My family didn’t hire a college counselor, but we did get an essay consultant. It’s hard to say how much she helped - I was admitted to 7 of the 20 schools I applied to, but my surprises (Rejected at USC, WLed at American) all came at schools where she didn’t have a hand in the essays. I was not admitted to any of my super reach schools, but I don’t really feel comfortable expecting her to somehow get me into a school with a <10% RD acceptance rate. In the end, I think we mostly hired her just to feel like we had made use of every resource at our disposal.
If you do hire one, start early, as they tend to get very busy, and know that you may not click with the first one you find. I did NOT click with my first essay consultant, but I felt extremely comfortable with my second consultant.
We did not use one for either my D or S. I felt we were able to learn a lot from the many free resources out there. The one thing I might have considered was someone to help with the essay. I do see the usefulness in having someone to bounce ideas with and read the essay. But then again it has to be someone who can help without taking over the student’s “voice”. In the end my kids had plenty of offers and made it into their top choice schools (Scripps and Harvey Mudd), so we did fine with the process on our own. I guess it all depends on how comfortable you are, what support system you have and if you can afford the extra expense.
I think the biggest advantages are in helping establish candidate schools, in establishing a summer schedule to get essays done, in discussing potential essay topics, and commenting/editing essays.
In general, the more selective the schools are that you are targeting, the more a consultant may be helpful. If you are applying to an average state flagship, it is unlikely to matter.
To identify target schools are important, but also to plan for the whole college application process from test prep to college visit. I met many parents with no clue at all in these things. I agree that a college admission adviser may help, but I also think it is the parent’s job too. At the end, the parents need to decide which school is affordable. There are plenty of resources in the library about college admission. I started reading those when my D1 starting sophomore in high school. Now I am reading more recent editions of those books again as my D2 is finishing freshmen year. Hiring a counselor for the few months in submitting college application would not give you much help.
I talked to a parent recently. Her son is self-motivated and hard working. He took many AP classes and self-study more. He is taking 6 AP exam this year as junior while he has already taken 4 the year before. He took several SAT2 already and has registered more for June. He decided not to take SAT but just focus on ACT which is fine. The problem is he only took the state mandated one in March and got his only ACT score last month with disappointing result. Now he is overwhelmed with AP exam and subject test preparations that he has no time to improve his ACT score until summer. So he will have to take the test again in Fall and hope for the best or he would not be able to apply to any EA/ED of the schools he wants to go. Strategic planning for junior year is very important and should be even more so for the few months in filling up applications.
We did not feel the need because I knew or thought I knew where I wanted to apply. However there are little details that if you are applying to top schools you need to know and do not. Even if your GC knows, she may not think to tell you. For example, Michigan and the UCs treat an A- the same as an A+. I did not apply to Cal because was from OOS. Might have if I had realized I had a 4.0. We also missed a lot of merit deadlines and the Cal deadline, who knew it was in November. Would have loved a list on September 1. However the consultant will package you. If you do not want to be packaged or put on a strict timeline and made to feel bad if things are not done way ahead of time (I got every application on the deadline, not a minute before. January 1 was a lot of fun.) People in November were telling me I was totally going to miss everything and would never get it done.
As part of packaging there are tricks in terms of choosing majors that I did not know about and messed up, again did not want to be packaged. I want to be an engineer. I have no real idea what type. I have a little experience in one area, so I picked that. One school I did not choose CS because it had an extra essay. Stupid I realize but I honestly did not think it mattered. Meanwhile if I had picked French as my major I might have gotten into MiT (they want non science, who knew). I would hope a consultant can give you little hints like that. Apply as a physics major instead of CS because Penn needs more physics majors (making it up) assuming you can change later (again no idea). List your minor interest as geology or South African politics instead of economics. Instead I think I unversally applied for the most difficult programs possible and ended up being wait listed. The irony is that I am not even sure that I am more interested in those. They just sounded good. This tells me either that things are random or if I had made some minor tweaks things could have gone very differently, perhaps a consultant could have helped or maybe not.
I do think having someone look over essays is important. Yale’s web site even encourages you to show it to people to get help with grammar. It also prevents you from writing that hackneyed losing team sports essay that you thought was great or the essay about breaking your toe when you were 8 made you want to be a doctor. Cornell in their session asks you not to write about that.
I think the problem for most parents is by the time they really learn, all of their kids have gone to college.
SaphireNY, It may make sense to choose schools on the basis of which might be more interested in accepting someone with your interests. The idea that you’d have gotten in to MIT had you stated you wanted to be a French major is absurd unless of course you want to major in French. And if so, MIT would have been looking for your ECs and your accomplishments to reflect your longstanding interest in …French. Anyone who molds their stated major to fit what they think would interest a school is not adopting a winning strategy. On the other hand, choosing schools where your interests may be viewed as particularly desirable make more sense. Often it will mean that you are applying to schools that lack a presence in the area you are interested in -few profs conducting research, fewer other students with similar interests, etc. Gaming the admissions process to get yourself into a school because it is listed high in prestige but lacks depth in the topic you are interested in studying seems no bargain to me.
@lostaccount please note what I said: “again did not want to be packaged.”
Also I do not speak French and have never taken a class so signing up for the major would not be realistic. Just an example. However, if a school needed French majors and had an engineering program you liked and you spoke french and enjoyed it, there is nothing wrong with possibly mentioning a double major or minor if that was a possible interest. However, you may not know about it unless a consultant with prior experience suggested it. I did not realize how important your major is to admissions. I assumed that everyone who applies to MIT or Yale with no hooks and the same stats and ECs has the same chance of getting in. Yes until you factor in majors. Institutional needs very much come into play. I had no idea.
I did not want to be packaged which is one of the reasons I did not want to hire someone.
It was suggested that I would have more success as a liberal arts major so apply that way and tranfer into engineering. I refused.
However, I also made careless mistakes that I would not have made if I had a professional guiding me. On balance it was fine. I would probably do in depth research into prospective majors way before doing an application.
“I did not want to be packaged which is one of the reasons I did not want to hire someone.”
I myself have never “packaged” anyone in the way I understand packaging – from my years in marketing. College applications and admissions considerations are far more individualized than that. I think any good counselor will simply bring out aspects of the student that are truly there and don’t need to be “packaged” but which the student is somewhat timid about, minimizes, etc. because he or she assumes the college won’t be interested. They’re not adults; that’s why they think the college won’t be interested. Alternatively, involved parents can coax that, but, as has been said by other parents here, the relationship, however close, does not always work for an endeavor like this, for a variety of reasons and depending on the people involved.
Those thinking one can apply as a liberal arts major and then change to engineering might well be disappointed. The other way around, probably very likely to be approved. Schools aren’t blind…they can often see right through that ploy.
The challenge is in finding a GOOD admissions counselor. It’s not like there’s some rating system for counselors. And just like hiring child care, the quality can range from basic babysitters to nannies who can fly with an umbrella.