachers of the classes where she is doing well for recommendations. She can do so toward the end of the school year, so that the teachers can write the recs over the summer or early in the fall.<br>
She should put together a resume, listing not only her courses, GPAs and scores, but also her extra-curricular activities, prizes and awards if she has had any, and give the resume to the teachers and GC. She can refine the resume as she goes along, does more ECs, get new grades.
She and you should put together a "brag sheet" highlighting some of the aspects of her personality that the teachers and GC can use to write the recs. This can be elaborating on some ECs, telling anecdotes that illuminate her personality, and so on.</p>
<p>There are books of advice on how to write essays you could consult. </p>
<p>Finally, some posters on CC are college counselors themselves. They may be able to give you more advice; but first, you should put together the info I suggested.</p>
<p>ThanKs Dear cece1955 and marite.</p>
<p>My daughter study in the best pulic high school in New Jersey, Her SAT is 2200 ( she will retake in June), PSAT is 230, math IIc is 800, biology is 760, she will take physics in June too ( she should get very high score), She is in top 5 in her school. She is playing two kind of music,and join the bands in or out school. She got some awards, .....</p>
<p>We only visit Princeton University and Columbia University becasue they are near us. </p>
<p>her school GC is nice but we can not expect them do lots of things for each student. That is the reason why I want to use college counselor.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>She has very high scores. Congratulations. Some colleges may want applicants to take SATIIs in different types of disciplines, so your D should perhaps consider taking a SATII in history or English.
Both Columbia and Princeton are very hard to get into (what people here call "crapshoot") so your D should consider less selective but still excellent colleges.
There are some colleges that should not be too far from where you live but give you an idea of size and location.
You should also consider whether you will need financial aid. This will have a major impact on which colleges to apply to. </p>
<p>Perhaps some of the CC college counselors will be willing to help you draw a list of reaches, matches and safeties after you have shared your D's desiderata with them. Good luck.</p>
<p>We used an outside counselor for my daughter mainly because I felt it was important for me to be as uninvolved as possible in the process. My daughter attends an "elite" private school with good college counselors, but she felt (and I tended to agree) that the school counselor may have been a bit negative about her chances given the numbers of excellent students at the school. My daughter does better with encouragement and support, and the outside counselor gave it to her without giving her false hopes or unrealistic expectations. In addition, I think she got excellent guidance on her essay, with no one rewriting any of it. Get good recommendations for someone in your area and, if you can afford, go for it.</p>
<p>suixzh, welcome! The college selection and application process is complicated and VERY confusing at first. The good news is that you have an accomplished and talented daughter who will be of interest to many colleges and universities.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In answer to your question, I'd suggest that you look at the college counseling services offered by College Confidential. We found them helpful and practical and they were easy to "talk" to by e-mail.</p></li>
<li><p>Whether you use a paid consultant or not, you still have to educate yourself on the process. Reading this board and asking questions is a good way to get information fast. You could also pick up a book on the subject to get an overview.</p></li>
<li><p>The most important issue to determine right at the beginning is financial aid. Do you need it? If yes, are you eligible for need based aid or will you have to get merit aid? If you don't know the difference, come back for more information. Your daughter can't begin to make a list unless you're clear on your financial situation.</p></li>
<li><p>General wisdom is to include colleges in different ranges of selectivity, commonly called reach/match/safety. Columbia and Princeton would be considered reaches for just about everyone, even students with strong profiles like your daughter. </p></li>
<li><p>Since there are so many choices out there, it's best to try to narrow in by characteristic. For example, does she want city/country/suburban? All women's or coed? Big/small/medium? Once she has some idea of what appeals to her she can expand to include reach/match/safety with similar personalities.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck and let us know how she does.</p>
<p>Your daughter's scores and extracurricular activities sound strong; she may not need a private guidance counselor (which can be very costly) to help her prepare the application if she has an English (or other writing) teacher who would go over her essays with her, to critique them and make suggestions for improvement as appropriate. As to SAT II tests, the Literature SAT II is one of the most difficult, and hard to prepare for (none of the preparation books is good; the best way to prepare is to read The Norton Anthology of Poetry and take the Official SAT tests); she may do better taking a language SAT II.</p>
<p>Hmmmmmm one would think this post would have generated more responses?</p>
<p>It's hard to give advice, because I think the answer to this is that it really depends.....depends on the kid, depends on his/her strengths and weaknesses, depends on the relationship between the kid and parent(s), depends on the time available to spend on helping the process along, etc. In our case, I can't imagine that a college counselor would have provided much additional value to the process for us, and I certainly couldn't see it being worth paying for. But, D is very motivated and has done all the various college-finder searches since freshman year in hs (software at school, as well as Princeton Review, College Board, about 4 years of USNWR books), and crate-fuls of college mailings. She had straight A's, tons of APs, a strong idea of what she wants to study in school (although planning for the possibility of changing her mind, so she doesn't want to box herself into someplace that doesn't offer options). And, I have a writing background, and don't work during the day, so for a while I've spent way more time on this process than most people would be able to. I've read everything I can get my hands/eyes on, lurked here on CC for awhile (and realized that I needed to use a "common sense" filter when reading all the posts). If I weren't confident in her motivation, or our ability to help her sort everything out, maybe a counselor would have been the way to go.</p>
<p>im a sped and i found the most amazing college counselor..my parents said we will use him b/c they know how much good info i got from him at a conference in november we will be meeting w/ him soon hes specialized for LD/ADHD kids...im just using him as an example u just have to search for the right counselor the right person for the right price im using him b/c college counseling services r non existant @ my school</p>
<p>I sent you a PM.</p>