<p>I've noticed that a lot of students at my school have college counselors now, to give them advice through the admissions process and give them personal advice about their essays/transcripts/etc.</p>
<p>I'm currently a junior and I'd love to get some honest feedback on my applications. I do have a few highly selective reach schools on my list, so I'm wondering if it might be helpful. I've considered scheduling an appointment with a counselor, but their prices are pretty steep.</p>
<p>Do you think college counselors are useful, or not worth the money?</p>
<p>If you are fairly independent and can get some feedback for your essays, I don’t think a expensive college counselor is necessary. At this point, you have already decided your courses and assuming you have a summer program set and extracurriculars that have focus, there is nothing much you can do at this point. Personally I would order some admission/essay books at the bookstore and go by that. However if you are someone who needs to decide on which college and need a LOT of hand holding, then perhaps an independent counselor can help. But most of the advise you can get through the books/internet and of course, College confidential :)</p>
<p>Instead of hiring someone, I went to the library and checked out all the books about college admissions and financial aids in the last couple years. I read through at least a dozen or so books and also read tons of threads here. My neighbor pay a couple hundred dollars per session to a college counselor. His counselor actually need to ask me about some college application procedure related to the high school.
I wish I had read those books even a couple years earlier as something I could not change or help by the time I read it when my D was near the end of sophomore. Many parents became counselors after their first kid went to college. ;)</p>
<p>I found that if you do a lot of research (books, online, visiting schools), are honest with yourself about where your stats can get you into and what your family can afford, use your school guidance counselor if he/she is good, are organized about the process, and you get your favorite English teacher to go over the essay with you there is no need to pay a college counselor. A lot of these counselors just add to the frenzy that is the college application process. </p>
<p>At my school there’s only one college counselor there one day a week, and I don’t have an off hour when she’s there so it’s been impossible for me to catch her. </p>
<p>As far as books go, do any of you have any particular favorites that would work? I definitely love college confidential, but I’ll be sure to check out other resources, too.</p>
<p>We had an outside school college counselor and she was invaluable. She also cost just $40 per session. She had first hand knowledge of a lot of colleges plus kept in touch with all of her students and got feedback from them. She listened to what my daughter wanted and made suggestions as to how to prioritize the common app activities and awards section. We also needed merit money for her to be able to go to a private school and she provided the information we needed. The high school counselors at school were very helpful, but they did not give the individual recommendations that my daughter needed to do her own exploration.</p>
<p>I’d think that an independent college counselor would be most valuable if he or she really knows the colleges you’re interested in. Of course, it depends on what you feel you need most help with. </p>
<p>It really depends on how much you can cover on your own through reading and networking. My D and 2 other friends (3 families) ‘shared’ a counselor, saving $ over one-on-one meetings. That was a good solution for us, with group meetings up to a point, then individual meetings with the counselor as they got down to making decisions and writing essays. We did learn more than we’d known about regional colleges (which she probably would not have applied to). One of those ended up awarding her a substantial merit award. Would I do it all over again? To be honest, no. I think the information gleaned was available elsewhere and in our particular case the counselor didn’t really seem to personalize feedback on applications. </p>
<p>If your guidance counselor isn’t available/helpful then it may make sense to get a college counselor. I would suggest that you do a lot of work before the meeting to hold the costs down. Some books I like as a starting point are Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide. You can also look at the USNWR list of colleges (I don’t put a ton of stock in the rankings but it is a good list of schools) and see which ones may make sense for you.</p>
<p>If your HS GC is not helping you, try to find a trusted, knowledgeable adult who will. A private advisor is one way to go. If you have someone else who will fill that role for you, great. The system is not really designed for a 17-year-old with no help. Sure, there are kids who figure it out and navigate on their own. But it’s challenging, and you’re taking a risk that you will make some rookie mistakes applying the info in books to your own situation.</p>
<p>I served as a college counselor for my two children and to be honest it was a lot of work. Some kids do the research themselves. My kids are great high achieving students but they were not doing the work that was required to research schools and fine tune their applications. If I could have afforded a college counselor the second time around, I would have hired one! However, it is possible to do it yourself, especially if you have parents, a guidance counselor, or someone else that can help you. I serve a a free counselor for my co-workers now! As far as essays, I definitely recommend using a trusted high school English teacher to review essays. I paid an SAT tutor to review my kids essays and the free help they received from their English teachers was much better. </p>