Hey guys
My mom wants me to get a college counselor but all the consultation services are so expensive and I’m not entirely sure how useful it would be. Can anyone share experiences with counselors or offer advice whether it’s worth it to get someone or not?
Thank you very much
My son’s BS has CCs who start working with the students during their junior year. His has been terrific – suggested several schools he wouldn’t have considered, read through all his essays, and has managed his parents really well too. She was also helpful in providing guidance on issues like “should we travel 1000 miles to visit this school?” and
“how should we respond to this coach?” DS really wanted to do this on his own, without involvement by his parents, and the CC made that possible (without getting the parents too freaked out.) I read an early draft of his common app essay, and nothing since. He was deferred by his ED1 school, and within 30 minutes of getting the news, he was e-mailing the CC. For our family, the benefit was that the CC knew the landscape and could be a sounding board for DS. This took a lot of the stress out of the process because rather than arguing over how to deal with something, we could defer to her.
A friend whose school didn’t have people dedicated to this (i.e., just guidance counselors) used one and said the only thing they wished they’d done differently was engage her earlier. Another friend used one after she’d ended up at the wrong school and wanted to transfer. The CC got it completely right – she wasn’t even considering that school and now she’s finishing up her PhD there.
I think that if you one for counsel about what YOU want (rather than advice about how to groom yourself into what a school wants – beware of that type!), a CC have be worth his/her weight in gold.
Thanks @gardenstategal for the great advice, especially that last bit about a CC who will counsel me about what I want
Be wary of counselors who charge a lot and often recommend the same schools to full pay students.
For example I know of a “top” college counselor whose goal is to get kids into a top 20 school. She pushes a particular school noted for a very low Pell grant rate.