<p>How many of you have hired a private college counselor? Was it worth the money? Do you think it made a difference?</p>
<p>D's school has academic counselors and one college counselor but each class has about 200 students. We are considering using a private counselor with a proven track record to help us navigate this process.</p>
<p>Thanks for your feedback!</p>
<p>So far we’re very happy with ours.</p>
<p>exactly how does one locate a private college counselor? I don’t think they are very common in our area. Do people often go to larger urban areas to obtain one?</p>
<p>I would say that it depends on how you view your student’s current school counselor. Some are very knowledgeable, well connected and on-top of things. Others are not very informed, overwhelmed and/or unaccessible. </p>
<p>I’d say, go and have a sit-down with the school counselor and see how you feel about their level of knowledge and their history of successfully guiding students through this process. Do they have relationships with certain admissions officers at key schools? Do they know enough to recommend that you take advantage of the SAT score choice, or are they clueless about its advantages? Once you have an initial meeting and ask some key questions of the counselor, you will have more information to make a decision about hiring someone else. </p>
<p>Please PM me if you want to hear more about what sorts of questions you could ask.</p>
<p>We didn’t for our first child because he was only interested in big DI schools. It was easy to develop a list. </p>
<p>Second child goes to a private school, very small, with a dedicated college counselor. His needs are going to be very different than his brother and her knowledge of colleges for kids who learn differently will be invaluable. If he was in public school, we would hire someone. Not for the application process, but to help us identify schools that will meet his needs.</p>
<p>I have one friend who hired someone to simply manage the application process. They felt like they didn’t want one more thing to fuss about to their child. So, the counselor managed the process, making sure deadlines were met, etc . He ended up at the school he wanted to go to, ironically one without much of an application process, but his parents were much happier. He had gone only to public school, so they felt like this was a small investment as they had never paid tuition.</p>
<p>So, I think it depends. What are your goals of using someone? School identification, managing the process, etc…</p>
<p>Here is the topic on another recent thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1290349-my-experience-personal-college-consultant.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1290349-my-experience-personal-college-consultant.html</a></p>
<p>I didn’t use one, however if I had to do it again I think I might have gone this route. If you are in public school I think the family needs to make this decision. The majority of my friends in private schools have wonderful counselors that have the TIME to focus on their children. My school has 1 counselor to 400 teens which is nuts. Our counselor is the sweetest person, however his focus is primarily around schools within 200 miles. </p>
<p>If you want a lot of options, you need to drcide if you have the time to devote to the process or if you have the resources to hire someone with experience. I learned so much over the last four years and a ton through this site. My DS ended up at the perfect school (within 200 miles). My DD wants to go away as far from the Midwest as possible in another year. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m glad we have great counselors at our public school. It seems kind of silly to spend $6-20K for someone to find colleges for you with all of the available resources on the internet. I also think that only on CC you find that colleges only take 4.0’s with perfect test scores and that gives an unrealistic admissions process to most schools. Spend some time on the acceptance list to see where kids really got accepted and with what stats.</p>
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<p>We did not use a private counselor but have some friends who did. They were pleased BUT the counselor’s TRACK record of success is based on acceptances at the schools the COUNSELOR helps you target. In all of the cases we know…the family was surprised that the counselor dropped schools OFF of the list that the family had created. They had the notion that the counselor would help their kid get accepted at THOSE schools by helping with the application process. That was NOT the case.</p>
<p>They report that the counselors did a very good job of targeting schools that were good choices for their kids. But they were NOT the schools the families originally had on their lists.</p>
<p>thumper–do you know what the changes were? Not specific schools but the reasoning behind them? Just curious.</p>
<p>Before the web, I could see it if you could afford it. But don’t you think it’s possible–if you have the time–to do all the research on your own? After all, there’s CC.</p>
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<p>Sure do…the private counselor wanted to target schools where the student WOULD get accepted. That is how they “have a good success rate”. It does them no good to have students apply to schools and NOT get accepted.</p>
<p>The families had aimed very HIGH. The counselor helped them fine tune their list to include a reach…or two…with the expectation that these were just that…REACHES.</p>
<p>I do want to add…none of these students got accepted to their reach schools but ALL got accepted to the schools that the private counselor targeted for them. AND all were VERY happy with their matriculation choices.</p>
<p>The singular comment I heard was that the counselor nudged their kid to get things done in a timely fashion…thus taking this tug of war away from the family dynamics.</p>
<p>I want to add…the costs were in the several thousand dollar range. The families felt they did get their money’s worth.</p>
<p>BUT my emphasis here is…these folks are not going to be able to get your kid accepted to a school that is beyond the student’s reach. They WILL, however do an excellent job of helping your student target really fine schools for their interests. They will help get all the “stuff” done and in a timely fashion. </p>
<p>Private college counselors can be an excellent resource for the right reasons.</p>
<p>I have triplets public HS class 2012. We did not use a private coach. Our HS Guidance couselor was just paper processor. The kids got some school ideas from teachers but ultimately the kids and I did our own research on the internet, CollegeBoard.com search engine and the Princeton Reviews Best Colleges books. The best thing I did, and would recommend it very strongly, is use a tutor to write essays. We had an english teacher that ran a small group session for one week in the summer 9am - noon, by the end of the week, they had a resume, short personal statement and Long essay (common App topic). This was priceless, cost $300 each. Once September arrived and the application process stated, they justed needed to write any short school specific essays for supplements. As for monitoring the application process, it has to be your childs responsibility. The Common App makes it easy them to know what is needed for each school. My one son put it best, he had completed his applications in early October and I started to help his brother, he said if he can’t complete his applications by himself, how is he going to make it in college. My sons applied to 5 schools each and my daughter 8. we have wonderful offers from Private Regional Universities. (The son who needed application help from me got some, but he is also the least ready to go away.) Our Stats 2 Top 15% of class, 1 top 25%, all GPA of 3.8 - 4.2, SAT from 1650-1780., 1 AP class a year, Excellent EC . Good Luck, It can be done on your own.</p>
<p>We hired someone to do a “Stats Eval” for our son and I highly recommend it if you feel a need is there, [Stats</a> Eval from College Karma](<a href=“http://www.collegekarma.com/college_counseling/stats_eval.htm]Stats”>http://www.collegekarma.com/college_counseling/stats_eval.htm)</p>
<p>As you can see, it’s not very expensive. We wound up also using their services for a few other things, bringing our total to $500. Our son’s guidance counselor was very well informed on Texas schools but our son was aiming for the East coast. The GC also had a very large load of students. </p>
<p>Basically, we wanted someone with experience to look over his application and essays. It was well worth the $500 to have th piece of mind that his overall package was of good quality.</p>
<p>CC has been my private guidance counselor. I would like to thank you all very much, and some folks here have been so helpful I would feel honor-bound to send a fee if they had a paypal button.</p>
<p>Helping S12 navigate the college search and application process has been a part-time job for me for the past year. I’ve put in countless hours. I was fortunate to have spare time to do this. For families with more money than time, and overworked public school counselors, hiring private help may be a wise investment, but anyone with some time and a decent internet connection can manage fine without one.</p>
<p>DS 1 attended a large public high school with 1 counselor for every 500 kids. I became my son’s college consultant! It was time consuming, but I enjoyed it very much. CC became (and still is) my favorite web site along with College Tracker- pretty accurate for determining safeties, matches, and reaches. We checked out books from the library, and purchased a couple of books on college admissions… very helpful. We visited schools, attended presentations at local hotels, etc. DS and I sat together at the computer to fill out apps, we asked aunts, uncles, and friends who know anything about this process to share with us, and to read and critique essays. Bottom line- if you have the time and interest, you can do it on your own. If your job and other concerns absorb most of your time and you really don’t understand the process, you may feel better by paying someone for professional guidance. I do know that the shared experience was good for our parent child relationship and every thing DS did for himself has helped him successfully navigate life away at college.</p>
<p>I’m in favor of it, personally, and especially if you have a kid with a strange situation. ie, we have a dyslexic with high stat tests, high grades in all but one area, and then, this kind of ***??? kind of thing, which makes no sense.</p>
<p>So, we had a counselor who assisted her in realistically evaluating the circumstances, assisting her in targeting a really wide variety of schools, from top 5 to top 100, just cuz, who even knows, in a situation like that. She assisted, her, as well, in finding a wide range of schools that were similar to what she thought, at the time, was her top choice.</p>
<p>In the end, D had great options and is a very happy Junior where she is now.</p>
<p>As for a more “standard” type of student, I still think there would be great value in having a professional consult with them on essays, school selection and time management and deadlines. Applying to schools has caused a lot of arguments between parents and kids in my area, that I’ve seen. </p>
<p>Good luck to you. The group who runs this site has college counseling services available, and in lots of different versions, as a place to start.</p>
<p>In general, I think that by and large families–especially families with educated parents–could do pretty much everything that a private college counselor does. The question really is, what are you willing to pay to have somebody else do it?</p>
<p>You could spend time with a Fiske guide, or Colleges that Change Lives, or what have you, reading about colleges you might not have thought of that meet your kid’s social, academic, geographical, financial and other needs and wants. (And then you could visit [CC redacts the name of another college-related web site], and read online editions of student newspapers, to try to get a sense of what life on those campuses is really like, no matter how many photos of smiling students appear in the color mailings.)</p>
<p>You could spend time online researching what it takes to get into the colleges that have the attributes you and your kid are looking for.</p>
<p>You could battle with your own 17-year-old about writing essays or meeting deadlines. Or you could let somebody else do that. (Theoretically, I suppose you could have a 17-year-old who just takes care of all that stuff without being badgered…but not at my house.)</p>
<p>Or you could pay somebody else to do these tasks. In most cases, the family is going to pay for them one way or another–with effort and time (and perhaps household stress), or with money, or often with some combination of the two.</p>
<p>So, yes, maybe this is an illustration of that old joke that a consultant is simply a person who will borrow your watch in order to tell you the time…and then keep the watch as payment. But if a family has the money to spend on the service, and chooses to spend its money that way, I don’t see the harm in it.</p>
<p>I’ll say, though, that I found Thumper’s observations about reaches and targets and “track record” interesting. You would sort of want to go into a transaction as pricey as this one with your eyes open to something like that.</p>
<p>I may end up doing this - at least it’s a consideration. D goes to a very good but very BIG public school, where her counselor is in charge of 350 kids just in her grade. I think I will need for someone to help her select schools (I imagine this will be a long list, as FA will be very important), to help her set realistic expectations, but maybe most importantly to set deadlines for her as far as essays, etc. go. I don’t want my role in all of this to be the nagging parent. :)</p>
<p>Speaking as a counselor, I recommend that you shop around. Find someone who clicks with you/your family and has a pricing structure you are comfortable with. For example, some require a large up-front payment, and others charge by the hour or by the project.</p>
<p>Where the counselor’s previous client’s were admitted is, IMHO, not a good test of his or her skill. You do want someone who has experience with applicants similar to your child, but the best way for a counselor to get a great “track record” of admits is to seek out clients with great stats. You should be able to have a conversation with the counselor about your family’s needs at no charge. After that conversation, trust your judgment about whether the counselor will add value.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>