College Counseling?

[Anonymous]

My DC is in MS. We've only heard wonderful things about the College Counseling department in the US at our current school, particularly the head of it, from friends who have gone through the process at school. I was shocked to recently learn that many if not "most" 11th grade families at our school, despite liking and appreciating the services of the CC dept, hire outside consultants to assist with the college selection/essay process.

Is that typical among other private schools? DCUM'rs will you hire consultants or rely solely on your school's internal CC team for guidance?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

[Anonymous]

OP -- Is this Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

OP here - No, not Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Those outside consultants are outrageously expensive. And not worth it, especially if you have someone in house who is good. Some parents think writing all these checks will somehow transform their child into someone who can get into certain schools.

Its a good idea to start resisting the crazy right now and block these things out. Trust me, as your child moves through upper school the crazy can make you crazy. Try to be normal even when no one around you is.

[Anonymous]

We did not hire an outside consultant for our private school kid, nor do we know many people across multiple schools who did either. That being said we were pretty comfortable with the process and DC was not aiming at top 10 type schools. We may hire someone to help a bit for our public school kid, since the level of support it very different, but not even sure about that. We feel pretty good about the list of colleges, Naviance is hugely useful, and we've been through it once before, but it might be good to have some help with the application and the public school counselors can't spend that kind of time with the kids.

[Anonymous]

Ncs.

[Anonymous]

Had kids at two big 3 schools recently and didn't even think of it, the college counseling was really good, lots of of attention to kids, very realistic and their predictions and advice were spot on. They were excellent advocates and sounding boards for essays etc. Both kids ended up getting into their top choices, one a top Ivy and the other a top SLAC. We did not know of anyone who seemed to be using an outside consultant, if any did, was for their own insecurities not for lack of input at school. Don't put the extra pressure on your kid to have yet another adult telling them what to do. The process is stressful enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had kids at two big 3 schools recently and didn't even think of it, the college counseling was really good, lots of of attention to kids, very realistic and their predictions and advice were spot on. They were excellent advocates and sounding boards for essays etc. Both kids ended up getting into their top choices, one a top Ivy and the other a top SLAC. We did not know of anyone who seemed to be using an outside consultant, if any did, was for their own insecurities not for lack of input at school. Don't put the extra pressure on your kid to have yet another adult telling them what to do. The process is stressful enough.

This sounds like a top-notch program, and ITA with your advice on not adding to the already significant pressure on kids. Would you mind saying which school this was?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those outside consultants are outrageously expensive. And not worth it, especially if you have someone in house who is good. Some parents think writing all these checks will somehow transform their child into someone who can get into certain schools.

Its a good idea to start resisting the crazy right now and block these things out. Trust me, as your child moves through upper school the crazy can make you crazy. Try to be normal even when no one around you is.

We made the mistake of hiring an outside college counselor - spent more than $3000 and (I'm quite certain) ended up exactly where we would have been without her.

[Anonymous]

It's not clear to me if the predictions from college counselors are self-fulfilling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those outside consultants are outrageously expensive. And not worth it, especially if you have someone in house who is good. Some parents think writing all these checks will somehow transform their child into someone who can get into certain schools.

Its a good idea to start resisting the crazy right now and block these things out. Trust me, as your child moves through upper school the crazy can make you crazy. Try to be normal even when no one around you is.

We made the mistake of hiring an outside college counselor - spent more than $3000 and (I'm quite certain) ended up exactly where we would have been without her.

So what did they help with? I posted earlier that we are deciding if we need some help with the application. I don't think we need help identifying colleges, we understand the process (been through it before), kid has good ECs. I think all we really need is some essay/application help. What else do the counselors provide? Did you need to buy a whole package or could you pick and choose?

[Anonymous]

We got a friend who is an editor by profession to help DC with college essays - the personal statement and a few other major ones. We took her out to dinner to say thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My DC is in MS. We've only heard wonderful things about the College Counseling department in the US at our current school, particularly the head of it, from friends who have gone through the process at school. I was shocked to recently learn that many if not "most" 11th grade families at our school, despite liking and appreciating the services of the CC dept, hire outside consultants to assist with the college selection/essay process.

Is that typical among other private schools? DCUM'rs will you hire consultants or rely solely on your school's internal CC team for guidance?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Really, "you're shocked" that envelop pusher parents of the kind we have in Washington would hire someone to write their kids college essays? It doesn't stop there.... some parents even pay services to write their college papers for them and some Mom's call professors to argue for a "B" to be changed to an "A". Yes, in college . Their rationalization is nothing more self-examining then " we are paying 60K a year, we should be able to call the professor as parents"

America is going to shit one spoiled infantalized BRAT at a time. And god help us all when we expect these human beings to run the country. We thought boomers were self absorbed...geesh. get ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got a friend who is an editor by profession to help DC with college essays - the personal statement and a few other major ones. We took her out to dinner to say thank you.

PUKE.

[Anonymous]

This is why I pay for private. Ours has excellent college counseling. If they don't, what's the point?