<p>We had been told that a "good" college counselor at a high school will pick up the phone and call a first choice college (including an Ivy) to explain context, special features, etc of an applicant. The counselor at our private high school says that the Ivies won't take any calls from H.S. counselors so he doesn't attempt to make any calls. Do you know whether the Ivy Admissions Offices take these calls? What are your experiences in this area?</p>
<p>At D1´s private school in the US, GCs (4-5 of them) would split out colleges they would speak with prior to the decision day. They would set up a conference call to go over all the applicants. It gives adcom a chance to ask GC about any specific applicant which is not clear from the application. This doesn´t happen at every school, but D1´s school had a long standing relationship with a lot of colleges. On the flip side, many of those adcoms also want to have a close relationship with some GCs in order to get some top students. As an example, a very well known college in TX wanted more students from the NE, their rep made a trip up north to meet with some GCs to ask them to encourage their students to apply there. Sometimes they will indicate that students from their school will get a special look.</p>
<p>D2 private school is outside of the US, the GC didn´t have as close of relationship with many of those adcoms. But whenever we asked her to make a call for D2, she always did. D2 was applying to a college where they offered a merit scholarship, but it was by invitation only. I asked the GC if she could call the college to see if D2 could be nominated. It took few weeks to get a reply, but the GC was willing to push until the adcom said yes.</p>
<p>If your private school GC is not willing to make a call, he/she is not doing the job.</p>
<p>I don’t believe that the college counselors at my son and daughter’s private high school routinely made calls to the colleges to discuss specific students. I do know that sometimes the colleges would call the counselors to discuss certain students, especially the more selective colleges, and that isn’t to say our counselors never initiated calls. It may have happened with some colleges where the counselor had a especially good relationship, but in general, the letters from the counselor were very detailed and probably said enough. The students from the HS always did very well in college admissions, so I’m assuming that the letters did the job.
I think that the relationship between the colleges and the counselors is a very special and carefully cultivated one, and there is probably an 'art" to it. At my kids school, I think that if a family were to request a call during the application season to promote their child, our counselor would worry about favoring some students over others.</p>
<p>What our counselors were very good at was helping the students put their best foot forward in the application process. They spent a lot of time with each student- as much as the students wanted, and sometimes more than they wanted. 
I do think our kids had an advantage because they attended this high school where a lot of time was devoted to the application process, but I don’t believe the counselors lobbied, unsolicited , for individual students on a regular basis. Frankly, I think the adcoms at the colleges really don’t have the time for it. The exception might be for deferred early decision students who are really interested in an admission letter during the regular round. I do think that the counselors would make a call in this case for a student that they felt was a good fit for the college.</p>
<p>I don´t think a GC would or should call up to lobby for one kid over another during, but if a college is not familiar with your high school, it would be beneficial for the GC to make contact with the adcom so they would know the school´s profile better.</p>