<p>I have not read this thread, but instead of spending money on a counselor, I would recommend reading this board thoroughly and enlisting the advice of some of the old timers, better, IMHO, than a paid counselor</p>
<p>For the first three children I used CC and my own research. Some of these fees quoted in the previous posts are ridiculous. For my last son I’m finding excellent help with school selection and organizing the applications for $99 at Equal App.</p>
<p>I think it all depends on the kid. </p>
<p>If you have a kid that is motivated, has good communications with parents and is willing to invest his time in his future, you really don’t have to spend the money for private conselors.</p>
<p>We spend $3000 for DD’s private conselor because she is the “I dunno!” type. DD is very personable and friendly with non-family members. But when wife and I try to communicate with her, she become very defensive and the words utter from her are no more than two to three and they are more negative than positive. She is a boarderline California ELC, not good enough to get ELC status, but better than all the other students in her class. </p>
<p>We were worried about the college application process for my DD if we have difficulties in communication with her. We need a third party to bounce our ideas to her and guide her to make the process on a timely manner. It turned out very well, the conselor discovered some of her passion which can never be used for DD’s ECs on the application and directed her to make the last minute adjustments. Whenever we don’t know what is my daughter’s application processing status, we can call her to find out. And even after my DD got on the waitlist, she kept up the pressure on my DD to appeal the waitlist until DD got accpted in a T10 school.</p>
<p>We are grateful to find a conselor who did an excellent job to get us over the hump.</p>
<p>I can’t believe this many students need outside help to do their applications. I asked a few people to proofread my essays and asked my parents for tax information but that was about it. Reminds me of something my english teacher said to us once when someone dropped off a flier advertising for a college application workshop, she said “Honestly, if you guys don’t have the common sense to figure out how to send in the application, you’re probably not ready for college”</p>