Hi, I’m a newbie to CC. Very glad to find this place, I can see there is a lot of valuable information here! However, despite all the info, II didn’t seem to find any relevant information on private college counselor so I guess I’ll post my question here.
My son is a sophomore in high school, we are in the process of hiring a college counselor to help with the admission process. Firstly, no, we don’t have money to burn, actually we are on a budget to get all the test prep done. Secondly, yes, I understand we don’t need to hire a private counselor but decided it will be beneficial for us to have one in our situation.
So back to my question, we live in Westchester county NY, through recommendations and web search, I have three agencies that I’m comparing.
If any of you has worked with or heard about any good consultants, I would really appreciate your input or suggestions. Thank you very much for reading my post!
Maybe someone can help with your question, but believe me… you can do it yourself with our (free :D) help. Maybe you want to just hire someone to review essays, for example – you may not need the whole package. You have a lot of time since he is a sophomore (good time to get started)!
To @intparent 's point, I know of someone who will work with students in a number of ways, from just a few tasks (school selection, essay review) or “soup to nuts”. She does a lot of work via Skype and other means. All to say that if you are not happy with the answers you get for your geography, you are not necessarily limited.
FWIW, DC went to a boarding school with great college counselors, and all of us (kid and parents ) felt like the wisdom, guidance, and investment in getting to know the student was invaluable to keeping the family peace and finding the right home for DC post HS. While you will get great info here at CC, I think there can be enormous value in working with someone who is really invested in finding the right fit for your kid. (Not necessarily admission at the most selective or prestigious college. )
OP is going with pricy/well known NY consultants who offer information, contacts, experience and a detail oriented approach so their case is diffrent. Some of our friends hired local discount consultants and felt they wasted their money. Both paid roughly $5-7k on consultants, $6-8k on college visits and about 3K for SAT prep. They were your average excellent kids without any hooks, both ended up where they could even if they didn’t have consultants guiding them.
I grew up in Westchester in the 70s and 80s. It has always been for me the center of the college admissions universe. I went to alum interviews in Bronxville and Scarsdale for the Ivies and Seven Sisters. Back then those schools and MIT and tippy top LACs took huge numbers of applicants from Westchester public(!) schools, not to mention all the privates. Now that doesn’t happen and I suppose college counselors are the norm for many families. It is similar to NoVA, I hear. Pick the one you and your S are most comfortable with, fit is important.
OP, I live near you. I do not think you should use those extremely expensive consultants, particularly if you don’t really have the money. I did use a private advisor here in Westchester, and I wish I could find the thread in which I wrote at length about my thoughts on the experience. It isn’t a bad idea, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I am strongly not in favor of spending that kind of money. You can spend MUCH less, or nothing.
If your goal is primarily to have someone help navigate the process, I most defintitely do not think the consultants you mentioned are worth the money. If the goal is, as I mentioned, Ivy or bust, you will be paying many thousands, but they won’t guarantee anything for a kid who doesn’t have a decent shot to begin with. Again, not worth the price tag. If the goal is merit, again, you do not need to spend that kind of money.
With a child in tenth grade, you have ample time to educate yourself. I did that. My D didn’t have any sessions with the private advisor until March of junior year, at which point we already had a reasonable list. I was probably better informed than a lot of people, and I had a particular reason for wanting the private advisor. My D is shy and quiet, her ECs were pretty ordinary, and I wanted someone who could help her present herself in her best light, both for interviews and on paper. The advisor also helped steer her to two very selective LACs she thought were a good fit for her. D was accepted to both and attends one of them. In our case, the advisor did turn out to be helpful in several ways, but I am still not sure it was totally worth what we paid, which ended up being under 2k. Still, it is substantial money. Be aware also that most private advisors have little knowledge of the financial side of things and do not help with that aspect of the process. I will pm you.
@Missss I think a lot depends on your kid (is he a self starter or does he require lots of nagging to get things done that might be better accomplished by a non-family member?), the counseling services that his HS offers, your financial situation, and the end goal both in terms of desired colleges and choice of major, if known at this time. Some more information about these factors would yield the most relevant advice.
From my perspective, I have to say that I learned nearly everything I needed to know here, to the point that I now informally advise other families. People here are experienced and helpful and the archived threads contain a wealth of information.
Good luck and you are smart to start thinking about this now.
Technology makes it easy to work with consultants all over the country. If you are concerned about budget, it makes sense to look outside NYC/Westchester. Those are some of the most expensive options within the country’s most expensive market.
I am very glad we took the plunge and hired a admissions coach. It turned a intimidating process into an opportunity for my son to really dig deep and figure out what he wanted and how to put his experiences on paper to show who he was and what he had to offer. I helped both of my daughters get into college, but they weren’t aiming for a highly competitive college, my son was. I’m not sure if we are allowed to put who we used but our coach was John Carroll, he was an admissions officer at Brown for many years, really great guy! He skillfully drew out of my son what he needed to do to have the best chances at his reach school. John is in California, we are in GA and we skyped for each meeting. I really think it was money well spent. his email is carrollllc@gmail.com My son only applied to 3 schools, so far he has acceptances and scholarships for Mercer & UGA, waiting to hear from Georgia Tech (that’s the reach). Best of luck to you!
Thank you everyone for taking time to give me the valuable info and advice! They are all very helpful! While I totally understand I don’t need to hire a consultant, I think having one will be beneficial because I am very paranoid, reading on all the information here makes me even more so! So the counselor is not just for my son, but also for myself to calm me down. LOL! And as @mamaedefamilia pointed out, my son needs a lot of nagging to get something done, and he has tons of resistance when the nagging comes from me!!! So to keep us both sane, I need that counselor! @Lindagaf your post about your experience with the counselor is a great read! I will check out all the names you mention here, will keep you posted. Thanks again!
“My D is shy and quiet, her ECs were pretty ordinary, and I wanted someone who could help her present herself in her best light, both for interviews and on paper.”
This is a pretty good description of my son, who is a sophomore in a very well regarded Westchester public school and I’ve been thinking that I will want to hire a consultant for much the same reasons. Between the info here and my research from other sources, I don’t feel like I need to pay someone thousands of dollars to help develop a school list, pick classes or deal with test prep. But I think outside expertise would be very useful for helping him write his best essays and figuring out how to present his EC’s. I wasn’t really going to start looking at consultants until next year, but as long as the topic has come up, I’ll ask now.
Would you mind sharing the name and contact info of the advisor you chose?
And, of course, I’m happy for any other suggestions of consultants I should look into who would do a good job on my son’s targeted needs without wanting to charge a fortune for advice he doesn’t need.
I haven’t worked with a counselors (although I sometimes wish we had!) but I did interview Michele Hernandez (Top Tier) for an article and was extremely impressed with her knowledge and approach.
@millie210 - For figuring out essays and ECs, I found this book really helpful: “How to Prepare a Standout College Application: Expert Advice that Takes You from LMO* (*Like Many Others) to Admit”
Mind you, my kid absolutely refused to read it, but I read most of it and it helped inform the discussion.
We didn’t use a counselor, but I had friends (outside the immediate process) as sounding boards, which helped immensely. I think counselors can be helpful if your kid for whatever reason isn’t going to listen to advice from his immediate circle (happens all the time). Mine was reasonably willing to accept basic guidance, so we muddled along without paid help. YMMV. But I wouldn’t pay top dollar, regardless.
I will add on @porcupine98 's behalf that her child attends a top 25 LAC. I also know parents in my area whose children attend three Ivy League schools, and MIT, none of whom used private advisors. A private college advisor can’t help your kid get into a school in which they aren’t already qualified to get into. I know that the Ivy Coach, for example, guarantees your child will get into one of their top three choices. I am 100% certain that they will not agree to take on your child if your child isn’t qualified to go to a tippy top college already, or is otherwise hooked.
I do think they can be very helpful though, particularly for the kid who needs (and responds) to motivation, for the parent looking to maximize merit aid, for the parent who really can’t handle the mountains of stuff that needs to be dealt with and doesn’t think their kid can handle it on their own, for the parent who didn’t attend college and needs extra help navigating the process, and many other reasons no doubt. Some people literally just hand their kids a college guide book and say “get started.” Others have kids who are super motivated and do the whole thing themselves. I suspect most parents are somewhere between those extremes.