<p>Can someone enlighten me about the different between what a "good" college counselor does vs. an "excellent" one? I know that a college counselor can:</p>
<ol>
<li> Help you choose colleges</li>
<li> Suggest classes</li>
<li> Suggest which extracurricular activities might be looked at most favorably</li>
<li> Help brainstorm topics for essays</li>
</ol>
<p>...but what do the really expensive counselors do that is different or better?</p>
<p>Xiggi's advice to someone in another thread to "run to an excellent college counselor" (I think he was suggesting Hernandez) gave me pause. We have visited a college counselor a couple of times to get some guidance but have not been wowed, and so I'm wondering what we might be missing. </p>
<p>The paid private ones that are popular in my area do the following:</p>
<p>1- make a chart of deadlines (SAT registration, when to ask teachers for recommendations, etc.)
2- make a huge list of colleges to discuss with the family which generally includes some “off the beaten path” type places that don’t get a lot of play in the local high schools
3- take the kids stats as they exist today and make a list of what the likely reaches, matches and safeties are going to look like from that big list. If the family is not happy with those options, the counselor strategizes on what needs to happen to the scores in order to “up the game”. If it’s sophomore year, the counselor can suggest “better” EC’s and help with course selection. If it’s junior or senior year, there’s not much to do except cram for a retake of ACT/SAT.
4- help the kid make a list of possible essay topics, and then nag and edit until it’s done (or multiple essays if required.)
5- nag like crazy on the rest of the process.</p>
<p>To me, none of this is worth the crazy amounts of money people spend on the counseling (especially for people who need gobs of need based aid. I’d rather spend money on tuition than the counseling). But the chief value-add appears to be getting a neutral party into the process. If the kid is a foot- dragger on deadlines, or one of the parents is in deep denial about where the kid can get in to college, it seems to help some families to have a third party mediate these discussions. If mom thinks her D is going to Barnard (triple legacy- mom, aunt and grandma all went there) and the stats suggest Hofstra and Adelphi as the matches and maybe Fordham as a significant reach) it can help to have someone lay out the facts on the table to tactfully redirect mom early in the process.</p>
<p>Be a resource and sounding board to alleviate stress for the whole family. </p>
<p>Do intensive, line-by-line essay and supplement critique with as many drafts as necessary. </p>
<p>Create a test prep strategy based on ACT/SAT diagnostic and local/national resources. </p>
<p>Offer personal takes on dozens or hundreds of visited colleges. </p>
<p>But what makes an excellent person excellent is skill, experience, and communication level in executing the services, not necessarily a different set of services. </p>
<p>The college counselor we used was not expensive at all, but I would rate her as pretty close to excellent. In addition to the things listed by blossom and Hanna, she spent a lot of time talking to our daughter and really getting to know her. She had her take several personality/interest tests, and chatted with her at every session about friends, hobbies, what she’d done that weekend, etc. She put as much emphasis on finding a good social fit as she did on academic and financial fits. For instance, knowing that D might want to cheer in college, she cautioned her against some schools that were otherwise great fits but had poorly-attended sporting events (not much fun to cheer to empty stands). She printed out lists of clubs and organizations for each school and highlighted the ones that matched D’s interests. She even researched gymnastics clubs near the schools on D’s list, in case she wanted to continue coaching in college. This was all a huge help during the final decision-making process. I’ve heard from other parents that some counselors are basically “done” after the applications are submitted, but ours followed through to the end and, as a result, D wound up at a school that couldn’t be more perfect for her. Well worth the (relatively little) money.</p>
<p>D2’s counselor had a pool of ex-adcoms from some top tier schools on retainer. They went over her course work, GPA, test scores and ECs very early on to give assessment on what she needed to get into her school(s) of choice. We got a very detailed writeup on D2. They recommended ECs, courses, especially summer programs that adcoms may put more weight on. D2 didn’t do anything she didn’t want to do, but it was very helpful for her to focus on certain ECs and drop some. As she progressed with more stats, they refined their school recommendations. The counselor was available whenever D2 had a question if she should take this course vs another. Their counseling was an ongoing process rather than just a one time deal in coming up with a list of schools, help with essays and get the application done. By the time D2 was getting ready to apply to schools, they already knew her quite well, therefore their assistance with her application and essays were more insightful. What’s interesting was they wanted D2 to aim higher (ranking schools), but D2 was perfectly happy with her choice and she stood her ground.</p>
<p>D2’s counselor was also very knowledgable on the “cost of admission” at some of those schools, but we told him that we weren’t interested or could afford to. </p>
<p>We didn’t pay a lot of money for this service because they were just starting out, but they have done so well since then, I heard their fees have gone up a lot.</p>
<p>Old fort, or anyone else :), any chance you could send me a note with the name of D2’s counselor? I am new to CC (and to thinking about high school/college) and would love my son to have someone to discuss high school course suggestions, ECs from early on. I think it would be helpful to our parent/child relationship and may lead to a happier high school experience. </p>
<p>My D’s school guidance counselor really understood her academic level and what makes her tick – as a result he was able to offer both class and college suggestions that kept her challenged without being overwhelmed. I did not use a private counselor for either of my children. </p>
<p>My college counselor, who was really excellent, had visited many colleges and knew admission staff everywhere, which allowed her to give good insider’s info on various schools, like for example whether they were planning to accept any international students seeking aid that year. She was very good at creating reasonably sized, focused lists of schools for students to apply to because she could estimate our chances of acceptance at a high number of match schools very well. She devoted a lot of attention to our college app essays and resumes. She was very good at coming up with college suggestions that fit students’ specific needs. I asked her for a list of urban schools that awarded need-based aid to international students, had good humanities programs, and offered joint degrees in art with nearby art schools, and she came up with several very good ideas. And whenever she didn’t know something about a school, she was very proactive about gathering that information, both by searching for it online and by asking her professional contacts.</p>