In hindsight, was your college counselor worth it? If so, can you share who it was?

[Anonymous]

College counselor here. My clients recommend me to their friends, families and neighbors. I would start with those in your life with Class of 2023 and Class of 2024 students, especially swimmers. I disagree with the 07:52 client to wait until April 1. Most of my Class of 2024 students are finished with their admissions process and so parents are already in a position to recommend (or not recommend). The longer you wait, the sooner your preferred counselor will be filled.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not. We hired someone for essay help. The comments on the first essay (common app) were not insightful and advice on the application itself (questions we had) were generic. So we stopped even sending essays for comment. Waste of money.

With my prior kid, we used an a la carte option (pay by the hour). That's what I'll do for the third kid.

[Anonymous]

We didn't hire one. We helped our kid ourselves. He's a good writer to start (and I am as well).

His essays are pretty fantastic. I had a few people (editor friend and a professional writer friend and a former AO) read them after he had already submitted a few applications and there were almost no changes. They are unique.

I think the more and more people hire these professional counselors to craft their narrative and basically rewrite their essays---the less and less personal they become. It's like that article another pp posted about the rich hiring these counselors for $1500 an hour. They come up with the essay topics for the kids, etc. At some point, this is taking all of the personality out of the application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't hire one. We helped our kid ourselves. He's a good writer to start (and I am as well).

His essays are pretty fantastic. I had a few people (editor friend and a professional writer friend and a former AO) read them after he had already submitted a few applications and there were almost no changes. They are unique.

I think the more and more people hire these professional counselors to craft their narrative and basically rewrite their essays---the less and less personal they become. It's like that article another pp posted about the rich hiring these counselors for $1500 an hour. They come up with the essay topics for the kids, etc. At some point, this is taking all of the personality out of the application.

I am sure your kid is a good writer but no one believe you showed a professional writer after the fact.

[Anonymous]

1000% worth it. Ours found schools for DD that I probably wouldn't have thought of, including one that she's already been accepted to with a really nice merit package. Also has helped navigate CSS Profile and FAFSA and worked to prep her for her interviews. Best part was that I could enjoy her senior year and not have every interaction be college related. Already told her we'd be signing up next year for our sophomore son.

Could I have done it all myself? Yes, but when this is someone's full time job and they're in it all day every day there's no way my knowledge could keep up. Could I fix a plumbing issue in our house by watching you tube videos, sure but it would take me hours where a pro could do it better and faster. For us it was a solid investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% worth it. No question. Not comfortable posting name.

Hilariously unhelpful.
But that was the point, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1000% worth it. Ours found schools for DD that I probably wouldn't have thought of, including one that she's already been accepted to with a really nice merit package. Also has helped navigate CSS Profile and FAFSA and worked to prep her for her interviews. Best part was that I could enjoy her senior year and not have every interaction be college related. Already told her we'd be signing up next year for our sophomore son.

Could I have done it all myself? Yes, but when this is someone's full time job and they're in it all day every day there's no way my knowledge could keep up. Could I fix a plumbing issue in our house by watching you tube videos, sure but it would take me hours where a pro could do it better and faster. For us it was a solid investment.

Sounds great! Can you share the name?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here. My clients recommend me to their friends, families and neighbors. I would start with those in your life with Class of 2023 and Class of 2024 students, especially swimmers. I disagree with the 07:52 client to wait until April 1. Most of my Class of 2024 students are finished with their admissions process and so parents are already in a position to recommend (or not recommend). The longer you wait, the sooner your preferred counselor will be filled.

1. Your reading comprehension is poor. That poster is recommending waiting til after offers are in, to know if a counselor was effective or not. They might have juniors. That is not leaving anything too late.

2. Your grammar is atrocious. That final sentence actually doesn't even make sense. Who would hire a terrible writer to look at their kid's essay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% worth it. No question. Not comfortable posting name.

+1

Ours was a flat rate from 9th grade thru the finish line. Due to covid we didn't start until Jan junior year. They helped create a great list of schools---I know what I'm doing and yet, ultimately only 1 of my kid's final 3 was on my initial list. They found a gem of a safety school my kid loved. They help with time management, so I wasn't nagging my kid from July -Dec. Instead it ran smoothly and by Nov 1, all but 2 RD applications were submitted (those 2 were submitted once ED1 became a deferral). So our holiday seasons was less stressed.

Worth every penny

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't hire one. We helped our kid ourselves. He's a good writer to start (and I am as well).

His essays are pretty fantastic. I had a few people (editor friend and a professional writer friend and a former AO) read them after he had already submitted a few applications and there were almost no changes. They are unique.

I think the more and more people hire these professional counselors to craft their narrative and basically rewrite their essays---the less and less personal they become. It's like that article another pp posted about the rich hiring these counselors for $1500 an hour. They come up with the essay topics for the kids, etc. At some point, this is taking all of the personality out of the application.

I am sure your kid is a good writer but no one believe you showed a professional writer after the fact.

So what if you believe or not. He majorly procrastinated before the 11/1 deadline so--nope--nobody saw them. Ran them through grammarly--husband and I both reviewed over time--offered suggestions.

He incorporated one very minor change that was suggested for the next round of applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100% worth it. No question. Not comfortable posting name.

Hilariously unhelpful.
But that was the point, right?

+2 so so so DCUM

[Anonymous]

Ours wasn't worth it, or at least not for a "full package." They are a local (DC area) highly regarded counselor. I don't want to post their name because they didn't do anything wrong, they just didn't do anything uniquely useful either, so it just wasn't worth even close to the $8,000 we spent.

The areas that we were least dissatisfied with their services were (1) coming up with college lists, and (2) analyzing DC's chances at colleges. As far as the lists, the counselor came up with a generic list of about 40 colleges that I could have easily, easily done myself - the only colleges on the list that I wouldn't have put on the list are ones that we all scratched our heads and crossed off immediately anyway. They basically then left it to DC to research and self-narrow the list. As far as analyzing chances, of course we did not expect the counselor to have a crystal or even opaque ball. But we did expect to receive some market and historical insights that we wouldn't know on our own. Also the counselor was aggressively conservative with chances, to the point that I believe that DC undershot because they were psyched out by their chances many places that they really didn't need to be. I know that ultimately the call as to where to apply was on DC and we the parents, but we were using the counselor for advice in these regards.

The area which was most helpful was time deadlines and the counselor being the nudge about the due dates with DC. That having been said, as another posted pointed out, the counselor can't make their students comply with deadlines, so there often were times that I as a parent had to get involved so it wasn't like it removed all angst between us, and also against weighing against the $8k counselor fee I would have accepted dealing with some more strife between DC and me.

For my next kid, I plan to hire an essay coach and that is it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here. My clients recommend me to their friends, families and neighbors. I would start with those in your life with Class of 2023 and Class of 2024 students, especially swimmers. I disagree with the 07:52 client to wait until April 1. Most of my Class of 2024 students are finished with their admissions process and so parents are already in a position to recommend (or not recommend). The longer you wait, the sooner your preferred counselor will be filled.

1. Your reading comprehension is poor. That poster is recommending waiting til after offers are in, to know if a counselor was effective or not. They might have juniors. That is not leaving anything too late.

2. Your grammar is atrocious. That final sentence actually doesn't even make sense. Who would hire a terrible writer to look at their kid's essay?

The Class of 2024 students who applied ED (and were admitted) are finished with their college application process. Their parents do not need to wait until April 1 to be able to recommend their counselor to the OP now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1000% worth it. Ours found schools for DD that I probably wouldn't have thought of, including one that she's already been accepted to with a really nice merit package. Also has helped navigate CSS Profile and FAFSA and worked to prep her for her interviews. Best part was that I could enjoy her senior year and not have every interaction be college related. Already told her we'd be signing up next year for our sophomore son.

Could I have done it all myself? Yes, but when this is someone's full time job and they're in it all day every day there's no way my knowledge could keep up. Could I fix a plumbing issue in our house by watching you tube videos, sure but it would take me hours where a pro could do it better and faster. For us it was a solid investment.

Sounds great! Can you share the name?

It was Foundry Admissions, they're small so I think that lends to them being more hands on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here. My clients recommend me to their friends, families and neighbors. I would start with those in your life with Class of 2023 and Class of 2024 students, especially swimmers. I disagree with the 07:52 client to wait until April 1. Most of my Class of 2024 students are finished with their admissions process and so parents are already in a position to recommend (or not recommend). The longer you wait, the sooner your preferred counselor will be filled.

1. Your reading comprehension is poor. That poster is recommending waiting til after offers are in, to know if a counselor was effective or not. They might have juniors. That is not leaving anything too late.

2. Your grammar is atrocious. That final sentence actually doesn't even make sense. Who would hire a terrible writer to look at their kid's essay?

The Class of 2024 students who applied ED (and were admitted) are finished with their college application process. Their parents do not need to wait until April 1 to be able to recommend their counselor to the OP now.

Not every kid has an ED spot, not every college offers ED.