Are Private Counselors a Bad Idea?

[Anonymous]

On YCBK today the host and Julia talked about how private counselors can make it worse for students at independent schools. Anyone have experience with this?

[Anonymous]

Of course. You're hiring someone because you think they're not doing enough (or are good enough) for your kid

[Anonymous]

I went to a college presentation that had admission counselors from three different schools and they all derided private admission counselors.

[Anonymous]

Depends on for what purpose. DC's college list should be determined between DC and CCO, I don't think private counselor should have a final say on the college list.

For essays, I don't see how a private outside counselor could make things worse.

Before junior year, you will occasionally need a private counselor when CCO has not been assigned to DC.

[Anonymous]

Skip counseling, it’s a waste of money. Invest in SAT prep and maybe a good essay coach, if needed.

[Anonymous]

Yes it's a waste just use AI to create an individualized plan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Skip counseling, it’s a waste of money. Invest in SAT prep and maybe a good essay coach, if needed.

For kids with ADHD, it's a good idea to have an outside counselor to keep them float. Just a weekly meeting would help a lot, making sure all the details have been taken care of. It's not even counseling, it's project management.

[Anonymous]

The counselors at our independent school have been polite about the possibility of families hiring private counselors but they made it clear that they will be the counselors of record and anything other than test prep is a waste of money and risks impeding the process. They have an essay coach on staff so I can’t really see the point of hiring anyone else other than to personally harass your kid (and we plan to task DC’s exec function coach with that).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The counselors at our independent school have been polite about the possibility of families hiring private counselors but they made it clear that they will be the counselors of record and anything other than test prep is a waste of money and risks impeding the process. They have an essay coach on staff so I can’t really see the point of hiring anyone else other than to personally harass your kid (and we plan to task DC’s exec function coach with that).

I found this comical. Are you serious? Is exec func coach familiar with the application process and all the nuances?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The counselors at our independent school have been polite about the possibility of families hiring private counselors but they made it clear that they will be the counselors of record and anything other than test prep is a waste of money and risks impeding the process. They have an essay coach on staff so I can’t really see the point of hiring anyone else other than to personally harass your kid (and we plan to task DC’s exec function coach with that).

I found this comical. Are you serious? Is exec func coach familiar with the application process and all the nuances?

We are tasking exec function coach with harassing DC to do the things assigned by the school’s counseling team. Exec function coach also isn’t familiar with calculus but is perfectly capable of helping DC stay on track to finish homework and study for tests. It’s not the subject matter, it’s the staying on track with tasks assigned by others.

[Anonymous]

Total scam.

Class of 2024. No paid, private counselors. No essay coach,

Kid wrote essay May in AP English lang class and refined it for 6 months.

Only $ spent wad 4 sessions with a private ACT prep tutor.

Accepted 2 Ivies RD, Hopkins, Williams, Georgetown, Pomona RD.

I truly believe they can be a detriment. They lowball kids to get them in somewhere and strip all of the creativity “own voice” out of their apps.

[Anonymous]

Speaking as a college admissions consultant, the reason why we get a bad rap is because in the 2010s, the only credentialing programs for independents were the same ones that credentialed high school college counselors. So the perception that we were redundant and only for families who needed extra help the high school counselor couldn't provide was largely true.

Since then, however, the field has matured and evolved a lot. In many ways that school counselors aren't aware of. In my practice, we use admissions rubrics from highly selective college admissions offices that we've combined with proprietary data we gathered from colleges, the CollegeBoard, our partnerships with local high school counselors, and our own clientele dating back 16 years. It allows us to run gap analyses on students so services are targeted and pragmatic, and additive rather than redundant, wasteful, or off-target.

The admissions rubrics we used were gathered from active involvement in NACAC over more than a decade—and won't be found by parents searching online. Furthermore, the most valuable insights we gained about below-average SAT/ACT patterns that can still win admission at various colleges were drawn from the period before test-optional policies became widespread. The pre-test optional score thresholds still hold true in today's test-optional environment and aid in the decision to report SAT/ACT scores or withhold them. But someone trying to draw the same conclusions today would have an extremely difficult time sorting through current data given the diversity of testing policies across colleges.

Beware the bigger firms that are driven by sales. If you look on Yelp and Google Business Reviews, you can find college consultants who consult to the size of the gap that's actually necessary and helpful. You may have to search for consultants in other cities, as everyone works virtually now. But we're out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Skip counseling, it’s a waste of money. Invest in SAT prep and maybe a good essay coach, if needed.

Exactly. No private counseling needed.

Yes to essay editing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as a college admissions consultant, the reason why we get a bad rap is because in the 2010s, the only credentialing programs for independents were the same ones that credentialed high school college counselors. So the perception that we were redundant and only for families who needed extra help the high school counselor couldn't provide was largely true.

Since then, however, the field has matured and evolved a lot. In many ways that school counselors aren't aware of. In my practice, we use admissions rubrics from highly selective college admissions offices that we've combined with proprietary data we gathered from colleges, the CollegeBoard, our partnerships with local high school counselors, and our own clientele dating back 16 years. It allows us to run gap analyses on students so services are targeted and pragmatic, and additive rather than redundant, wasteful, or off-target.

The admissions rubrics we used were gathered from active involvement in NACAC over more than a decade—and won't be found by parents searching online. Furthermore, the most valuable insights we gained about below-average SAT/ACT patterns that can still win admission at various colleges were drawn from the period before test-optional policies became widespread. The pre-test optional score thresholds still hold true in today's test-optional environment and aid in the decision to report SAT/ACT scores or withhold them. But someone trying to draw the same conclusions today would have an extremely difficult time sorting through current data given the diversity of testing policies across colleges.

Beware the bigger firms that are driven by sales. If you look on Yelp and Google Business Reviews, you can find college consultants who consult to the size of the gap that's actually necessary and helpful. You may have to search for consultants in other cities, as everyone works virtually now. But we're out there.

The rubric analysis is what I’d pay for.

Did my own work on that - spending months on podcasts, websites, webinars and CDS along with old IEC reports to put together summaries for 6 super reach schools. My kid was admitted to 3 of the 6 and WL at 1.

How would we contact you? Need help again in 3 years!

[Anonymous]

I personally know 4 moms turned private college coach or college essay tutor. It is a joke. I know as much as they do from having a couple kids apply to college. People pay them $10,000 for their services. It is like the new interior decorator side gig for rich SAHMs. Sure, they get certified by an online class or something. Not one of them have ever worked in a college admissions office or even a high school college counseling office. They think because Larla got into Cornell they are experts.