<p>A friend of mine is looking for a private GC for her D. I've directed her to CC but she is still confused about the college process and feels her D needs more one on one guidance. Her D's GC at her school advise my friend to find one now that she is entering the 8th grade. They are considering highly selective schools.</p>
<p>So, what criteria does one use to select a private GC? Do they have any kind of training or certification?</p>
<p>If your child really wants to go to those schools then he or she should have the drive to figure things out on their own. Private guidance counselors are stupid; the college process is pretty straightforward once you do research and read books. Private gc’s are for spoiled kids whose parents pamper them at every moment. Become an adult and figure things out; no one is going to be there when you have more difficult tasks at your job.</p>
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<p>I think your friend is putting the cart before the horse. Since your friend’s D is entering 8th grade, what she should be doing now is focusing on the high school process, all students at her middle school automatically go one to the same high school. </p>
<p>If the high school process is one of choice where students must apply to high schools including specialized high schools using the SHSAT, audition or present portfolios, etc. then this is where her focus should be at this time. She should be checking out high schools and if possible requesting copies of the school profile. She should be concerned with high school graduation rates, what percentage of students attend 4 year colleges, the colleges that they attend.</p>
<p>Does she know what courses are being offered?<br>
Are there AP courses, Honors courses or does the school do IB?<br>
What is the average SAT/ACT scores for this high school?
Is there a dual enrollment program or some other mechanism where students can take college courses as high school students?</p>
<p>IMHO, I do not think that she needs a private GC to prep her for the college process at this time.</p>
<p>Sybbie, sorry, the student is in the 9th grade and attends an exclusive private school.</p>
<p>Exclusive private schools usually have very strong guidance departments that are heavily focused on highly selective schools. It sounds quite odd to me that a GC at such a school would recommend using a private counselor. In addition, there’s nothing a ninth grader can to do to prepare for the college process besides taking a challenging curriculum and trying out some EC’s for size. Hiring a private GC at this stage would be a foolish waste of money.</p>
<p>I agree with MommaJ.</p>
<p>Finding a good college counselor is like anything else, the best way is by word of mouth. I would take experience (track record), resource behind the counselor (does he/she have ex-adcoms in his/her organization), personality fit (both for the student and family) into consideration.</p>
<p>By working with a counselor in 9th grade, what the counselor will do is help with course selections, ECs, SAT/ACT testing schedules. Yes, your friend could get a lot of those information from CC, but if your friend is busy or want to take the stress out of nagging at her kid, a private counselor could be very helpful. It is important to find someone who the student could trust and get along with - kind of like working with a psychiatrist.</p>
<p>If your friend’s kid is going to an exclusive private school, she should be able to get a lot of guidance from her school, after all, they are getting paid a lot of money to do just that. My kids went to one of those schools (until last year), D1 received very good guidance, and we didn’t feel the need of getting a private counselor for her. D2 is finishing up high school at an unknown private school outside of US, we feel it is necessary to supplement lack of guidance from her current school. We obviously don’t know the outcome yet, but it has made it less stressful for us because it’s the counselor who is keeping D2 on schedule. If we had to do it again, we would hire a private counselor end of 11th grade to help D1 with the application and essays.</p>
<p>Your friend could look for someone outside of their immediate area, Skype and emails make it very feasible to work with someone long distance.</p>
<p>“So, what criteria does one use to select a private GC? Do they have any kind of training or certification?”</p>
<p>They do, but it isn’t that hard to get, and it doesn’t mean a lot. Ask your school’s college counselor to recommend somebody.</p>
<p>My kids were very successful in the college search process, but I did a ton of research. I called the recommended college counselor in my area twice, and he was booked way in advance and we never connected.</p>
<p>Based on that, I don’t think ninth grade is too early to be starting with a college counselor, with the qualification that the parent can do the same work.</p>
<p>It is ridiculous to think a student can manipulate all that is involved in applying to college (including applying for FA) without adult assistance.</p>
<p>College counselors that have high admission rates have them because they hand select the best students, also.</p>
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<p>In my experience an “exclusive private school” will have the guidance resources to help this student through the college process. Our friends with kids in private high schools say this is ONE thing that kept them there…the excellent guidance at the schools…and assistance both identifying schools for the student AND making sure the student took the best possible course load.</p>
<p>In addition to getting personal recommendations, I would ask about professional experience or educational credentials in high school counseling or college admissions. </p>
<p>You can also check to see if they are a member of one of several trade associations:
<p>I can’t believe you are all serious about this.</p>
<p>strat94- do your parents work with an accountant to do their taxes? When they want to buy/sell a house, do they work a realtor? What about financial planning, do your parents do it themselves, or do they work with a specialist? You are a senior this year, so did you get tutored for SAT/ACT? Do you have a good GC at your school? What about students who live outside of US and do not know all the ins and outs of college application? Students who have special interests, like performing arts, or special needs (like LD), wouldn’t they be better off in working with someone who is knowledgeable?</p>
<p>Surely you’re not suggesting that the college admissions process is remotely as complex as the federal tax code? </p>
<p>And as for the rest of the things on your list, they’re all things any reasonably intelligent adult could do for themselves, especially given the plethora of information available today. If someone wants to hire it out because they don’t have the time or the inclination, more power to them.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what I am saying.</p>
<p>I have my personal accountant and a company assigned accountant filing my taxes, but I am probably more knowledgeable than them, and I do often tell them what to do. I do believe college process is probably more complicated than federal tax code, you could itermized or you could do E-Z form, depending on what you are shooting for. I could do a lot of things myself and probably could do better than most of those professionals, but I don’t have enough time. But if you have the time and interest, then more power to you. Time is money.</p>
<p>Apparently your taxes are very simple, or else you have professional training in the tax code. Ever done any multiple-level partnership tax accounting (where one LP is the general partner in a second LP) and there are carried-forward losses that require analysis of basis, plus deferrals of revenue under special provisions of the tax code that apply only to certain industries?</p>
<p>^^^Is that post really necessary? I am really sorry your taxes are so complicated. I don’t do my own taxes because I am not allowed to, but I am sure it is not that complicated.</p>
<p>uhh… you’re the one who brought up taxes and implied that the same logic that requires the use of tax professionals also requires the use of college counselors, then followed that up by saying that the federal tax code and the college admissions process were equally complex. </p>
<p>So yes, it was necessary.</p>
<p>annasdad - I have no interest in doing one upmanship with you. You have chosen your life style, and how you wanted to bring up your kids. It is not for me, but you seem very happy (or at least that’s what you are saying over and over again), lets just leave it at that.</p>
<p>I think I have done fine for myself financially, not wealthy, but not complaining. I don’t feel it is necessary to make my finance so complicated in order to live well. I also pay my accountants to handle those complications.</p>
<p>It is very obvious that you have no interest or experience in hiring a private counselor, so I really don’t even know why you are on this thread. I generally don’t go on threads where I have nothing to contribute.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with my lifestyle or whether I choose to hire a private counselor. When I see nonsense, I call it nonsense. If that offends you, that’s your problem, not mine.</p>
<p>You made a statement that filing income tax is more complicated than applying to colleges. When I said they are both complicated, and some people may prefer to have professionals to guide them, you pulled out this complicated tax structure that is probably applicable to less than 1% of American tax payers. Really? That is is what I called nonsense and done for one upmanship.</p>
<p>College application could be complicated for some people who are looking for a particular major, size, location, special assistance, FA, decision to do ED/EA/SCEA… Or it could be very simple if one is just applying in-state and has above average stats.</p>
<p>You frequent 2012 thread. You see the kind of questions people ask. If college application was simple, that thread wouldn’t be 500+ pages long. You don’t see an internet forum for federal tax filing that’s as popular as CC, do you?</p>