My daughter and I are deciding to hire an outside private counselor, and she is currently in eleventh grade. We were wondering if anyone knew any outside college counselors who specialized in boarding school students. Thank you so much!
@Garandman might have an idea.
We had success using College Coach for 2 of our kids. At the time it was a benefit offered by my employer. They were extremely helpful in a multitude of ways- from developing a solid list, to packaging the application to reviewing their essays. The boarding school angle was not our primary issue, so not sure how much that plays into your decision.
For us, they worked with one kid who graduated a top BS, but got in no decent colleges, so took a gap year and needed to reapply almost immediately. He ended up getting into one of his top choices the following year. They also helped with our daughter who left BS after 10th grade and had some awful grades to anniversary as a result. Again, we were extremely happy with her colleges choices after working with them.
They also have an interesting informational podcast on admissions process- that we found helpful. Overall, they worked directly with my kids and helped them through the process. They were much more hands-on then either college counselor at BS or my daughters highly ranked LPS. Feel free to PM me with questions.
Sorry, I thought you wanted someone to help you get into BS!
My son attending boarding school, and we used several private people (in addition to the BS college counsellor). The most valuable was a writing expert. He was able to work with my son over several months to brainstorm, and helped edit and refine the essays. We used a separate counselor to review the common app, and help select schools.
The college counseling office at my son’s BS was quite strong, but we felt more comfortable getting outside opinions. Basically the advice from the private counselor and the BS counselor were similar.
PM me if you want specific names.
I’m really surprised that people aren’t trusting their BS college counselors and feel the need to seek advice and help elsewhere…
@CaliMex we have gone through 6 college application cycles in 6 years and nothing surprises us anymore. Even the best BS will share that they are college admissions offices, not college placement offices. This is an important difference. One is about the community, the other about the individual.
The school’s counselor has a completely different set of priorities than a private counselor. The BS counselor is paid by the school, and hence his/her job is to get as many kids into good schools as possible. The private counselor, on the other hand, has only one agenda: getting your kid into the best school possible.
This is not a subtle difference. What happens behind the scenes? Is there any horse-trading going on? Who knows, but I didn’t want to take the chance. There were several top notch students at my son’s BS who didn’t end up where they wanted to go. When you’re paying that kind of money, I’d rather spend a little extra and get some private advice on the side.
@sgopal2: You understand.
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I’d disagree. The goal of the college counselor is to get all their advisees into the best, and best matched, schools they can. The goal of a private counselor is to get all their clients into the best, and best matched, schools they can.
College counselors are no more conflicted in trying to get all their kids into great schools than are private counselors. It’s not as if your counselor has only one paying client.
The school’s counselors have a few advantages. They know the kid, and their reputation at the school. They understand the school’s culture from the inside and have in most cases seen your kid in action. (My child’s has travelled with her and seen a side of her many teachers had not.) They have the data on acceptances from your child’s school and they know which of the Naviance dots represent legacies, athletes, big donors, kids with disciplinary records, or other special cases. They know how kids from your school have fared at colleges. As the school’s official conduit for information they can assess the strength of teacher recommendations, helping to select the recs that should go out when fewer are required than have been written. If your kid’s at boarding school they’ll be able to meet with them in person during the school year whereas a private counselor may have to do meetings by FaceTime/Skype.
The private counselor has some advantages as well. While the school’s counselor may be new to college counseling, most private counselors have spent years in some sort of admissions before hanging out their own shingle. In many cases they’ve been at the other end of the process, as a college admissions rep. That kind of experience can be useful. A private counselor may have more time to devote to your child’s application process than a school counselor who also has teaching or coaching responsibilities. Your child may have more time to meet with someone in the summer than in the school year. Some private counselors have specialities. For instance our own @Hanna has a lot of experience working with kids with serious disciplinary issues. If my kid had a rocky record I’d want someone like her on my kid’s side. A private counselor may also be willing to be more hands on with your kid’s application and essays. That can be good or bad depending on whether they have a deft touch.
Not all private counselors are great. I’ve come across a few I would never trust with my child’s application. Others are wonderful and can be extremely helpful.
Maybe that says something? 
PIty the poor public school kid whose college counselor is stretched thin advising 10X as many kids as BS college counselors. This is CRAZY. Do we really think our kids will have a better future 20 years from now if we shell out big bucks to get them into more “prestigious” schools? I’ve now worked for several CEOs who did NOT attend big name schools. It is not a pre-requisite for success… But I digress … I’d encourage everyone to read the Frank Bruni book if they haven’t already… and take several big, deep, breaths 
We hired McMillan Education to help us find the best place for my daughter after she left a certain TSAO school. She is now in her second and final year at Tabor and very happy and successful. She’s also seen a number of her former classmates absolutely miserable because they didn’t get into an Ivy, or got into an Ivy and now feel “stressed out and unhappy.” So she was determined to cast a very wide net.
Tabor’s College counseling program is much more comprehensive and effective than Brand X*. We nonetheless further retained McMillan to help with her college selections and applications for a very simple reason.
Tabor and other boarding school college counselors are in touch over the summer. But their primary focus is during the school year when the kids are on campus.
McMillan “stayed on” her all summer, to plan testing, campus visits, and especially to get all the writing assignments written and edited before the school year started. This GREATLY reduced her stress level, and has allowed her to continue to evaluate her application choices this fall as well as kill her fall term courses. She will submit her second completed application this week, after reviews by both.
We see zero conflict between the two counselors: instead it’s symbiotic. They both know a lot, lot more about choosing the right schools than my wife and I do, so we are grateful for that. They’re both awesome people.
Our #2 is at Boston Latin School, a highly selective and highly regarded public exam school that gets more kids into Harvard than any TSAO schools. (BLS kids consider those Harvard applicants otherwise unremarkable). But like virtually all public schools, college counselors are buried deep. We hired McMillan during her 10th grade year [last spring] and they have been a big help in making curriculum choices, testing strategies, etc.
There are now many private counselors with highly variable levels of experience and connection: sometimes their experience is just their own kids and a few friends. But any such counselor can be expected to speak to your child at length about their goals and expectations, get them the right testing, and invest the appropriate level of effort in their applications, especially in the summer before Senior year. Those services are often much less expensive than you would expect, while augmenting and complementing the excellent resources at most independent schools.
- Parking kids in front of Naviance is not College Counseling.
Definitely agree with @garandman. Using both counsellors is better than relying on only one. The college admissions process is so opaque and variable, why not get more data points?
Just wanted to add a few thoughts to this conversation.
First of all, for the vast majority of BS kids, the CC at your school will be all you need. (In our case, it was more than we could have hoped for.) For prep schools, good and appropriate college placement is part of the “prep” for college they provide, and they hire very good professionals to do this. They will know – in most cases better than anyone from the outside – how a student who accomplished xyz at their school will do at the various targets. While they know how to “package” applicants, most are committed to making good fits. It is in their interest to have their graduates get to college and succeed wherever they are. Because they work at the school, they have the ability to talk to coaches, teachers, etc. to get a really good picture of who the student is and they often get good feedback from recent alums about their new schools and because they know both the recent grad and current applicant, there’s a good perspective/context for the info that’s shared.
With all that said, for a small number of BS students, there are good reasons to use an outside consultant. If you feel that your kid may have some baggage at the current school – maybe some disciplinary issues or simply is not well liked for some reason – getting someone with a little distance can help. If there are special needs for your college choice that you don’t want to share with the school’s CC – perhaps mental health support – or that you feel may be BIG factors for you and ones that the school CC may not be well versed in, someone who has this expertise can be a godsend. An outside CC often can make calls to contacts in various admissions offices to explore topics without it being traceable to an application, a luxury most school CC’s don’t necessarily share. If your search is less conventional (geographically, need for high level arts, etc.) than what the school normally handles, someone else might have great insights.
Many BS have policies about working with families on FA issues (not sure why this is – concern about liability for acting as a financial advisor?) which again, someone else could help with. Athletic recruits are often on a different timeline than the rest of the their class, and the BS may not want to assign a CC a year early. Students whose parents are major donors are often advised to ensure that they don’t do anything that will prohibit admissions from accepting them (which may mean following a path of less rigor to keep grades up – not an approach that most BS advise, but a strategic necessity for some), and an outside consultant can help make such a student look like what the college wants even if the school CC knows that what’s in the package may not be. And yes, at some schools, if getting the best placement for the class means that your kid will be persuaded to fall in love with Duke so that someone else can have that place at Stanford even though your kid’s heart is set on Stanford, the person who is working directly for you will probably do better.
The only caution here is in asking the private consultant how they work with the person from your school and ensuring that the situation doesn’t create conflict. Most private counselors have experience with this, and often a school CC will welcome the input of an outside consultant, especially when it’s to address something outside the school’s normal scope.
Anyone willing to give a wide range of the costs? Is it hourly? By student? By application. I think my sister paid $80/hour but it seemed like more of an essay editing/review service than a comprehensive plan.
I can definitely see value in having both. If the one at BS is someone you like and trust, then great. If it’s someone you are just one the fence about might be worth hiring someone else as well. ( If you don’t mind paying).
Also, anyone know folks who advise on athletic recruiting? Don’t think we’ll need it but just trying to see what is out there. I was surprised how early it starts.
We didn’t use one but y understanding based on what I’ve read is the better ones charge a flat comprehensive fee to help handle the process from start to finish.
I’ve known many athletes who handle the process fine between their family and the BS college counseling office. I assume that depends on the boarding school, though.
"Many BS have policies about working with families on FA issues (not sure why this is – concern about liability for acting as a financial advisor?) "
I’ve never heard this being an issue but again I’m sure it varies from school to school. We did not qualify for FA but I had the sense that my kids’ school did a good job helping families with this need. I know some of the college counselors have had experience going through the FA process with their own offspring.
We did not use one…but i will say that it is critical to start essays etc in the summer - and know where you are applying before school starts (can tweak but list should be mostly complete). Students are home in the summer, not at BS. And the precious family time is not worth arguments over essay progress; some may hire one to ensure the student makes progress before school starts. Because fall gets busy very quickly, especially if playing a fall sport (or other time consuming activity), and also if applying ED/EA and/or interviews are recommended.
Also: The university I attended has a team of college counselors to advise the children of alumni, faculty, and staff. The service is free, though limited to three hours per student. They won’t review essays but can serve as a sounding board or second opinion re: lists, decisions, etc…
Is anyone familiar with hiring portfolio review/college consultants? We have a 2020 student starting the college process who will be applying as a visual/studio arts major and it seems there is a lot to consider as schools want to do personal portfolio reviews as well as extra applications in many cases.
@chemmchimney At my kids’ school, the head of the fine arts department was an extremely helpful and knowledgeable resource. Have you checked out that option for information?