<p>Just looking for students to list their experience with private college counslors. How much help was it? Were there gurantees make any sense?
Post in the following format:</p>
<p>[Counslor]
[Fee Paid]
[Choices]
[Acceptance]
[Stats]</p>
<p>[Counselor] IvyWise counselor
[Fee Paid] None, it's pro bono work.
[Choices] I'm not sure what this means.
[Acceptance] We'll find out next year. I'm going to be applying through QuestBridge.</p>
<p>[Stats]</p>
<p>I won't get into everything, but here's a really concise version of my stats:</p>
<p>SAT: 2090
CR: 730, M: 650, W: 710</p>
<p>I'm involved in a lot of extracurriculars and have 3-4 leadership positions. I worked over the summer last year and am hoping to do research this year.</p>
<p>IvyWise doesn't make any guarantees. College counselors can't guarantee anything. My counselor has been very helpful with my essays for QuestBridge. However, she did NOT write them. I wrote them all by myself and provided constructive criticism.</p>
<p>I would never pay money for this because my family lives on SSI. That's why I applied as a pro bono client. You might find other counselors willing to take in a pro bono client under their wing as well.</p>
<p>[Choices] To List your college choices for which the counslor is suppose to help you
[Acceptance] If any from your choice list.</p>
<p>How the counslor is different from your regular school counslor? That what is EEK factor.</p>
<p>My choices are still tentative, but we built a college list today that I'm going to be researching for the next few weeks. I didn't want to go to a LAC, but she really helped me to get out of the 'no-LAC' mindset.</p>
<p>My top three choices are U of C, Princeton & Stanford. However, the latter are only going to be applied to through QuestBridge (sort of like ED), and it all depends if I become a finalist. These are tentative top choices, though.</p>
<p>The rest of the schools are really great: American University, Barnard, Wellesley, Tufts, Amherst, Oberlin, Lehigh, Dickinson, Macalester, UIUC. I'm going to be researching them, so I'm not sure if all of them will be included in my final list. There are of course other schools (UMich, Berkeley, UCLA) that I have also considered.</p>
<p>And I'm a junior, so I can't really fill out the acceptances part. Since my list is tentative, there isn't any guaranteed admission to any of the schools. However, my counselor is going to be helping me out with my college application come August.</p>
<p>Okay, the last question is very, very important, and I think it's the most important thing you could have ever asked. I go to a top public high school in Illinois, so my counselors are TOP notch. And by top notch, I mean top notch. One time, five kids from my school got into Harvard (they all had my counselor). There is nothing lacking in my counseling department at all!</p>
<p>So you might ask .. why do I need help from IvyWise? The answer is that I need a little more structure. My counselor, however successful he is with his students, is a real feel-good character who's really optimistic about everyone's chances to schools. I go to him mostly for personal reasons, family issues, etc. When we talk about college, he is really optimistic about my prospects. </p>
<p>Both of my counselors are amazing. My school counselor is great, but I wanted to have a little structure (for IvyWise, I have to do exercises to research colleges). Also, many of the school counselors don't really help out with choosing colleges. They help out with application process, scholarships, financial aid, etc, but they don't really help out in selecting the colleges you want to apply to, simply because they think that's personal choice.</p>
<p>By the way, if you have to pay money for college counseling -- DON'T. Look at your school counselors. They are trained individuals and cost nothing. I didn't have to pay anything, so that's why it's not an issue for me.</p>
<p>I know I haven't really given you all that much information, but by December of this year I'll probably have a better idea of how useful these people are! I can probably give you a full report on what they made me do, my results, etc. Sorry that I can't be more helpful now!</p>
<p>We used the Stats Evaluation on CC. The advice was good (especially the pointers on the rough draft of son's essay - none of us noticed that it inadvertantly left a wrong impression, but CC pointed it out). The reach/match/safety list turned out to be pretty accurate. The letter was very personalized, it was clear she looked at my son's stats and essay and didn't just throw a bunch of pre-written paragraphs together. We were pretty sure of where DS was applying but for $89 CC confirmed that we were on the right path. I'd recommend it.</p>
<p>murkywater -- although I do understand your reasoning, I hope you realize that the parents that are paying money for the IvyWise college counselor are allowing that same counselor to do his work pro bono for you? Essentially what you are saying is that what your IvyWise counselor is doing is not worth paying money for -- and that is not a very nice way to repay him for all the free work he is doing for you.</p>
<p>Lafaalum84, can you write out specific acceptances/rejections and statistics and such so that I can get a a better idea of whether or not I would actually find out anything new from the evaluations? (I mean, did they only predict the obvious acceptances accurately or were they actually successful in predicting chances for the more prestigious schools, etc.) Thanks.</p>
<p>hsmomstef, your response is very ignorant.</p>
<p>But I'll enlighten you, okay?</p>
<p>"although I do understand your reasoning, I hope you realize that the parents that are paying money for the IvyWise college counselor are allowing that same counselor to do his work pro bono for you? Essentially what you are saying is that what your IvyWise counselor is doing is not worth paying money for -- and that is not a very nice way to repay him for all the free work he is doing for you."</p>
<p>Yes, someone else's parents are paying for IvyWise to be working pro bono with me. And you know what? I don't care. My parents live on SSI. Someone else's parents make 200k a year. If they can pay, they can pay. I can't and honestly don't feel sad for those parents. If my parents could pay, they would. But they can't and I don't feel any worse that someone else's parents are essentially paying for me. I believe I'm a great student and if I want the extra help and it's being offered for free, I should get it. There's a wide disparity in incomes of families in this country. I didn't have a choice in my parents not being able to pay, and if some other kid's parents can shell out the money for me, that's great. That's how it is in college these days -- how do you think Harvard can offer free tuition for those people earning less than 60k? It's only fair that poor people should not have to turn down admission to some school just because they can't afford it. It's the same way here -- if help is being offered, I shouldn't have to turn it down simply because I can't pay. And to make up the cost difference, someone else can pay. I'm sure if I'm making 200k a year, I'm going to be paying big bucks for my child's education, knowing that someone else is being benefited. And you know, I won't be so selfish to think that poor kid doesn't deserve it.</p>
<p>I'm not saying it's not worth it. I'm simply saying that for many middle-class families, paying 28k a year is NOT reasonable, no matter how good the service is. I am keeping a clear conscience and not leading anyone on because I think parents in this modern day are too quick to spend their money on their children, often not realizing that it is out of their range. And no, I don't have to repay my counselor. That's why it's called 'pro bono' work. I don't mean to be some spoiled brat, because I am very grateful. However, I don't think I need to repay my counselor in any sort of way.</p>
<p>Please don't think of me as some ungrateful person. I am very grateful for their services. However, I don't feel bad that someone else's parents had to pay for me. Next time, please think about what you're saying.</p>
<p>murkywater -- I did think about what I was saying and I stand by it. Reread some of your posts. How do you think your IvyWise counselor would feel if he read it?</p>
<p>I am telling you that my perception of what you posted is that you feel that the service is not worth paying money for: "if you have to pay money for college counseling -- DON'T". Nowhere do you state that you don't feel that it is worth it for a middle class family to pay for or that students with excellent school counselors should not pay, you issue a blanket statement that college counseling services should not be paid for.</p>
<p>I understand that you are grateful -- but the language in your post does not convey that. </p>
<p>You are the one that needs to rethink what you are posting -- would you be comfortable printing off your posts and letting your college counselor read them?</p>
<p>hsmomstef, I am very grateful for my counselor. I truly am. She does amazing work and is helping me keep on top of things. I really enjoy working with her and so far it's been a great experience.</p>
<p>I thought it was well-known that most families in the U.S. are middle-class, and thus it makes sense to dissuade them from buying counseling services. The reason is that it will be a stretch for these families to pay and they shouldn't think they are at some disadvantage compared to the families that can afford these services.</p>
<p>Yes, I would feel comfortable. The reason is that we have both discussed my family's income and our inability to pay for the services. She already knows that I would never have reached out for help if it meant that my family had to pay 28k a year. And for most families, 28k a year is too much. College counselors attract students that will most probably already get into the college of their dreams. </p>
<p>I'm not saying that they're scamming people. I'm saying that it's unreasonable for most people, especially the middle-class, who shouldn't feel as if they are losing out.</p>
<p>I hope that gives you a clearer understanding on how I feel about this.</p>
<p>hsmomstef: The idea behind starting this thread was to know whether it is worth paying thousands of dollars to some unknown counslor for services that are not at par with the tutition.</p>
<p>So I'm greatful to murkywater for his statement that it is not worth the Money. It is not easy even for someone earning 200K to make a 30K payment for counsling. So if some one with an experience with a counslor can provide a valuable feedback that can help another parent to make a decision regarding whether to pay or not for such service then it will be a great thread.</p>
<p>Thanks ParentOfIvyHope :)</p>
<p>By the way, I'm a girl! Haha. I think it's better for middle-class families to save their money for college tuition. The money is better spent actually paying for college than trying to get in. </p>
<p>I know some schools don't have good guidance counselors and that some are really busy.. but I think that's why it's so important to develop a relationship with the counselor early on in the process. I began speaking with my counselor on a daily basis since sophomore year. </p>
<p>The best-case scenario would be meeting with a counselor in freshman year and developing a four year plan, perhaps colleges that interest the student so they can keep their grades up for those schools.</p>
<p>although i don't know the details of how much my parents paid for my college counselors, i can say that it was worth the money. in addition to my amazing dean at school (we have 9 deans for a class of less than 300), my outside of school counselors helped me to stay organized and were able to spend more time perfecting my essays. even though i got into a school ed, i had all of my apps finished and ready to go before i even found out the decision.</p>
<p>Recently I had asked a private college counslor to critic my child summer application essay to YESS.
The feedback was lousy without any concrete suggestions. My child school's english teacher was able to provide a much better feedback.</p>
<p>So do these private college counslors have any merit or is it just a waste of money.</p>
<p>My parents hired private for me (The college counselor at my brother's school) because the guidance at my school is awful. She was ok. Despite paying her a ton of money, I felt like her list of schools for me was pretty awful. She did suggest American U. which we hadnt thought of. I visited and liked it, but it wasnt for me. Overall, her school suggestions were bad, but she helped with my essay a ton. I felt like I did better research on CC, PrincetonReview, CollegeBoard, etc. I only met with her two or three times, but it was an okay experience.</p>