Thoughts?
I think this is spot on.
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I have a couple friends who are private college counselors. Most of their job is helping kids find schools that would be good fits for them and explaining to their parents why they should not expect to be accepted by Harvard and why they willbebetter off elsewhere. As former admissions officers, they steer kids away from essay topics that are a dime a dozen and make sure their app reflects who they are.
Almost every parent is out of touch with college admissions by the time their kid gets there because the landscape has changed dramatically. Good college counselors are better acquainted with the current environment as they are in it every year and most still have lots of friends on the âinsideâ. All I know have seen thousands, if not more, completed apps and know how they will be processed by an AO.
I donât know anyone who gets kids fancy mentorships although the article says such people exist. But CCs might keep kids on track with their apps and get everything submitted on time and keep the peace with parents. And they can explain all the nuances of ED, EA, deferrals, WL, and the things that fuel this site! This process is super stressful, and misinformation abounds. It makes sense to me that people want help navigating it. (My son attended a private school that had an awesome CC staff. The one assigned to him was incredible, and in retrospect, I canât imagine how we would have done it without her.)
Do parents pay for this? Yes. But none that I know are paying to get into highly rejective schools. They are paying to be directed to schools where they will thrive. And it is expensive. Ccs do not have large client bases. It is time-consuming to do this right!
Perhaps what people should complain about is that so few high schools are properly resourced on this front, not that students need a service their school doesnât provide.
Personally, I suspect these private CCs are helping very few kids jump the line at elites. The advantage wealth confers is one of good education, access to enrichment and ECs (like sports), legacy, and the ability to be FP. Paying someone to help those students package that and figure out who to share the package with - thatâs not the problem.
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Where I live not too many people use them. Most of the wealthy people send their kids to expensive private schools that have excellent college counseling. The only people I see using these are people with kids in public or catholic schools who donât have the time/know how and want an outside person managing the process for them to eliminate the battles with their kids. None of them ended up at super competitive schools. Iâm not sure they are a big factor in giving wealthy kids any kind of advantage that they donât already have, but maybe I am naive.
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I found the process exhausting, stressful and painful, but lacking the funds, it was DIY, as usualâŠ
I know a girl my Ds age used a counselor. Iâm sure she probably ended up doing slightly better than my own D, even though they are generally of the same level. I think it would have helped for the essays, which my D insisted on doing on her own and was not very interested in her motherâs opinionđ. She might have listened to someone elseâs constructive criticism more easily.
She had activities, too many really, so we werenât struggling to fill that box. But published papers? This should be stopped, or at least a red flag. It is too easy for money to buy into that idea, while leaving those short of cash behind. And why anyhow? Can they not just be high school students and wait until at least college to work on research?
I predict that âlesserâ schools are going to have much more interesting alumni lists in the future, while the âeliteâ schools, having been sold a good number of average but rich enough to finagle an acceptance students, will have to remember the good ole days.
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I agree with gardenstategalâs thoughts.
I find the article one-sided, and misinformed. For example, there arenât many independent counselors charging the prices mentioned in the article. The most recent average hourly rate of independent counselors per an IECA (independent educational consultant) survey is $175/hr. Many IECs have mastersâ level certificates in college counseling from schools like UCLA and UCB. Some have experience as AOs and/or HS GCs. Those who are members of IECA and/or NACAC agree to adhere to a code of ethics. Many IECs take on pro-bono clients and/or assist students through the various college access organizations like ScholarMatch, College Possible, et al.
Regarding high school science internships/research opportunities, these are available in multiple waysâŠone is free, where the student contacts college professors hoping to find one that will allow them to work in their lab, or on their project. I personally know students who have done this and have been successful, including an EFC 0 student (without any adult guidance).
Another way requires moneyâŠthere are a handful of organizations that have partnered with profs that offer these opportunities for a fee. These fees can range from around $5k to up to $20k (could be a larger range, but thatâs what I know), publication typically not guaranteed.
Affluent students will always have an advantage in college admissions, starting with attending highly resourced schools from k-12, and going from there. I spent a long career in strategy consulting, and transitioned to becoming an IEC. Most of my students are underprivileged athletes looking to play their sport in college, who are part of a non-profit I help out. In exchange, I receive a small americorps grant. I am privileged to be able to help these students and have an up close view of how difficult it can be to launch these students out of their circumstances, even with the many resources this organization provides them. Iâm not looking for any accolades, as there are many other IECs like me. Before I became an IEC, I hired IECs to work with my kids, for their in-depth knowledge of admissions/schools, to act as a buffer between me and the kids, and to keep the kids to a timeline and hold them accountable for deadlines. No way the kids would have bought in to any plan/timeline/deadline I had created, lol.
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I agree that this article isnât about the average private college counselor and is just highlighting the privilege of the ultra rich.
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I live in an affluent area but most of my friends donât bother with college counselors. Among those that do, it is primarily to help their kids weed through the 100s of college choices and to keep peace in the family. In my friend group, at least, it hasnât been to get their kids into an âeliteâ college. I think the type of CCs mentioned in the Times article are outliers who work with a very select group of super wealth and ambitious parents. Sure, it is a little gross, but it can hardly be surprising given what we know about the significant advantages enjoyed by wealthy students.
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Without a requirement to disclose the use of a private college counselor and/or test coach on a studentâs application, it is basically cheating. A studentâs high school, address, income (sometimes), etc are all discoverable parameters of an application. But the reviewer has no way of knowing who wrote the essay, or who took the test.
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We used a counselor for our oldest kid and Iâm glad we did. Our son ended up going to a different school than the guy recommended, but then our youngest DID go there and it was perfect for her. We never would have known about it otherwise.
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You make it sound like this is a concern just with those who use private counselors. I donât believe that is true.
Like others, we had friends who used private counselors. In most cases we knew of, the parents had never attended college and the whole search and selection process was overwhelming. No one we know paid outrageous costs for the help of a private person. But they did find that this info helped them, and in some cases kept peace in the family by getting the student to complete tasks on time.
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Some decent data in the article but naĂŻve, ham-fisted solutions.
Look, pre-internet, the reasons that you paid for a consultant were knowledge base + connections. Today, the web and fantastic sites like CC have really allowed parents to get up to speed on the landscape if they do significant research. Our friends spent like $3-4K on a consultant who didnât come with connections. Great kid, has the stats to end up somewhere highly rejective, but it wonât be because of the consultant. I will say, in my view, that the relationship between private high schools and admissions officers is a drastically different dynamic than generations ago, maybe even in the last 10-15 years. Sure, some pipelines to âvery good schoolsâ remain in place, but not the tippy-top, most-rejective institutions. Private schools do their best work, from what Iâve seen, placing students at decent schools in emergency situations late in the spring after all the decisions roll in.
All that said, there are some parents who have the resources but not the time to do the research, and yeah, some parents out there like dropping âour consultant suggested Connor ED to WASH Uâ at neighborhood parties and on the sidelines at school sporting events. Thatâs not going anywhere. The âeffectivenessâ of consultants, when measured by their long-standing reputation, over the coming years, however, will slowly diminish.
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I find it frustrating because the entire process is set up to give people âin the knowâ advantages. Hiring of college counselors can look both like giving the rich more advantages, but it can also look like people just wanting to hire out for something they are not equipped to do.
I would have loved to have help with the search process in general, but that wasnât in the cards financially. At one point, I was so frustrated with my kidsâ essay process (not covered at school in any way) that I asked around for editing help. I was quoted anywhere from $600-800 for just polishing up what was already written and edited here at home. Needless to say we decided the essays were in our kidsâ voices and thatâs gonna have to be good enough.
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Everything is. The only difference is that in most things, people donât know what theyâre missing. Most people know about the elite universities.
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Mostly a panoply of complaints about the (elite) admissions process in general, tied together with the private counselors = unfair theme.
There are so many elements of unfairness in the process of raising a child to 17-18 (not just the stuff that helps them get into college). It canât all be equalized.
When the competition at hand is high stakes, expect those who have resources to use them. Some parents send their HSers to $60K/year boarding boarding schools. Some have a responsive college counselor at their public high school. Some have parents who spend too much time reading CC and similar materials, and become a sort of âparental private counselorâ.
And some pay a counselor $5K or whatever to help out, often when the HS counselor isnât available or isnât geared at elite options, and/or if the parent comes from a non US-college background (for instance, parents who went to school in India and find the US system baffling).
Does Bill Gates kid have a lot of advantages in the current system? Sure. But then, folks like the author of the piece in question seem disproportionately likely to oppose the most transparent and even admissions standards (IMO, standardized tests, though the current ACT/SAT offerings could probably be improved on), in favor of opaque tips and advantages for various groups that have little to do with direct, demonstrable academic prowess at age ~17.
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Although it might surprise some posters, I havenât ruled out the idea of using a college counselor for when DC is a senior. Why? Because barring a significant development in maturity, DC just does not want to hear advice from ME when it involves having any work to be done. If DC and the family agree on some easy state school applications, then no counselor would be needed. But if DC ends up applying to places with a number of essays and such? I could certainly see some value in paying someone else to be the reminder of deadlines and provider of advice (even if theyâre just cribbing off some notes I give them).
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This is, I think one of the benefits of a good college counselor.
Some folks are blessed to have such counselors at their HS. Whether itâs a pricey private and they basically paid for good counseling bundled with the other benefits, or whether theyâre lucky enough just to have that provided at their publicâŠ
FWIW, we did not use a private counselor**, though I at least considered it. We did get some âpro-bonoâ counseling from my wifeâs cousin, who is, I think, a counselor at a fancy private HS. But not everyone is blessed to have a good counselor at their school, or the appropriate personal background, or even a parentâs cousin who does thisâŠ
** One of our 3 kids had ~5 private test prep sessionsâŠ
Moreover, if youâre a parent looking to spend perhaps $80K X 4 = $360K (if you have the financial resources, and your kid seems a solid contender for the elite privates), then spending ~$5K for some combination of both the advice (âLook at these schools. Have you consider THIS factor?â) and, yeah, guidance on optimizing the college application(s), does not seem so extreme.
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We didnât use a counselor. I did a lot of internet research, and kid got a bit of advice from an alum who did interviewing (although wasnât my kidâs interviewer). A lot of the useful info that I found, was found right here on CC.
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I didnât find it that overwhelming, but then again neither of my kids had low acceptance rate private elite or Ivy aspirations.
Ignorance was truly bliss with my oldest - not knowing things like how hard it was to get into our in-state flagship, where she ultimately ended up. She handled her whole college search and application process, compiled her list, scheduled the visits, made a spreadsheet with application due dates.
My current college sophomore has a much more laid-back personality. Sheâll get it done by the deadline, but theyâll be no lists or spreadsheets and no working on essays the summer before applications are due. And while she was enthusiastic about visiting colleges on our own, she loathed the admissions presentations and student tours.
Iâm in the camp that paying a college counselor is unnecessary (the exception may be if your kid is h*ll-bent on going to an Ivy or considering ED options at an elite). There is unlimited information available for free on sites like CC and the college websites themselves. Believe it or not, colleges want your kid to pick them (and for you to write the check), so they are more than willing to answer any questions you or your kid has.
As a parent, itâs up to me to set limitations on things like location and budget. I didnât simply open up the whole US to the college search. We settled on college options on our side of the country that were a reasonable driving distance (I was not interested in the added costs and hassles of air travel), and once we started visiting, my kids figured out on their own what kind of college culture they preferred, what size campus they liked, etc.
As far as application procrastination goes, if I need to pay a 3rd party to persuade my kid to get their stuff done then weâd be having some serious conversations about young adult responsibilities and whether college is really the right path. Some apathy at that age is normal, but my kids understood that they were required by my husband and me, to get things done by the deadlines. In our minds, going to college is a privilege, which we are paying $$$$ for - if they werenât willing to put in the work to get there, then they can hit the pavement the day after high school graduation and get a job on their own.
I may be somewhat of a hypocrite though because I did pay for one-on-one test prep, and it could definitely be argued that that too can be found for free on the internet but seeing the increase in both my daughterâs test scores made that a worthwhile investment, and I donât believe they could have achieved that by doing the test prep themselves.
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For the health of my relationship with my child I did hire a private counselor for $3k which included some zoom sessions and help with essays and supplementals. We had already narrowed down her list of schools so we focused more on help with picking senior year classes, organizing her activities in a cohesive way, brainstorming ideas for essays with review (the private counselor ensured it was my Ds voice not hers).
We have decent resources at our school and could have managed without one. However, my child is at a stage where my advice ( and nagging) is not always welcome and even her school counselor (in her mind) does not always offer great advice so this worked out perfectly.
Because she committed early, she helped a couple of friends with their ECs and essays. I laughed (but was also proud) that she is now offering her advice to others.
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I canât read the article, but I get the gist.
There are extremely expensive private counselors who will perfect every single aspect of grades, ECs, teacher recs, essays, etc⊠and act as surrogate parents. Their prices range in the $10k+ plus range (prob more like 20k) and they are well connected. They will even take your kid on college visits. This group of parents are mostly looking for acceptances at T20 colleges for their kids. To be fair, you may not get accepted as a client if they donât think your child has a chance.
There are the more typical local private counselors who charge something in the $4-5k range and guide a kid and parents through the process in a more âchecklistâ way.
There are private individuals who offer a la carte services in which someone pays for help as needed. Maybe the parent will spend up to $2k. I hired someone like this to help my eldest because I was like many parents here: clueless about how the process had changed. Yes, my daughter did apply to a couple of highly selective colleges. The private counselor was useful in some ways, but not in others. Overall, Iâm glad to have had her help. By the time my son applied, I knew what I was doing and hired no one.
My disclaimer, as with @AustenNut , is that I now do this as my job, primarily in tutoring for tests and essays. (And I would NEVER write a kidâs essay.) I can say unequivocally that I know I am helping people. I have helped a lot of kids get great scholarships, so that in itself makes me feel that my job is valuable. Yes, I know I am fortunate to live in an area where people can afford these services.
Most students I work with are not aiming for only the most selective schools. Iâd say most simply have parents like many on this board, who find the whole process confusing. A lot of students will apply to a couple of very reachy schools, but by and large, most parents and kids are realistic. Kids generally want to get into a college they will be happy to attend.
I, naturally, feel that private college counseling can be very helpful and if a parent can afford it, it is usually money well spent. And certainly, itâs worth it when a student gets merit scholarships that are vastly more valuable than the money spent on advising.
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