We could say the same for accountants. It’s not fair that some people could afford an accountant (possibly gettin more tax breaks) and others couldn’t.
I hired a very good counselor for D2 because I was very busy at work and didn’t have time to help her. I also work with an accountant when my taxes became too complicated.
I think the discussion we should be having is how to simplify the college process and make it more transparent, so CCs are not needed.
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Unfortunately, I don’t see “elite” colleges becoming more transparent any time soon (and, frankly, that is what we are talking about here - most colleges admit most applicants and have very straightforward criteria for doing so). Being purposefully opaque suits these schools - it allows them to compose the class they want without having to answer to anyone. Even if the schools were more transparent, there would still be a huge number of highly qualified students who are shut out - there are too many qualified students and too few seats.
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I’m interested in what the Your College Bound Kid podcast will have to say about this article.
I now have a better appreciation for the varied reasons for using counseling and test prep. Thanks to all.
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We did this for my middle child for exactly this reason. Oldest was very self motivated. Created a strong and balanced list all by himself, never even discussed or looked at his essays. No idea what they were even about. Middle kid has dyslexia, hates to write, etc. It was a great help to have someone else give advice and set deadlines. The biggest help was several hours of brainstorming on topics that were unique to him. He was a year round athlete with excellent grades and test scores but the rest of his application was a little thin 
Although we didn’t use a lot of the services offered as he had a good list already, we did add a school that ended up being a real possibility, and had a set of eyes go over his common app before submission. They also gave him some tips on how to fill out the description part of the activities and honors sections which he would not have known. It took the stress way down in our house. He ended up at our state school where he would have gotten in anyway but had multiple other acceptances to choose from and was well worth it.
We didn’t end up using them again for this senior but he is a great writer and had lots of stuff to write essays about. His school also provides a writing center for the specific purpose of reviewing essays so he took advantage of that. For us it was really a kid by kid decision.
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Many folks don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to the college search and application process. Private counselors can be invaluable.
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We tried hiring a private counselor in the spring of S23’s junior year, since my husband and I could tell that we had no clue about the current college admissions landscape. This person came highly recommended. Turned out to be a total dud for us. He didn’t ask a single question about budget and kept suggesting schools which (now that I know better) would have been unaffordable. Told my son he didn’t need to take a science class or calculus in senior year and that it wouldn’t matter to any colleges (luckily my son did not take this advice). Pushed elite LACs over all other types of schools and kept saying that he understood my son perfectly and a rural/suburban LAC would be a fit… but after I took my son on school visits, we found that he loves large urban universities.
I am sure that private counselors help many people when there is a good fit between counselor and student/family, but for us, it was a waste of time and money. I got so frustrated that I started hanging around here on CC. My son and I made huge spreadsheets with all the school features that were important to him and we put in tons of time investigating and eliminating schools. This ended up working much better for us, but it has been time consuming for sure!
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Not surprising that a college counselor has a particular bias in terms of colleges favored or known about best. You see that with posters here, although some posters are more aggressive than others about pushing their favored colleges even if they appear to be marginal for the student. The incentive to do that may be greater for a paid counselor who “needs” to offer something in terms of college recommendations, versus a poster here who can just keep silent if a student does not fit the colleges that the poster knows best.
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Like pretty much every service, there are good & bad college counselors. You have to do your homework when deciding who to hire. I saw a job opportunity the other day for what was basically a job for a high pressure salesperson at a company that provides college counseling services. They used nice phrases, but it was clear that they were looking for a “producer.” That is not the kind of company I would want to use if I were looking to hire a college counselor for my child.
Another possibility is that private college counselors are biased toward small private colleges because they are off the beaten path. Parents may be less willing to pay for a private college counselor who says that the state flagship and local state university are the best fit for the student’s interests.
This may also be true of college counselors at high end private high schools, where few graduates go to the state flagship.
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Agree to this, they do not know what questions to ask. the process is complicated so it is hard to navigate it for first time parents.
For older child I had an essay counselor.
For younger child we were keen to do a summer project, he got rejected by 13 schools for research/internship and due to covid this was his only summer where he had to show something strong other than online coursera courses in summer. After a week his old research lab contacted him for research at their lab and he started working with them. Eventually we ended up not doing the planned summer project which we had planned and paid for. We used the services only for essay.
Well said and we were the same. That said, our school had great college counselors, which I get that not every school has.
Most schools do not have dedicated college counselors (great or otherwise), as opposed to counselors who do college stuff along with all kinds of other counseling work.
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Exactly. And the counselors who have responsibility for both social-emotional health and college admissions process are overwhelmed and spending the vast majority of their time addressing their students’ mental health, leaving little time for college counseling activities.
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Yes, to add to what @ucbalumnus and @Mwfan1921 noted, some schools (including our LPS) assign guidance counselors to a class so they can get to know the kids and follow them through the 4 years. Fundamentally a good idea, but as a friend who was a GC noted, you’re doing the college thing once every four years. A lot can change in that time, and having connections with AOs isn’t really possible with such intermittent activity.
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Our high school was going through a great deal of turnover overall, including counselors. So when our son’s third different counselor went on maternity leave in November of his junior year, we hired a private college counselor. The experience for us could not have been better, and our son was accepted into his first-choice school. She focused on getting to know our son beyond just his academic stats and ECs. With her, it was all about finding the right fit.
She is a veteran college counselor and past president of one of the organization of counselors. Many parents who come to her are looking to get their kids into the highest-ranked school possible. She said she spends a good deal of her time managing parents’ expectations while finding the best possible fit for their kids.
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Nice job choosing a very special counselor.
@James_West , sounds so much like my friend who is a CC. She said that a great deal of her time is spent getting parents aligned with what their kids want (and reality.)
Kids often open up to good counselors in a way the cannot to their parents. Skilled intermediaries are super valuable!
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