<p>Just keep Bush outta my Bush......that is my new thought for today. I am a Classical Studies major.........more obscure than philosophy but just as esoteric.</p>
<p>I am assuming you are speaking of independent college counselors since you said the families paid a fee, as opposed to college advisors at a prep or high school. I am an independent counselor and I can tell you that we do not contact admissions officers on behalf of students or identify students with whom we are working by name. This, in fact, can work against a student because admissions officers are not keen on paid independent counselors and often view them as a "necessary evil" or "parasite" and as being only available to the wealthy, and/or that they might help with essays or embellish ECs. In fact, it is the advisors associated with either prep schools or well known publics that have the ongoing rapport with adcoms/reps and wheel and deal (examples in The Gatekeepers). </p>
<p>An independent counselor cannot get a student into college and doesn't do what you are implying. An independent counselor can help students select appropriate colleges, assess their chances of admissions, guide the selection of essay topics, edit essays or other short answer responses, help students to highlight their strengths on an application, edit activity lists, prepare applicants for interviews, suggest how to solicit the best possible references and supplementary materials, encourage appropriate contact that the student should make with various people at the college, serve as an objective mediator when student and parents disagree, encourage students while also maintaining an honest and optimistic attitude, make suggestions for college visits, advise how to handle deferred or waitlist status, assist with choosing from college acceptances, and offer continuous support throughout the college admissions process for both the student and his/her parents. </p>
<p>Is that an advantage? Yes, for some kids, it really is. Does it get them into college? Not necessarily...because the student has to be able to get in.....but it is beneficial to have support and guidance from someone who is knowledgeable about colleges and the admissions process and that someone may very well be a parent! But for some families, for WHATEVER reason, they may wish to pay someone to either take on that role, or as having more expertise, or even it is hard for some to work with their own kids and they want an objective person involved. Many students and their parents find the college selection and application process overwhelming. A skilled college counselor can facilitate planning, exploring options, and careful preparation to meet the student's best interests. Some kids' guidance counselors may be assigned too many students, as well as many responsibilities other than college counseling and the family wants an advisor in this process who can devote undivided individualized attention. The counselor doesn't get the student into college in the way you are describing (through "connections"), but can help the student to achieve his/her goal of finding the best colleges for him/her and to achieve a successful admissions outcome. Some are willing to pay for that assistance and some do it on their own, and/or have parents like the ones we see on CC who help enormously in guiding their child in this process. </p>
<p>The only "connections" that I know of are either counselors at prep schools who have ongoing relationships with adcoms or families who are development cases or have inside connections of their own with colleges but not vis a vis an independent college counselor. Speaking for myself and my colleagues at CC, we aren't wheeling and dealing with adcoms and aren't connected with them. I have NO contact with adcoms for the record. Parents do pay me for my college counseling services, however. Hope that clarifies it a bit. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>um susan, lets just be honest here, u might not have contact, but trust me, I know one of these advisors that explicitly makes "some phone calls" and charges about 300 dollars an hour for his time. You have to be naeive to think that they don't do this, at least some of them.</p>
<p>So you know a private counselor and apparently don't like that person and who did they get into a school that you thought should have taken you?</p>
<p>um. if i gave u a random name, would u know him?</p>
<p>He actually turned down UPenn for MIT, but thats besides the pt, he actually amost went to Penn over Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, MIT, Duke, JHU, Gtown, Cornell...</p>
<p>as did many other folks.........so you are telling us he is underserving? Is that your argument? I can understand that but you could be more transparent on this.</p>
<p>undeserving - NO, but not enough to have gotten into all of those places he did, he HIT every place he applied to, he applied to 22 places, he only missed 1 or 2 of them, he even got into those places that heavily waitlist overqualified kids like Wash U. I am saying, that he had nothing on the surface that distinguished him from the rest.</p>
<p>Lots of substantive material isn't on the surface my friend........DNA is a beginnning.</p>
<p>So, this kid got into ten of the most selective schools in the country and his counselor had an "in" at all of these schools and due to that "connection", he coincidentally got into all ten....it worked at all ten schools....Hmmm.....I guess he wasn't qualified otherwise. This counselor sure is connected at a lot of places and all these adcoms were willing to bend a little to let him in and he would not have gotten in without the connection. The counselor is batting 100% on those connections! Now, if you told me the kid had 1200 SATs, a 3.5 GPA, no outstanding achievements outside the classroom, and then got in....well....</p>
<p>Can you spell development in another language? $$$$$$$$$
This all could fit.......maybe bball doesn't recognize the name or the Trust.</p>
<p>hazmat, no idiot would donate money to 22 places, he HIT 20 of them, the other were Y and P, he was waitlisted, i am not even kidding</p>
<p>he got an early to dartmouth as well</p>
<p>You don't get it.................the potential of $$$$$$$$$$$$.</p>
<p>bballs story keeps getting weaker. ED to Dartmouth and then to all the others. Ummmm, if he got into Dartmouth ED he would have had to have withdrawn all the other apps.</p>
<p>The was development often works is that they take you in hopes of the big gift, not because you already gave one.</p>
<p>Has anyone considered that maybe what this counselor did was very successfully package a highly qualified student? Happens everyday.</p>
<p>Yup getting the most bang for the effort.........lots of legacy to choose from and did a darn good job. The devil is in the details.</p>
<p>Suze, couldn't agree with you more! </p>
<p>Bball, trust me, most kids get in on their own merit with no connections. My kids did. If someone got in via "connections", they are in the minority. It likely happens once in a while but is not the norm. An underqualified kid is not going to have the right connections at 20 schools that overlook that and let him in. Did ya ever think that he was truly qualified??</p>
<p>You are trying to transfer, right? Brown is one of your hopes, right? Well, a girl from my rural rinky dink HS which barely sends anyone to any Ivy...once in a while, we might have one or two kids get in one each year....well, she transferred last year from U of Rochester to Brown. Trust me, she used no college advisor and is not rich. Her twin goes to Dartmouth. Happens all the time. </p>
<p>Soozie</p>
<p>I know families who use advisers 'cuz they want help with selections and essays, and don't want to struggle with their kids about procrastination. I've heard of one person who helped "package" the kid. When one family had younger children, the adviser suggested the young ones start with her in 9th or 10 th grade, to help select classes and ECs. (Ex--suggested a classs that plans and does community service rather than an academic AP class, even tho would lower GPA a smidge). I know this adviser knew local college representatives, probably helped coach kids on interview techniques, but I have no idea if ever called college admissions committees.</p>
<p>or you can send junior to boarding school and pay once........or twice. Families who use boarding schools also use private college counselors.........it is like Merry Maids or Catering..........presto chango..........Fat Envelope.</p>
<p>Only the development kids at my boarding school use outside advisors, you know, the ones who wouldn't otherwise be here and will be at an ivy for no good reason...</p>
<p>You are just a woman of the world.......</p>
<p>I can be very cynical, and could easily believe that a well connected highly paid counselor could call a dean of admissions and gain an acceptance for a client, but it makes no sense at all that a counselor would waste that much capital to gain 10 acceptances for a client. What happens when the 9 deans of admission call him back to ask what happened to that mediocre kid that they admitted, and now they have screwed up their yield stats and risk a federal investigation.... for what? </p>
<p>My view on the value of connections was tempered recently when I learned of a candidate from an extremely wealthy family who was not accepted ED at the ivy of his choice. I would have expected him to be an automatic admit!</p>