I had a bad experience with a college recruiter pretending to be an adviser a long time ago. I was wondering if this sort of thing still exists. Also, wondering about the college advising field in general. To explain things, I feel I have to tell a little bit of my story.
I am an old guy and this was back in 1975 I graduated high school. I was picked on in Junior High School, went to this public hippie school, which I liked at first but didn’t learn much. I couldn’t deal with that any more and went back to the regular high school. My mother talked to the guidance counselor, and came up with a schedule of the hardest classes to challenge me. I didn’t have the preparation for some of those courses, and wasn’t used to doing all the work, and failed 2 classes the first semester of my senior year.
My parents took me to a college adviser. He didn’t do anything about helping me with applications, what tests to take, where to apply to or anything. All he did was push certain liberal arts colleges in the midwest.
I didn’t get in anywhere I applied. I didn’t apply many places. Back then people didn’t apply to as many as now, but I didn’t apply to enough or at the right level. I didn’t handle it well, but didn’t have good advice from the guidance counselor, my parents or anyone. Obviously, the paid adviser who was really aq recruiter didn’t help the situation. I should have then applied somewhere else late, but didn’t. Back then, there was no Internet or College Confidential for help.
Anyway, my parents take me back to this college adviser. His name is Loren Pope in Washington, DC. He is retired now if alive. He got me into this college in western IL. Called Knox College. I didn’t want to go but my parents insisted. I didn’t like it at all. It wasn’t a good school, and I didn’t like the atmosphere and IL culture.
I found out there were like 30 people there he had gotten in. They would give him the biggest kickback for students, as there were IL instate scholarships. It is almost a state school, with 85% of the students from IL. They made more money from out of state students and would pay. This Loren Pope wrote a book “Colleges that Change Lives” pushing the schools that gave him payoffs.
After 1 1/3 years, I decided I could not take it anymore and didn’t go back to Knox College. I had pretty good grades and good test scores from high school. I thought I would transfer to a top school. I contacted Johns Hopkins. They had me fill out a preliminary applications, and they seemed real interested, particularly based on my SAT II s, 800 US History and 740 Math Level 2. They accepted me in mid year.
This was also not the best experience. Hopkins was very intense, a great school, and I got a lot out of it. However, it was a somewhat confusing environment for me. Also, half the students were premed and the atmosphere was cutthroat and overly into grades and career. I probably could have gotten in somewhere a little better and a better fit for me if my high school experience hadn’t been so messed up.
Anyway, are there college recruiters out there now pretending to be advisers like that guy? Has anyone else experienced this?
Also, I do SAT tutoring and have seen many Ivy tutoring services that also do college advising. These services are often expensive and geared toward a wealthy clientele, but seem to be legitimate and offer good services. My impression is that going to a good college advising firm or independent adviser would be very helpful. Does anyone have experience or opinions on those?