Senior Parents: if you hired a private college counselor

[Anonymous]

How did it work out for your kid so far, to date, in ED, or REA/EA? What schools/results?
If non-DMV, can you list state?

If rejected or deferred, has your counselors advice, been helpful, comprehensive and specific as your kid enters the RD process? What types of suggestions have they made and what types of schools did they add to your kid’s list?

If you have to do it all over again, would you hire that firm or company?

[Anonymous]

I hired one counselor early spring of Junior year. Realized quickly it was not the right fit. We went our separate ways.
Found another one summer between Jr and Sr. It was late but for my DS it was the right time. My DS is a summer birthday and really not ready for these conversations earlier.
Sept and Oct were really stressful in the house. He is a student who is not in the top 1/2 of the class needed a realistic voice on what was realistic given that more than 10 classmates were applying to the school my DS wanted to ED at. Most of the classmates applying used it as a lower tier target so when the school looked at my sons application vs 10 classmates it would be very clear where he fell academically vs his peers. My son crafted a nice application with the support of the counselor for the personal statement and supplemental essays. The counselor pushed for how to show not tell and accelerated the review cycles.
We hired the counselor for my now sophomore who will face different challenges in the application process but we believe they will help us navigate it to help find a selection of schools that are good fits.

[Anonymous]

No one else??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one else??

My friend hired someone for her 11th grader because both parents work long hours and prefer to outsource this to reduce conflict in the home.
My other friend hired someone just to help with essays for her 12th grader. Student in question has received top tier early action college acceptances so far.
Neither myself nor any of my other friends hired college counselors, but we all hired tutors.

This question is often asked on DCUM, but in general people will steer you away, explaining it's not worth the money. I think if you really want to maximize a college counselor, you need to hire one to plot high school trajectory, starting in 9th grade (so hire in 8th grade when it's time to choose courses). I considered this for my younger kid, but ultimately I think we'll go without, just like for the first kid.

[Anonymous]

I personally know the majority of the people in our child’s graduating class hired someone. If we had an extra 20k+ lying around, we would’ve done the same. I noticed the only ones who admitted on this board, say it “wasn’t worth it”. The ones I know personally, admitted to hiring someone way before junior year and were very happy with the results. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

I've worked in a tangential industry. It's very much worth it if you/your kid are not going to be organized enough yourselves to do the research and put the time in on the application process yourselves.

If you are detail oriented folks, obsessed with this kind of stuff, I don't think there is all that much value added for the 1000s you will spend. The exception is a personal statement editor -- those are worth while.

[Anonymous]

It's not as easy to say if it is worth it or not - even with school results. What if they accepted your student based on something having nothing to do with the counselor's work? We hired a counselor once, not a high end one, and it helped us and our student. Since we have three kids, I can make a decent case that paying the first time helped across all three kids.

You hire a counselor to do one or more of the following:

1. College prospect selection without parent/high school bias
2. Set and manage a process
3. Overall story of the student and making sure it comes through the app
4. Additional eyes on essays and ideas for same
5. How to complete the common app
6. Any secret sauce on differentiation, how different colleges work, etc.
7. Maybe most important - you don't have to be the task master and sour your relationship with your student, the counselor does that (in a nice way).

For a family making a lot of money, spending 5k-10k won't matter. For the rest of us, I would say you can do a lot of this on your own for less. Or hire for specific areas of need, for example essay review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not as easy to say if it is worth it or not - even with school results. What if they accepted your student based on something having nothing to do with the counselor's work? We hired a counselor once, not a high end one, and it helped us and our student. Since we have three kids, I can make a decent case that paying the first time helped across all three kids.

You hire a counselor to do one or more of the following:

1. College prospect selection without parent/high school bias
2. Set and manage a process
3. Overall story of the student and making sure it comes through the app
4. Additional eyes on essays and ideas for same
5. How to complete the common app
6. Any secret sauce on differentiation, how different colleges work, etc.
7. Maybe most important - you don't have to be the task master and sour your relationship with your student, the counselor does that (in a nice way).

For a family making a lot of money, spending 5k-10k won't matter. For the rest of us, I would say you can do a lot of this on your own for less. Or hire for specific areas of need, for example essay review.

College counselor here. This is a good post, although I'd add a #8 which is managing parent anxiety. This is increasingly part of the job for me and for other counselors I speak with.

[Anonymous]

How do I find reputable ones? Witg good track records?

I’m also hearing the “good ones” are about 50-75,000 a year. Ones like IvyWise; IvyCoach; Crimson etc.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I can comment after it’s all over. No results yet.

[Anonymous]

All essays are written by DC only, and effectively written.

Have access to following:

College Counsellor: pretty useless

Ex AO form an Ivy (30K for their services):
- Overall narrative, common app story, language/flow for activities and the essay
- College essays (for top 10 filing) - review, catching red flags, additional eyes
- Completing and filing support for specific colleges
- Secret insights about respective process
- Guide / coach and provide motivation to DC during this stressful process

Partner with a Strategy/MBB firm:
- Research and analysis on all college / Univ - overall strategic approach
- Prioritization - which college to drop, file and keep as backup etc
- Structuring the narrative along with the ex AO
- Structure essays, ECs and story part
- Program manage the entire process
- Use his network to get internship and LOR
- Fund and bank roll the entire process

[Anonymous]

Yes, hired one. DC accepted to all but one school so far through EA. (Did not ED.). Deferred at one but that was expected. Waiting to hear from 2 more "reach" schools but is pretty set already on one of the EA admits. Also received substantial merit aid.

Yes, helpful on next steps for deferred school.

Used an individual, not a company, and yes would do it again.

[Anonymous]

I hired one and it was not worth it.
I pretty much paid for a random list of schools that didn’t make sense and a personality test. They did not assist in the essay writing. My DD ended up at UVA which wasn’t even one of the 20 schools on their suggested list.

[Anonymous]

Following up to say it was a firm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do I find reputable ones? Witg good track records?

I’m also hearing the “good ones” are about 50-75,000 a year. Ones like IvyWise; IvyCoach; Crimson etc.

lol no one with real money ie rich paid that
. That’s my cronies