<p>My D's school (private, scholarship student, junior) hired a new college counselor last year who is reputed to be quite bad. In fact, admissions last year were not up to their usual level.
A private admissions counselor would be quite a stretch for us, budget-wise. I'm wondering if anyone here has used one and if you found it worthwhile. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>We used one for my D a few years back. We were very disappointed with what we got for our money. Thankfully, we “only” spent $800.00 and not more. Most of the information they utilize can be acquired by yourself. Her school’s IB GC, a couple of info sessions at the school, and Naviance would have been sufficient, in retrospect.</p>
<p>I would say it would depend on what type of student you had and whether they needed extra help getting into the colleges they wanted to attend. Also, I’ve been told certain private college counselors specialize - recruited athletes, etc</p>
<p>Save your money. Spend your time on CC and the library to learn what you need to know. Just be realistic about which colleges you pick and keep organized.</p>
<p>Idinct, recruited athlete–not! She’s a good student but not an incredible one; academics at her school are rigorous, though. She’s very good at languages–she’s taking AP French and AP Latin this year and has participated in summer programs in both languages–and she just started singing in a professional choir. She has her heart set on Dartmouth for ill-defined reasons (or at least, ill-articulated reasons), which is what prompted me to investigate getting her some extra help. jshain, any particularly helpful sources of info?</p>
<p>smythic,</p>
<p>Do the research yourself. buy books, search the internet, ask people. That is what we did. We didn’t know anything about the process but my son was a top student and we wanted to give him the best shot. We had family that used an admissions counselor. He walked the kid through the process but it cost over $3k. After all the reading and research, we knew almost as much as him. It work for us also due to the relationship with our son, which was good. The process was his, but I needed to know how to guide him.</p>
<p>Good Luck</p>
<p>Just be realistic about which colleges you pick and keep organized. </p>
<p>Good advice. Be realistic from both an academic and financial standpoint. For my son, we found it very helpful to use a one page Excel spreadsheet that had a list of his schools, ED/EA/RD deadlines, Comm App., # of Recs Req., Honors Deadlines, Mid-year Reports, and Interview Req’s (if needed)-- priortized by deadline date.</p>
<p>symthic, there are so many good books, websites & many people on here are so knowledgeable! Don’t waste your money! Save it, you will need it! </p>
<p>We have never used an admissions counselor & we found the Guidance Counselors to be not so well informed in our public school district. We did all the research on admissions, schools, financial aid & now probably we do know more than the HS Guidance Counselors.
Now our four kids send their friends to me for advice, LOL, which I take as a compliment.</p>
<p>Smythic, if she is interested in Dartmouth - go over to the Dartmouth forum and read everything, and I bet you will know more about the ins and outs of not only what it takes to be admitted but what the current students and parents think about the school! I can almost guarantee that you will know more than the GC (private or school associated) does! I will say that from experience (S1 used a private college counselor, S2 did not) if you are interested in a specific program or major that isn’t very common (like russian literature vs. american literature) A private counselor can really help develop a list. An interested, involved parent, with a little bit of time can do it too though. I think there is a misperception that these private counselors can “get a kid in” to schools that they wouldn’t be able to on their own. Remember it is your school counselor who writes their rec - you daughter would be better served investing time in getting to know them so that they can write something other than a boiler plate recommendation. Anything from a private counselors office is suspect in the eyes of an admissions office imho.</p>
<p>Our school had a transition in that position right at a critical time for D1 - she had a difference counselor her sophomore, then junior, then senior year. None of them were bad, but they didn’t know our kid or our school as well as we would have liked. So I did it myself. As stated above, read some books, use CC, make lots of campus visits (that is my addition, I think it is worth it IF you get beyond the tour and info session), get and stay very organized. My nephew also called me for advice last week, SLUMOM 
We were very happy with the result. D got into some reaches, and ended up attending a match school with good merit aid.</p>
<p>We did not hire a counselor because 1. too expensive 2. my daughter refused to be ‘packaged’.</p>
<p>She got into 8 schools including Northwestern and Berkeley and ended up choosing UCLA. Looking back, I think she might get into the ives if we used professional service. </p>
<p>However, I don’t think she will necessary be better off or happier going into a higher ranking school.</p>
<p>It’s a personal choice but it is very important that the student makes the decision whether to use a counselor or not. s/he has to be willing to cooperate…</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice! 3bysmom, you had the equivalent of an experimental group and a control group with your 2 sons–did you feel equally happy with the outcome of both application processes? Collegeproject, do private counselors ‘package’ you? I don’t know anything about the whole process and what it entails. Heading for Dartmouth forum now.</p>
<p>In addition to the advice above, one thing the professionals do is edit and help with essays. You should be able to read books to help with brainstorming and subject choice (for the student) and teachers and others for editing advice. To do this on your own you need to educate yourself so you can guide your student.</p>
<p>I think two factors might argue for a counselor. One would be if you do not have the time to master the topic yourself. Second would be the relationship you have with the D. If you do not have the time or interest, then hire the help. If your D will hear the message better if it comes from someone other than a parent, then hire that external credibility.</p>
<p>But if she is a junior, the time is now–she needs to be taking standardized tests right now. Poor scores on those will close a lot of doors that even the best counselor cannot reopen.</p>
<p>I second nyc1478’s advice (post #13) - that is a very important point!</p>
<p>S1 was applying to Ivy-level schools (and is attending) and S2 was applying to tier 2 schools - both were accepted at their first choice reaches. S1 who used the counselor ended up having a comprehensive list of schools that offered his area of interest (computer science) but he ended up - where he started - the school where he attended a summer program his sophomore year. Verrrrrry different kids. S2 has no idea what he is interested in studying so it became all about atmosphere and “feel” S3 is still a question mark. I think he will not have the stats of S1 but better grades than S2 so who knows?</p>
<p>After not wanting to accept help from me, she seems to have changed her mind, and I’m more than willing to plunge into the process. Maybe we’ll get some essay coaching next year when she’s applying, but from what all of you are saying so far, I feel like a private counselor is not a necessity, which is a relief!</p>
<p>Parents and students can do their own research. The void that private counselors could (but don’t usually) fill is to help students decided on a major.</p>
<p>smythic,</p>
<p>Yes, the counselor will ‘package’ the student. That’s what you pay for. Some charge extra for the essay…</p>
<h1>17: you have answered the question I would have asked.</h1>
<p>You can do most of what you would hire out if you have the interest and the time AND if your student will be accepting of your input.</p>
<p>Have fun!</p>