One of the reasons that the Varsity Blues scandal was so appalling is that there are legal alternatives like this. Although I thought the going rate was much higher… or perhaps that depends on the student.
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The industry average (IECA survey) is $175 per hour, last I saw.
This only works if the English teachers understand what the common app essay is (and isn’t). It’s not a typical 5 paragraph narrative essay, which throws some English teachers for a loop.
Some high schools have AOs meet with
English teachers each year and teach them what AOs are looking for in the various essays. Some of the schools that do that also have the AOs speak/run an instructional session on college essays for juniors during their English class in spring. These initiatives are brilliant, IMO.
One example. I had a student with average academics (college prep classes, no rigor) who wrote a very good common app essay. 650 words (common app essay max), every word was there for a reason.
Turned it in to English teacher in fall of senior year. English teacher made edits… adding an intro and conclusion…110 additional words, and not recommending any of the original words be removed.
Well, that was obviously unhelpful and ended up causing the student (anxiety issues, maybe on the spectrum) a good deal of unnecessary stress. In the end the student’s common app essay incorporated none of the English teacher’s suggested edits. And that was the correct choice.
I have a few friends with kids at BS - most did not hire private college counselors. The one who did regretted it because they felt she added very little to the process. In hindsight my friend told me they hired a private CC due to covid-related panic over the competitiveness of the college application process - they let fear get the better of them. At the end of the day their child ended up at a great school (not their preferred Ivy but a great T30 school) which was on the list before the private counselor entered the picture (which was when this child was a senior).
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Was this at a boarding school?
Boarding schools are extremely invested in excellent college placement; I just cannot imagine one allowing a clueless teacher to mess things up. They have been doing this a VERY long time, and know their school and how it, and their students, fare with various colleges better than any outside counselor.
As others have mentioned, kids are expected to have their essays done over the summer. As I recall, my sons may have worked with their college counselors on them over the summer. Certainly my athletic recruit son worked closely with his college advisor that summer as we dealt with pre-reads, offers, comparing schools etc.
In other words, good boarding schools’ college advisors function just like private advisors . . . Which is why I maintain private counselors are unnecessary. Parents have pretty much nothing to do with the nuts and bolts of the application – there is no reminding kids of deadlines, revising essays etc.
If it makes someone feel better to hire an outside counselor there’s no harm. But understand there’s very little benefit as well.
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What I’d like to add to this conversation is that it’s important for you to understand what the school CC will and won’t do and how best to work with them.
Few have too big a load – at out school ir was about 25 students- , and it was easy to meet at school. Most BS students are pretty responsible about deadlines by junior year, but the CC can help keep those in focus. They generally want parental input and they will be responsive to you but probably won’t tolerate the level of communication a private CC might.
They won’t write essays for the kids. They won’t visit schools with them. They won’t provide test prep. They will understand where kids like yours have thrived - and been unhappy (because they have to support subsequent transfer applications as well.) They will understand how AOs perceive your BS and where your kid stacks up against classmayes.They understand how to “package” and what a good essay is.
You should definitely make sure you know how they would like you to interact with you. Phone calls, email, etc and how quickly you should expect a response. We were very fortunate with our CC and loved working with her. But you should also know what the process is if you feel like your CC isn’t a great fit. Most schools are willing to work with you to get a good relationship.
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To be honest, unless the BS was aware of the private counselor and open to coordinating or at least communicating with the private counselor, I would actually be worried that there would be a chance that there could be contradictions between the recommendations of the adults at the school (college adviser, teachers, supplementary recommenders) and the narrative that the private counselor recommends that the child craft or build for themselves in their essays. My impression is that school counselors try to incorporate the sort of knowledge that they glean from talking to other people in the community (the students’ teachers, dorm parents, academic advisor, deans, coaches, and even other students) in their school letter. And that the letter is designed to help reinforce themes and add additional context to the classroom teacher’s letters (which I think the school can see but I imagine that like the student, a private counselor cannot see those recs)
My D24’s college advisor was one of the dorm parents last year in her 10th grade dorm. Another person in that office has coached her winter sport every year. So the advisors in the college office know her well. Similarly, in the spring of 11th grade, when I met with my D22 and her school college advisor, I noticed that the advisor asked her a question like how would your friends describe you? Or maybe it was something more like who do you hang out with at school and why do you like hanging out with them? My guess is that the questions were mostly to prod my daughter to think about herself and they were meant to be a very early way of brainstorming essay topics. However, I would not be shocked if some of the lovely things that she said about her friends ended up contributing to those friends’ school letters the next fall.
I am not saying that outside advisors can’t be helpful as well, but I can imagine that the outside counselor could unknowingly be at odds with what the college office is doing or could inadvertently steer a student away from the cohesive story that the college office is trying to craft.
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I was referring to the size of a donation to encourage admissions.
I knew an idiot back in college whose parents had made a 7 figure donation to smooth his way into an ivy league school.
I knew of a senior citizen who wanted to go to graduate school at a Big Ten school who got the president to advocate for her admission by donating 5 figures, but that was over 25 years ago.
Perfectly legal to donate chunks of money. School still doesn’t have to accept you, but it does buy you access to big donor events…
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All our Jrs take the same English class. Regardless, it’s more an exercise in self reflection. The point is not to come out with a Common App Essay, but the CC will ask for it to be shared and discuss how a student might run with that idea. D22 used one of these two essays with the idea remaining intact. The work during the summer was bringing it down to 650 words from its original 1500+.
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I could have added this above. All the English teachers know the end goal and are able to offer good suggestions, several times through the process.
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Seems like outside college counselors may only be useful if the student’s interests change enough between 8th and 11th/12th grade that the colleges that the boarding school college counselors are familiar with are not good fits for the student, while the college counselors are not very familiar with those colleges which could be good fits for the student. Or if the student/parent choice of boarding school did not take this type of thing into account.
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There’s a “more is better” mindset behind some of this, which is misguided. Too many students are already caught between parents and advising offices that aren’t aligned, usually because the parents think that a boarding school education should be a ticket to the Ivy League for their 3.5 GPA kid. (Don’t get me wrong, 3.5 is a fine GPA, but that kid is unlikely to be in the top percentiles of the class, especially in these days of grade inflation, and don’t get me started on “Ivy-or-bust” expectations.)
So then there’s a new “expert” added to the mix, and that brings yet another voice. At the risk of introducing a “proof by example” logical fallacy to this conversation, I do know at least one student whose parents brought in an independent consultant and ended up with disappointing results as they tried to triangulate all the conflicting advice. It was like watching a slow-moving train wreck. Frankly, it was on the parents, who shopped for a counselor who would confirm their views against the prudent advice of the boarding school’s college advising staff.
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I disagree even with this. Boarding school college counselors are not familiar only with a small slice of schools. How would a kid’s interests change so they are beyond counselors’ experience? Even if they go from acting to astrophysics, I’d expect the counselors to be familiar with the schools in consideration.
In all cases – BS college advising or private counselors – the students/families do have to do some work. They need to visit schools, and figure out what type of school they are interested in (the BS counselor will make suggestions, but it’s up to the student to decide what type of school they want).
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Didn’t @ChoatieMom describe exactly this happening with her kid’s college and career intent (although he did not use an outside college counselor)?
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Well, ChoatieCpt is truly one of a kind. And he’s likely an example of a truly unique situation, not the typical “my kid is totally special” comments that one sees. Nor would his situation been aided by using the outside counselors generally discussed on the site.
So yes, the Choate CC’s, like all school CC’s may only be adept at 99.7% of situations, not 100%
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In general, I agree with your points. However, I do think that there are some universities and programs that are less familiar to the college advisors at my kids’ schools. In my conversation with D24’s advisor, they didn’t know much about HBCUs beyond a handful of well known names like Spelman and Howard. They seemed to know quite a bit about colleges all over the country (as well Canada and the UK) but not many of the historically black colleges in the US.
Also, I don’t think that the office knew as much about applying to certain types of pre professional programs, or example, nursing or (ironically) teacher education. Their knowledge is more about colleges primarily focused on the liberal arts or engineering or even conservatories and art schools.
All of that said, I am guessing that the vast majority of BS families who hire private counselors are also focused on the child studying liberal arts or engineering.
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I completely concur. My daughter landed at a top school on an amazing team—and she did all the legwork of communicating with the coaches herself. Her academics were strong enough to make her a candidate at any Ivy. Meanwhile, the recruitment consultant was sending her schools that were barely a step above community college. I can usually smell a rat, but I was totally duped and wasted several hundred dollars.
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My kid went to a Quaker school, so one wouldn’t expect a lot of familiarity with service academies, but he too had a classmate who attended one. They figured it out!
They were, not surprisingly, quite familiar with HBCUs.
People have different viewpoints here about working with an independent college counselor if attending boarding school. And that’s more than fine. I want to point out that the article posted on this thread yesterday from The Exonian (at Exeter) states that there are 9 college counselors for a class of 318, which roughly comes to 35 seniors for each counselor. This relates to my post earlier on this thread when I was explaining that ONE reason someone might choose to use an independent college counselor is that even the fabulous counselors at a boarding school often have a case load that is higher than some independent consultants will take. For example, I limit my senior cohort to 12 students, and I offer unlimited comprehensive help…no limit to the amount of time spent per student, nor to the umpteen tasks, topics, drafts, etc. There is no way that someone advising 35 students could offer the same amount of time or number of tasks, drafts, etc. as someone who is helping just 12 students. So, this is one reason some feel a need to use a private counselor who will offer unlimited time and help on every little step along the way, even if also meeting with their truly excellent prep school counselor.
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Yes, except that the BS CC already knows how the kids stack up against their classmates and how the school and their schedule is presented to colleges, that they can suggest teachers who can write a great rec, and they know how students from this BS have fared in past. They also can work with students on campus in person at any point where it fits in the student’s schedule so can handle more students in their schedule without conflict. They also have the other BS counselors as instant resources.
I agree that your ratio is excellent. But some of what you have to do to do your job well requires a learning curve for each applicant that a school CC won’t have.
You have made a good case, though, for why a private CC is expensive. For one very qualified person to make a living from 12 clients doesn’t allow for many discounts in pricing.
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