Thanks to you both. Correct me if I’m wrong: if a student takes both, but does significantly better on one, he/she can choose to only send the higher respective score to his/her college choices (?).
@intparent, your kids must be geniuses. A 35 ACT is simply amazing.
It depends on the school. A few tippy top schools want all scores. Most let you just send the scores from the dates you want to send. But the option to send just the ones you want costs more. Get your credit card ready in general — between standardized testing fees, cost to send scores to schools, CSS profile costs, and application fees, it adds up!
@USCWolverine Only one of my kids had high scores, the other had decent but not terrific ones. And the one with high scores is very absentminded about day to day things and fairly disorganized. 
I have posted this before on another thread, even though you can learn a lot on these lists there is something to be said for not being your childs college counselor. Having an independent voice providing advise will avoid a lot of unnecessary arguments and tensions with your child. I am not saying you can’t do it yourself, but having a plan that supplements what is provided through school (especially if you are in a large public school where each child might only meet with a counselor once a year) can help the with your sanity. We started in 10th grade, but if I had to do it over I probably would have started in 9th. It doesn’t mean it is at the same intensity it is just a way to prepare for what is to come.
As an example, when my daughter started her first day in high school I emphasized to her that the school counselors told us that it was important for students to find a clubs or two to be part of. She was already involved in activities outside of school but not at school so I didn’t push her. She didn’t join any clubs because she didn’t like the kids, the clubs were too big, they weren’t doing anything interesting, etc… When we engaged a counselor in 10th grade she had to articulate to the counselor what clubs she was in at her school. The next week she joined two that she had an interest in and followed through and has enjoyed them and will have three years and leadership positions in those clubs and the best part is that it was something I didn’t have harp on. It wasn’t anything I didn’t know, but it helped our relationship that it came from a “professional”.
@19parent I second that. We recently met with a private counselor for D20 and having the counselor review my D’s entire high school transcript to date and recommend a 4th year of Spanish and a few more rigorous courses such as AP Physics and/or AP Calculus BC instead of AB was enlightening. The counselor also plotted out critical ECs that would fit into D’s “resume” and “personal narrative” when applying to selective colleges. Having D hear this advice from someone other than her parents was extremely important.
With all do respect, the vast majority of cc posters do not work with dozens and dozens of actual high school kids every year applying to colleges, do norm know the outcomes, and were not on a top college admission committee for 3 years as was our private counselor. This insight is invaluable when applying to very selective colleges. These counselors know your kid a lot better than anonymous posters on a website, no matter how educated the posters think they are about the admission process.
I think for certain students, especially ones with inadequate HS counselors, having access to a good private counselor can make the difference of going to your college of choice vs being shut out. Put another way, at least you will know that you did everything in your power to get accepted to your best “fit” school.
Many parents will spend north of 150k on college expenses, isn’t spending a few hundred dollars a few times a year worth getting professional advice on the college admission process? For example, when colleges like UCLA have 113,000 applicants, having a private counselor on your side can help you develop a succesful roadmap. Just my 2 cents.
As an anecdote from Texas, i didn’t see good students with college consultants getting better acceptances then ones who did it on their own. Ones who had an edge were private school students and urban school students. Competitive suburban public school students were at disadvantage.
Neither did i see any difference for National Merit between students who did PSAT prep by themselves or ones who paid thousands to prep centers, good students made it regardless of if they had help or not and ones who wern’t at that level, couldn’t make it even after spending every free minute at prep centers from 7-12 grades.
I think I have posted about this before, but we used a college consultant for both of our girls. In both cases she was extremely helpful in navigating them through high school and suggesting summer opportunities that would further their goals in the stem fields. Additionally, when it was time to write the essays she helped them “think” about different ways to approach the various prompts using experiences from their high school and growing up years, that, quite honestly, I never would have thought would be good essay topics. Both girls got into several top 20 schools with my first girl picking the school that offered a full ride. BTW neither of them were National Merit finalists, had any national recognition for science/math contests, or were URM. So for our family it was worth it and is definitely something to be considered.
@cheetahgirl121 Just out of curiosity, were they recruited athletes or from private schools?
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread. I’m not sure why this thread got revived, but I am closing. If a user has a new question, they can open a new thread.