<p>What do you think of businesses like the Ivy Coach and Ivywise? Should kids be coached to get into college?</p>
<p>I don’t think it is unethical per se to see if a counselor can figure out how to best couch one’s story etc. (unless the coach ends up writing the essay etc. in which case it is unethical) but IMO these college coaches are generally not worth the money. </p>
<p>I think that it would be nice if I could afford it. But in the end, I’m not sure it’s a necessity. I’m sure there are enough books and other resources that could advise you on how to get into college.</p>
<p>I think it’s on par with paying companies to write your essays for you. The level of ethics I gladly leave it up to you to determine. </p>
<p>You’ve stepped into a sorites paradox. Surely its ethical to get advice from your parents. And then from an aunt. And then from a neighbor. And then from a friend’s neighbor. And maybe you’ll bring some cookies to the friend’s neighbor.</p>
<p>You might pay a tutor for help with English homework. It wouldn’t be so very different to pay the tutor a few bucks extra to look over a college application essay.</p>
<p>I think you’d have a hard time drawing a clear line between ethical and not ethical.</p>
<p>Some say kids are like pancakes, the first one or two provide you the experience to get the second or third one right. I have learned so much during my first child’s process, and know some specific things I would do differently. I am currently following a thread of a student starting to look for scholarships, all of whose deadlines have passed. His fortunes, and my DC’s, may have been better had a college coach been hired.</p>
<p>Our local public school has, I think, 5 counselors for 2,000 students. 500 are seniors and all 2,000 need classes adjusted, have issues with other students, teachers, parents, coaches, etc. And the counselors (and students) get sick, get pregnant, etc. If the student needs cajoling or probing to be understood, or neglects to fill out Naviance the first time s/he is asked, s/he is going to fall through the cracks.</p>
<p>Prep schools have experienced and in some cases well-connected college counselors with much smaller advising groups and can take the time to really know each individual student.</p>
<p>What if you could hire just that portion of the prep school experience? What if you could hire a private college counselor/coach for a fraction of private school tuition? Is the information available (if you have the time) on College Confidential more ethical because it is free?</p>
<p>A corollary question to what the OP posts is “Do you think sending students to college preparatory schools is unethical?”</p>
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<p>It’s not that difficult - it lies at the point where they stop advising you and start doing it for you.</p>
<p>@ItsJustSchool You make great points!</p>
<p>I personally chose NOT to get a college counselor–even though I could afford it.
For me, I feel college counselors really don’t do much other than “help” you write your essay (and I use the word help very loosely because my friends that do have college counselors definitely get a bit more than just help and advice).I felt that I didn’t really need that much guidance because my school has such an amazing guidance counselor staff and we have a college person.
I feel that there are circumstances where college counselors are a bit unethical, especially when they just write the essays for the kids. But then again, with so many SAT tutors, academic tutors, and whatnot this isn’t that much different…I just think they are a bit of a waste of money considering CC really gave me more raw/real advice than I could have ever wanted.</p>
<p>We get help along the way for various things for most of our lives. We seek out others for advice when we become parents for reassurance that our kids are on the right developmental track and to navigate daycare and preschool. We network to find appropriate ECs when they’re young, to get them the best schools or the best teachers in the school we have, and to find coaches and tutors if they need extra help so they can be successful at those ECs and classes. I think it’s a natural progression to get assistance to navigate college admissions. MrMom62 is correct that advice is different than doing the work for you. We expect college career service offices to help our kids polish their resumes and package themselves so they can get a job, and we don’t raise an eyebrow when adult career service centers provide those same services to the adults of our community. It’s true that some things are only available if you have the money to pay for them, but that doesn’t necessarily make them unethical. Unaffordable for my wallet? Yes. Unethical? No.</p>