<p>We live in NYC and my son goes to a huge public school with minimal access to guidance counselors. He's a junior and has specific interests, knows what courses to take etc., but we need some guidance in picking a strong list. Right now his list is all reaches - we need advice on schools that fit his interests where he has a stronger chance of acceptance. Can you hire someone who will look at your child's scores/grades/extracurrics, and provide suggestions? And if so, can anyone suggest anyone who might be good in NYC? Also, if anyone knows range of cost for this type of service, that would be great. Thanks so much.</p>
<p>You can hire someone… or you can do it yourself (that is what CC is for, and it is free!). There are a lot of people out here who have been through this and can provide that type of advice. Obviously some people don’t have the time or inclination for the do-it-yourself approach, though. If his list is reach-heavy, he probably picked them by name/prestige. At a minimum, get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and look through for other options. Look for matches and safeties given his test scores in particular, then do some visiting this summer. And run net price calculators available on the college websites yourself, since you are really the ones who have to pay the bill in the end. If I were you I would do those two things even if you hire a counselor.</p>
<p>One area a lot of families find counselors helpful with is essays. Kids can be reluctant to brainstorm and share essays for review with parents. When you get to that point…</p>
<p>If you hire someone in the New York area, you probably want someone who is a member of the NYSACAC (New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nysacac.org/”>http://www.nysacac.org/</a></p>
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<p>Even better, you can do this for free on CC and you have the benefit of dozens of collective brains rather than just one 
(there actually are people on here who do that for a living and graciously volunteer their time to help on here) </p>
<p>We definitely have a list of colleges that fit his interests but it’s that we’re having trouble weighting different pieces. For example, my son’s grades have significantly improved each year from freshman to junior year. Are the colleges just looking at overall average or does that fact that he’s improved make it more likely that they would weigh junior year more highly? Also, he plays a very unusual instrument quite well. Can that be a hook? Basically, I can look on Naviance and at college books (which I have), and see where he fits, but I don’t how to integrate these other pieces. That’s why I thought an outside eye might be helpful. </p>
<p>Many college consultants will give you an hourly rate, as well as a package. The hourly rate might work well for you since you are able to handle some of it yourself.<br>
You can go to the industry association websites and see if you can find someone in your area.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.iecaonline.com/”>http://www.iecaonline.com/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/Pages/default.aspx”>http://www.nacacnet.org/Pages/default.aspx</a></p>
<p>We hired one for my oldest. She came with good recommendations. She was also kind of expensive. The only good thing was a so-so set of advice after reading my son’s essays. As far as school suggestions, she was either telling us about schools we already were interested in or she was way off base (even though we were quite clear what my son’s objectives were). We got better advice from my son and I doing our own web searches. </p>
<p>When it was all said and done, the consultant was a waste of money. I have heard of others who had a lot better experience than we did. Seems like kind of hit or miss thing to me. </p>
<p>Since you have time at this point, do some of your own searches and then evaluate where you are at the beginning of the summer and again as his senior year is starting. Petersons is one place with a college search engine. There are many more.</p>
<p>Honestly, if you posted his stats, proposed majors, and current list of colleges out here, and any limitations on geography/cost/size, you would likely get some very good suggestions (and if the suggestions had flaws, someone would definitely point those out, too :D). You don’t have to tell us the instrument (although general idea would be helpful), but tell us what kind of participation he wants to have with music in college, which might help. Seriously… the collective knowledge on here is pretty amazing.</p>
<p>Actually, this is one of the best reasons to hire a private college counselors. I have heard that usually they will:
- Make sure that you have a timeline plotted out with testing: SATs, ACT, SAT2, APs, HS course selections
- Discuss financial issues with family
- Set up a list of reaches, targets, safety schools based on child’s desires and stats
- Discuss or review essays for Common Application
- Review Common Application before submission.</p>
<p>You can do it on an hourly rate. One friend had a college counselor for 4 hours to do the above. Don’t know the rate.
Yes, you can do it on with the info on cc. But it will definitely take more than 4 hours of education to do it yourself. Doing it yourself is kind of fun. Or you can hire a pro and spend your time doing other things.<br>
Another benefit is that sometimes there is less nagging/resistance between kid and parent when the kid is reporting to the private college counselor.</p>
<p>“Also, he plays a very unusual instrument quite well.” Definitely highlight this in his essay.</p>
<p>We decided to hire a college consultant for our son because it seemed like everything we said he wanted to argue about. I don’t think the consultant gave him any advice we couldn’t have given, but he didn’t argue with her. Over the past year when an issue, question or dilemma arose, rather than argue, I’ve been able to say, “You should ask Ms._____ about it” or “what did Ms. _____ say?” One of the first things she told him was that he needed to retake the SAT and recommended a tutor for his weakest section (he wouldn’t take a prep course.) He raised his score 90 points, which we believe has made a difference in his acceptances and even more so in his merit scholarships offers. The other important role she’s played is in reviewing his essays. He’s a large public high school and his guidance counselor simply doesn’t have time to assist students with essays. He’s gotten in to every where he applied. It was an excellent investment for us and saved us from lots of family conflict!</p>
<p>We also found the counselor to be very helpful for D2. We hired him after her sophomore year. He helped with her course selections, summer program, test scheduling, test prep, and more importantly with her essays. He put D2 on a schedule on when she needed to get her essays done. He was also very helpful with how to list D2’s ECs and awards on her common application. We paid for one inclusive rate. It wasn’t cheap, but was a small percentage relative to her college tuition. In comparison with D1’s college process (we didn’t hire a private counselor for D1), D2’s process was a lot painless. </p>
<p>I think it is better to hire a counselor before senior year to get most out of the relationship.</p>
<p>Another positive about hiring a counselor (or using your school counselor if they’re available and competent) is that your kid has more of the feeling that they are owning the process and making the decisions, instead of everything being filtered first through mom and dad. I’m not saying that mom and dad’s input has no place, just that sometimes the parents are "driving"the process, and I think that is a lost learning opportunity. </p>
<p>Check out the Ivy Coach-$995 an hour and they suggest the 20 hour package for just under 20k. Then if that isn’t enough you can get the “unlimited” package-price is by inquiry, lol and since they said the average student will use 80 hrs -do the math. The disturbing thing is that obviously people are paying these fees or they would not be in business. $995 an hour for someone to tell your kid when they should schedule the SATs? </p>
<p>NYC area tends to be more expensive than other parts of US. There is no reason not to work with someone outside of where you live. My kid did everything via Skype and emails. We were living outside of US when she was going through the college application process. She had a tutor in NC, a tutor around Chicago and her counselor was in CA. I just made sure we had fast internet connection.</p>
<p>Theoretically an instate person would have more insight as to the local vagaries. Certainly how SUNY works, or how Regents scores might be looked at. I was happy to use CC as my college counselor, but I’m a cheapskate and the subject interests me. My kids were pretty amenable to listening to my advice as well.</p>
<p>As to some of your questions, such as the improving GPA. No one not even a private counselor is going to be able to answer that question in a definitive way. There are a handful of schools that say they don’t look at freshman grades at all. Stanford is one of them - I found it hard to believe that they wouldn’t notice my son took AP Comp Sci as a freshman, but maybe they didn’t. Most admissions officers will tell you the most important grades are from junior year and fall of senior year. They know some kids really mess up freshman year. My best advice is to figure the GPAs a number of different ways. Make sure you have a safety that will be safe for the worst possible GPA, but make sure you have reaches with the most optimistic interpretation and then see what happens. My youngest son had lopside scores (very high verbal, 100 points lower in math), improving grades, one area of weakness (Latin), and we had no idea what would happen. In the end he didn’t get into his most reachy choices (Harvard, Brown, Georgetown SFS - schools that kids with even a perfect transcript could get rejected from), but he did much better than we had dreamed otherwise, getting into Chicago, Vassar and Tufts as well as a safety. He set some high points for the Naviance scattergrams in terms of GPA!</p>
<p>Planner- those are crazy rates. $100-300 hourly is typical here. 3 to 5 k for a package.</p>
<p>You can certainly seek out better rates nationally, especially if you aren’t focused on local universities. You will pay more for this service in the NYC area. I’m based in Chicago, and I worked with a Larchmont family this year. Any counselor you consider should be willing to do an interview with you at no charge and give you an hours estimate. There are a lot of great people in the field, as well as some who aren’t worth what they charge. If you can get a referral from a family you trust, that’s a good place to begin. Personality fit matters, just as it does with colleges. You’ll know when you find someone who makes you feel that you are in good hands. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think there are some NY based peculiarities that someone local is likely to know more about (i.e. choosing among all the CUNY’s to find the best possible fit for your son as a Safety) and then a lot of other things that a good counselor outside the area will either know or do some research on. But if funds are tight, it’s not too hard for a parent to get up to speed quickly on most of this stuff.</p>
<p>I live in a very expensive area of the country, and a college counseling service has been operating here for a few years that, rumor has it, costs about $10,000 - they don’t do one-off meetings. I say “rumor has it” because they don’t disclose their rates unless they have “vetted” you (which I think means, have determined you are wealthy enough to afford them) and they seem to be charging different people different things. I just checked out the iecaonline.com list that someone referenced above and the counselors that run the service aren’t on it. Also, I recently learned that some advice they gave to a kid about starting a business turned out to be an illegal business in my state. (Without going into specifics, the basics are that they didn’t realize that you can’t run that particular type of business out of a home.) So I am amazed that people are paying this kind of money for non-accredited counselors who maybe aren’t giving the best advice. What could be the appeal? Since I don’t have $10,000 to spend, I guess I will never know!</p>
<p>The one college counselor in our area charges $795 for a comprehensive package…compared to the $995 per hour service previously mentioned. She is on all of the member lists that have been posted and has been in business 20+ years. Funny thing is I still think $795 is too much-I just can’t wrap my head around what she can do that I can’t do myself? </p>
<p>$995 per hour? NYC is certainly different that NC! However, even here in central, NC there’s a range of difference in costs and services. Some counselors have “packages.” We were quoted $3000 by one counselor who typically starts working with students during freshman year in HS and advises on classes and summer activities in addition to testing and applications. The counselor we are using charges $400 per quarter. We’re only working with her a year–pretty much the application process. Other students have worked with her for longer time periods. We had an family initial meeting last spring. My son has worked with her over the past year, mostly via email as he was submitting applications. We met with her again as a family in January to review FA forms and plan to meet to review/evaluate award letters. I think whether a counselor is worth the expense depends on your family circumstances. As I wrote in a previous post, our son wants to argue with any thing we say (surely, we’re not the only parents with this family dynamic.) So, for us, it’s $1600 very well spent. </p>