<p>Does anyone know good counselling institutes in Mumbai?</p>
<p>Counselling Institutes for what?</p>
<p>I think he/she means the external counselors who claim “They’ll get you into your top choice college”. Haha.</p>
<p>Just Google it. You’ll find a thousand searches and each with million testimonials.</p>
<p>In that case you can get enough counselling here on CC. I think most of it would be sound advice and the information quite reliable. </p>
<p>For starters, the trick is to start early. Read and educate yourself as much as you can. </p>
<p>Hand holding feels good but finding your own way, nothing to beat that. Of course you will need help and have loads of questions and doubt. All the information you want is out there, I mean the web and here as well. And at the end of the day it is your grades, your SATs, your ECs, your Essays.</p>
<p>Err, it’s he and I mean the education consultants who do all the work of submitting your applications, applying for student visas etc. I CAN indeed google but I’ve read that some of them turn out to be bogus. I certainly don’t mean ‘external counselors who claim “They’ll get you into your top choice college”’, so kindly shove that hubris of yours somewhere else.</p>
<p>I am sure there are many out there who would be offering this service. I think this question was asked here earlier too. I was not part of that discussion. So I do not know if they were able to find any help for this.</p>
<p>But I will tell you something and I mean well. Since you are here on this forum I take it you are smart and intelligent. And you are planning ahead and thinking the how and where of getting the process together. So you will be able to manage. Thinking of going out, start doing things on your own. It will help you immensely in your journey away from home.</p>
<p>If you have counsellor at school, then they will help you do the applications part. If not you can very easily do it. In fact if someone from your family, parents or elder sibling, can get involved, it wil be quite manageable.</p>
<p>The visa procedure is all on line. You apply online, you get an appoinment online, have to go submit your required documents in person a few days before the interview and finally go for interview in peson. The interview is very well organised, report 15 minutes early, go in at your appointed time window and max it takes 15 minutes flat.</p>
<p>And you can either collect the visa in person or have it delivered through courier. And as a student applying for F-1 visa, for the intrerview, you will be asked to go in unaccompanied by parents. The logic being if you are ready to leave home you are an adult and henceforth will be treated like one. And colleges will expect and treat you the same way.</p>
<p>@Extremistenigma - In essence it’s the same thing, educational consultants = external counselor.
I was just trying to be humorous, but I guess - I struck the wrong chord.</p>
<p>However, as anialways pointed out - you don’t NEED one. If you’re applying next year, you have a lot of time on your hand. Spend the summer reading on schools and the application process. You can always clear doubts by asking them on CC or better still, mailing the college itself. (Which might help you demonstrate “interest”).</p>
<p>Strictly speaking, a student must complete an app on his own. The job of an “education consultant” is just to give advice and ensure that you don’t mess up your application. However, you can do this better - if you’re on your own. If you’re looking at educational consultants to make your app look “more beautiful”, you may hurt yourself by not being yourself on the app.</p>
<p>As far as Visa applications go, that is an entirely different issue. Once you enroll in one of the colleges that you get accepted to, the college will send you a I-20 form and steps to obtain your visa. You need to get an appointment at the nearest US consulate and present certain documents/do an interview, etc. All this info is readily available on the US consulate website and/or on the International student pages of the college(s). You don’t need to fear any bureaucracy, because it is the “US” consulate :p</p>
<p>So, in my opinion - you don’t need a college consultant, if you can work out the application process on your own. If at the end of this summer, you feel that you couldn’t figure it out - then maybe look for a consultant.</p>
<p>And finally answering your question on a finding a “good consultant”. It would be best if you could ask any of your seniors, family members or acquaintances who have been through the process and used a counselor.</p>
<p>All I can think of (and I don’t live in Mumbai) is edwiseinternational and educationusa. The latter is sponsored by the US Dept of State and is probably the best option.</p>
<p>Eduabroad (Pratibha Jain) is very knowledgeable about the courses / colleges.</p>