Should I get a college counselor?

Applying to College
1

Hi! Junior here! I absolutely know nothing about the college admission process (first generation eldest kid here lol) I know a lot of seniors who had a college counselor. These are tutors for your college apps, essentially. They helped plan and edit essays and overall guided the student through the process. This sounds great for me since I am terrified for the college app process, except hiring these tutors is EXTREMELY expensive.

So I wanted to hear from you guys. Those that have experience with these counselors, was it worth it? What did you find was most helpful? What do you look for in a good, actually helpful counselor? Did you find that it was helpful?

And those that didn’t hire these counselors, what did you do get advice and help with the process? Do you wish you had one? What are some of your struggles that you have advice about?

Thank you!

2

They can cost a few thousand dollars. I bet you get 75 percent of the advice they deliver right here on college confidential. And you can ask a friend in college or really good teacher to look over essays. But if the cost is ok. Why not.

3

We navigated the process on our own. You can gain a ton of useful info on this site. Hiring someone can be a crap shoot. If you have the money, I would definitely get recommendations from people you know. The couple of people I know who used them didn’t get great results.

4

Have you taken your SAT or ACT?

5

College counselors come in a lot of “flavors.” You have to be really judicious about it.

My D17’s junior year, one of the college counseling companies offered a free SAT practice test at our high school. The school counselors figured, why not? The people who gave the test collected students’ cellphone numbers, which they gave not realizing that it was going to be a marketing thing. Then they all got pressured to sign up for expensive counseling and test prep. I took one of these calls because my d, who hates to talk on the phone, gave them my cellphone # instead. The high-pressure person was flustered when she realized she was dealing with a very unimpressed parent. The school counselors didn’t let those folks come back the next year. Avoid “hard sell” people like the plague.

A lot of these folks make their careers on their record of schools they got students into. So, they are “packaging” students for the top-ranked name-brand schools for bragging rights, not because those schools are necessarily the best fit for the student. However, avoiding this type should be easy since you don’t have excessive money to spend!

Then there are people who do college counseling for a reasonable price, and who really want to help kids find the best and most affordable school for them. If you can find somebody like this in your community, that could be a help. It can be really nice to have somebody keeping you on track. Everybody has different strengths - some people are particularly good with essays; others are really good at organizing your search and helping you narrow down your choices. Figure out what you need the most, and how much you can realistically spend.

There may also be people who are willing to help you for free, both on this platform and in the real world. The trick is figuring out who is trustworthy and knowledgeable! (“You get what you pay for” isn’t always true, because there really are people who are just willing to be helpful… but be cautious and discerning.)

For my kids, the biggest thing was having a non-parent help them stay on schedule with essays, and help them brainstorm and get “un-stuck,” and just have regular appointments to create “micro-deadlines” and keep things moving along. Some of those things you could do with a parent or another adult mentor; some you could even do with a peer (set up a schedule and hold each other accountable), and some it really helps to have the input of a “pro.” Essay-wise, you probably even have teachers who would be willing to give input. But honestly, don’t take any one person’s opinion as gospel. I have seen teachers, parents, and even “counselors” give some really BAD advice about what essays “should” look like (i.e. shoot down a student’s creativity and tell them the essay should list the accomplishments that are already else where in the application - noooo!), so take what’s helpful but if something doesn’t feel right, get another opinion or two!

Maybe ask around your community about resources. Ask people at your EC’s if they have suggestions. You don’t have to find a single person that gets paid for all these functions - just figure out what support you need and where it’s going to come from.

6

You can do most of what you need to out here by reading forums and asking questions. For my kids, the only places I’d have been spending money on counselors might have been for essay reviews (there are LOTS of essays involved in applying to colleges, many colleges have supplemental essays in addition to the common app essay). Some students benefit from SAT or ACT prep classes as well. But you CAN self study if you need to. SO… you don’t have to get a counselor. If it is a financial hardship for your family, don’t do it. Come see us. We are free. :smiley:

7

It depends…
Do you have an idea yet of what type of schools you are applying to? If you are mostly applying to state schools, you probably don’t need an independent counselor. Ditto less-selective private schools.

Are you a strong writer? Are you good with deadlines? Have you heard things from older kids at your school about whether the school’s own guidance counselor and English teachers do enough to prepare kids to write their college essays and create a good list to apply to?
We did hire a counselor for our oldest. We paid her hourly (I think it was in the ballpark of $175/hr at the time). She helped our daughter come up with a ‘top 25’ list in January of her junior year, and then helped with essays over the summer and early fall of senior year. Now with kid #2 I don’t think we need the help with the top 20 list (between what I’ve learned from kid #1 and reading here and friends’ kids in the meantime I know a lot more). But we’ll probably still get someone to help with editing the essays/keeping the kid on track.

8

I have no problem with good private counselors who “package” an applicant. They work with your ECs, guide you through the process, help with test prep and review and give edit suggestions for your essays. For many colleges, it’s not enough to have a good GPA and high SAT/ACT scores and your high school “resume” needs to tell a story about why you are a good fit for their college over equally qualified applicants. For example, some state schools have over 100k applicants, what makes you stand out from this crowd?

Many counselors will charge hourly so I would make the investment in an initial 1 hour consultation, come prepared and ask lots of questions. They should review you HS transcript in the meeting especially you as a rising senior. See if the advice is helpful and makes sense to you, if not, move on. It can be money well spent.

Lastly, the students that I know who have used private counselors have not been disappointed in their application results.

9

Are you a current Junior or a rising Junior? Did you take the SAT or a ACT yet, and what are your scores like? What kinds of schools are you targeting? How good is your school’s guidance counselor, and will he/she spend much time with you? Have you figured out how much money your family can afford to pay, and have you gone on some college websites and run their NPC (Net Price Calculator) to find out your EFC (Expected Family Contribution)?

I’m asking these questions because: (1) different counselors have different strengths, and you might need someone who focuses more on one issue (such as finances) than another issue (such as essays); and (2) there are a lot of people on CC who will give you great advice for free, but they need more information to help you.

For my family, we decided we only needed help with the essays, and ultimately we did this on our own too. I think there are several components a good counselor will help you with.

One is the financial component, and we understood that. For some people, though, a counselor can provide very valuable advice about scholarships and other opportunities.

Another is making a list of schools to apply to. For us, we didn’t need help with that because we had the opportunity to attend a lot of local college fairs and hear various schools make presentations, and we did a lot of visits, and we had access to Naviance so we had an idea of what the admissions chances were.

Another component is the essays. At first the person we hired was really good because the discussions helped my D decide on what she wanted to write her common app essay on. But it ended up really bad because the consultant over-edited the essay and totally removed my D’s voice so it sounded like it could have been written by just about any kid. So I ended up taking over the editing process and making my D start over from her first draft. All I did was talk with my D about what points I as the reader needed more clarification on or found interesting or helpful, or what I found redundant, and then my D edited it herself with that knowledge in mind. I think it’s really important that someone review your essay, but you need to be very careful not to over-edit or let someone else take over your essay. So be careful who you get to help you with this. And, if at all possible, write the common app essay during the summer before Senior year begins. You’ll be so happy you did because the Fall will be busy.

Some people here have mentioned another component that a private counselor is helpful for, which is making sure you keep up with deadlines. That wasn’t an issue for us because my D’s HS used a system where she put in which colleges she wanted to apply to, and then the system generated dates to show when things were due and when things were submitted. You should ask some of the Seniors at your HS whether your school has a good tracking system or if they needed help. I can also tell you that a lot of parents make spreadsheets of this information themselves, and I bet if you post on the Parents of the HS class of 2018 thread someone will share with you what information you will need in order to make your own.

10

To be honest, a lot of the people here can offer you some pretty good advice. Throw in a guidance counselor who knows his/her stuff, and you should be good to go for free.

The reality is that the process doesn’t have to be as complicated as people here make it sound. Your high school has been sending kids to colleges forever; they know the drill.

The trick is in finding a list of schools that are the right fit for you: that you can get into, that you can afford, that have your major, and that you can see yourself learning (and possibly living) in for the next four years. The internet and some good advice from the people here can certainly point you in a direction, and there are plenty of College Match sites that will give you a long list to narrow down.

Lots of us here know our way around a college essay. Take a look at the essay forums, and look at the list of essay readers. But here’s the trick: click on each responder’s name and look at the threads they’ve started and their responses. If you don’t see evidence of adulthood-- a spouse/ kids/ career/ something, then avoid them. Read the advice they’ve offered others before you decide to take their advice. All advice is NOT created equal!!!

We’ve never considered using a counselor for our kids; it’s simply money that we don’t have.

11

@bjkmom “To be honest, a lot of the people here can offer you some pretty good advice. Throw in a guidance counselor who knows his/her stuff, and you should be good to go for free.”

Unfortunately if you go to a public high school, it’s highly likely that the school counselor has to support 300-400 kids making it very difficult to get much individual attention.

For example, D20 goes to a very good public HS but if you look at her CC recommended course load for junior and senior years she was “missing” some important classes and EC’s to be competitive for her top schools UCB and UCLA. One example is the UCs require 2 years of language and recommend 3 years. When we went to a private counselor she reviewed D’s entire HS transcript and recommended a 4th year of language as many of the 100K plus applicants will have it. In addition, the private counselor wants D20 to take AP calculus BC (when she was considering AP calculus AB or AP Stats). These subtle differences course selection can be important deciding factors come admission time.

In addition, D was “missing” some important ECs and the private counselor set-up a “game plan” over the next 18 months for D to get those ECs completed. The last important point is that D20 is hearing this advice from a professional 3rd party adult who is not her parents so she is more likely to heed this advice and not roll her eyes at us. lol.

As I mentioned above, go to a initial consultation (maybe some will waive the first appointment fees) and ask lots of questions and take good notes. After that you can decide if you need the professional advice. We plan on using our private counselor sporadically (maybe 6 -8 hours) over the next 1.5 years. I understand some families can’t afford it, so its not an option, but if your family has the ability to pay for a good private counselor, I think the information is invaluable if applying to competitive colleges.

12

Just to piggyback a bit on @socaldad2002’s advice, I’ll add that our school gcs are very attuned to what kids need to do to get into the UC, CSU, and community college systems, but not as knowledgable about what it takes to get into highly selective private schools. For instance, when my oldest was a sophomore, they apparently allowed sophomores to take the PSAT with juniors but it wasn’t highly publicized and parents kind of had to be in the know to sign their kids up to do that (they’ve since changed and now all of the sophomores take it along with the juniors). They also don’t put much energy into telling people about the SAT subject tests.

13

Are you eligible for a program like Questbridge? They do a lot of that with the kids in their program.

14

@amd2019 I believe the advice @socaldad2002 and @washugrad are giving you relates more to admissions to low chance of admissions schools (about 75 schools), whereas the advice @bjkmom is giving you relates to the large majority of colleges kids apply to. I personally found that we received all the advice we needed here and we were targeting low chance of admission schools. Why don’t you spend a couple of weeks looking on this site and posting some more questions and you can better assess this yourself.

15

i agree - it depends on your stats, your means and your objectives. Since you’ve essentially completed your Jr year, it is a little late for one to truly shape your ap by suggesting ECs, courses and such.

if you want to go to a popular in-state school, your HS probably has plenty of history with them to guide you through the application process. If you want to go to a small, selective OOS school and snag a bunch of merit scholarships, perhaps not.

You note in another post that you are from CA and are interested in the UCs, CPSLO, and USC. My guess is, your HS has sent lots of kids to each of them and can probably give you competent assistance working through the aps. There are probably UC essay workshops on your campus too. IMHO, it wouldn’t be worth the $$$ for a private counselor.

16

@NCalRent “You note in another post that you are from CA and are interested in the UCs, CPSLO, and USC. My guess is, your HS has sent lots of kids to each of them and can probably give you competent assistance working through the aps.”

I would not make this assumption as my D20 will also be applying to the above colleges, we live in CA, and the landscape is extremely competitive for these schools. For example, I was under the false impression that the UCs only really looked at course rigor, UC GPA, and test scores. The private counselor corrected me and stated that since the CA state schools have so many qualified applicants, the ECs and essays are critical. Most HS cc just don’t have the time and resources to thoroughly and completely help guide you through the admission process. If you are applying to Fresno State, you probably don’t need a private counselor, if you are applying to UCLA or USC, having a private counselor to guide you along the way can only help IMO.

17

@soclialdad2002 No question that there is a lot of variability in the counselors at CA public HSs. I also agree that private counselors can help UC applicants, particularly earlier in the application cycle. The OP on this thread is done with Jr year - so their course selection is pretty much done. 2 years ago, a counselor could have coached on class selection, test prep and how to distinguish yourself from the masses with ECs. At this point, however, - the 4.1ish GPA and his a-g course count and rigor, and EC aren’t really that changeable and the top UCs are going to be a reach no matter how compelling an essay he writes. At this point, and with his objective, i don’t think the counselor is worth the cost, particularly if money is tight in the household. From where he sits, if he wants to find an OOS LAC in the Rockies that’s likely to give him a full ride - an independent counselor could certainly help narrow that down.

UCs are all really transparent about their selection criteria and their freshman profile.

just Google UCX freshman profile or section criteria, and it is always the first or second link

Criteria
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/how-applications-reviewed/index.html
UCI Freshman profile: (you can find the others on the left nav)
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/irvine/freshman-profile/

This is a great resource - you can use the drop downs and radio buttons to find each CA high school, how many people applied and were accepted to each UC and thier GPA
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school

As far as ECs and essays, they are considered but, GPA, test scores and a-g course count needs to be in line or they won’t hold much sway. A 4.2/1500 with a mediocre essay and near zero ECs beats a 4.0/1300 with a great story and hundreds of hours of community service.

18

OP, @amd2019, are you around?

19

@soclialdad2002 No question that there is a lot of variability in the counselors at CA public HSs. I also agree that private counselors can help UC applicants, particularly earlier in the application cycle. The OP on this thread is done with Jr year - so their course selection is pretty much done. At this point - the 4.1ish GPA and his a-g course count and rigor, and EC aren’t really that changeable and the top UCs are going to be a reach no matter how compelling an essay he writes. At this point, and with his objective, i don’t think the counselor is worth the cost, particularly if money is tight in the household. From where he sits, if he wants to find an OOS LAC in the Rockies that’s likely to give him a full ride - an independent counselor could certainly help narrow that down.

UCs are all really transparent about their selection criteria and their freshman profile.

just Google UCX freshman profile or section criteria, and it is always the first or second link

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/how-applications-reviewed/index.html
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/irvine/freshman-profile/

As far as ECs and essays, they are considered but, GPA, test scores and a-g course count needs to be in line or they won’t hold much sway. A 4.2/1500 with a mediocre essay and near zero ECs beats a 4.0/1300 with a great story and hundreds of hours of community service.

I believe they can play an important role but, offer the most value when engaged early in the process

20

It depends on what you’re looking for. Some of my friends preferred to do the college research themselves but needed help with essays. So instead of hiring a college counselor, they paid for their essays to be looked over by an adult. On the other hand, some other people wanted recommendations for colleges because they were unfamiliar with the entire college process, and I know of one who paid by the hour for counseling help. Others only hired a financial counselor for help with fafsa/css options.

Since your parents probably won’t be of much help (as mine was), I recommend you look for somebody (counselor or otherwise) that can help you understand deadlines, ea/ed, financial aid packages, etc. because they’re pretty hard for a newcomer to learn by themselves.

And if you do decide to go for a counselor, ask around for recommendations and try out a couple before you decide on what’s best for you. I personally found a counselor really helpful because my parents constantly spouted incorrect information they found “online somewhere.” She helped keep me on track with constant notifications and guided me through each step in the college process. But it’s important to keep connecting with your counselor since many will be helping multiple kids and you may end up falling through the cracks.