@doschicos Yes - thankfully her school sends kids to art schools fairly often. In fact Chimneykid2’s first choice visited campus (and there are only 30 kids to a grade so maybe 5 artists a year? Great opportunity but she forgot to go to the session! :(( Hopefully they will be back next fall. However she will need to put her portfolio together over the summer and she’s a ceramicist so it’s been a little tougher to get info on programs and whatnot.
@chemmchimney You might get helpful advice and broader opinions in the fine arts forum on CC.
The BS counselors are not to be trusted. They are working on their own agenda not the students.
If you are looking at an outside consultant check that their experience is truly what you require. Are they an IECA member? Even if IECA check references. A lot of people are in the space currently and what makes a good consultant is not a name but their experience in what you require. Ditto high cost does not mean they are the best option. Positives of consultants are they are the heavy role with your child to get tasks completed and you can just be the parent. I agree with the comments that parents should not assume boarding school college counselors are all created equal. I have seen terrible counselors in schools that everyone wants to send their child and stellar ones in those hidden gems. I know of many who attempted to deter kids from applying to schools (competition for those they had in the slot) and fortunately, those kids applied and were accepted. Find out the last time your boarding school college counselor went on a college tour. You would be surprised how many have not in years - if at all. Ditto knowing the current criteria for schools. BS Students are competing against each for placement more than with other schools. There are only so many that colleges/universities accept from given schools. You will often see a cyclical trend of students from school x going to university y.
Just to add to the good advice already stated here, BS college guidance is strong, but a private college adviser can also be a big help.
A private counselor often will limit the number of full service clients per admission season so that the ratio of applicants per counselor is much lower than a school’s ratio of applicants per counselor. The private counselor can give much more attention and advocate for the applicant whereas a college guidance counselor at a school has many more students and less time per student so they do less advocating for each student.
Private counselors tend to be pricey so that is a consideration as well.
@Parentlurker: “You will often see a cyclical trend of students from school x going to university y.” So true!
We have a relative who is a College AO and he can predict, with startling accuracy, the school list of a student given one or two of the schools being applied to. How? Naviance. Some BS are so reliant on the tool that the result is pipelining kids. Because a lot of the information the kids get is historical, it focuses choices.
Kids at big schools working with second string CC’s even have a name for it: “Lowballing.” In other words, encouraging choices with a very high likelihood of acceptance. The recruited athletes, URM, and high achievers get the first team and aim higher.
A friend of mine paid $52,000. Not including SAT prep. They had a good result but he also went to an elite boarding school that has good results overall.
Yikes! That’s a ton of money. If anyone has worked with an outside college consultant, particularly one familiar with smaller LACS that have strong visual arts and creative writing programs ie schools that take portfolios, we are in the market and would appreciate a DM with their info if you are comfortable sharing. We can’t afford 50K though - I hope they are not all that pricey.
Reading this thread about parents who hire “private college counselors” on top of the presumably top-notch prep school college counselling they get reminds me of the current college scandal. Parents desperate to get their kids into the “right” school, kids sometimes not even caring. Parents, think before you blow your money on this. It isn’t the end of the world if your kids don’t get into what you think is a top school. And you can’t control everything, no matter how much money you have. Save yourself and your offspring a lot of aggravation and figure this out, please.
@WorkingMan Not every parent using a private counselor is obsessed with finding a name brand or “top school”. We are considering several schools with admit rates over 70% that many CC parents would thumb their noses at. For us, it isn’t about a name brand, it is about finding the right fit for a quirky kid who is at an unconventional BS pursuing uncommon interests that she wants to continue in college. While BS counselors are a wonderful luxury and we will happily be utilizing ours, sometimes another pair of eyes who has more experience with colleges outside of BU, and Brown can be helpful. If I cared about brand names that much, my daughter would have attended one for BS. She preferred and continues to follow a less conventional path. Sheesh.
@chemmchimney I hear you regarding a quirky kid with uncommon interests. But one thing I’ve learned in life is, there is no one as concerned about something as you are (or in this case, as your kids are). It is not that difficult to learn about various college options on your own and your daughter presumably is doing that too, with help from the boarding school guidance office. You don’t need an private college counselor to “follow a less conventional path”, you just lead your life and follow it as you see fit. I just don’t see what the value-add with a private counselor is, when you’re already getting good counselling at a prep school. If the issue is that you and your daughter are too busy to be bothered to search for college options … then maybe college is not what she wants to do, at least at this time in her life.
You can do this on your own. Visit the college, read the materials, talk to students or alumni. With a 70 percent acceptance rate, I doubt the college counselor will do anything incrementally helpful.
I think @chemmchimney is being unjustly judged and attacked for trying to find the best fit for her child. Hiring a consultant does not mean that she doesn’t have time for the process, nor that her child is not interested in college.