College Counseling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has weighed in about costs. $5k? $15k? 5 billion? I would love to know the range. Thanks.

You can find what you are looking for based on your budget. You can work with a counselor for one hour ($250+/hour) or for a comprehensive package. Comprehensive packages in this area are in the $5k-$15K range. Do not work with a 5 billion counselor.

High end full service generally range from $15-85k per year.

Lots of recs here. Search Ivy wise or Ivy prep or crimson etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both people I know who hired counselors had really disappointing results. I don’t know if this is because their expectations were too high, but their kids ended up at schools arguably “worse” than other kids with similar profiles.

the big mistake is thinking the counselor is responsible for where the kids end up.

[Anonymous]

We used a consultant for our first child, and although the outcome was strong, I swore I wouldn't do it again. This was mainly an issue with fit. Consultant and I didn't see eye to eye on things, and many times I was right. Also my daughter didn't gel with her.

But here I am once again with a rising junior and I am ready to write another check (an completely new person from another company). Why? Because I already feel tension in the house, and I want to relieve that by having an "expert" guide us. DH and I often disagree on strategies, and DD can be hard to motivate to get tasks done. I also want someone to evaluate her essays and I don't want it to be myself or my husband.

We can easily afford this service, so money is not the issue. I think we might have found a good fit this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received an email this morning that Prepmatters is closing down the college counseling arm of their business, effective end of the week. It seems rather abrupt since many kids are still deciding. We have had good experiences with their tutors.

Did they give a reason for why they were closing down their college counseling services?

I received that email, too. I'm furious. We signed up with them two years ago so that my child, who is now a junior, would have a space in their 2025 class.

But now they have abruptly closed their doors and leaving my child high and dry and needing to start over with someone else. And we've already paid them a lot of $$$ - now we will effectively have to double pay if we want to find a new provider. They couldn't even see the current juniors through to completion of the cycle. This is so awful!

Someone asked if PrepMatters gave a reason for this sudden turn of events. The email was short and curt and only said "With the many changes in recent years, we are no longer able to offer counseling services that meet our educational standards in a way that is financially viable."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received an email this morning that Prepmatters is closing down the college counseling arm of their business, effective end of the week. It seems rather abrupt since many kids are still deciding. We have had good experiences with their tutors.

Did they give a reason for why they were closing down their college counseling services?

I received that email, too. I'm furious. We signed up with them two years ago so that my child, who is now a junior, would have a space in their 2025 class.

But now they have abruptly closed their doors and leaving my child high and dry and needing to start over with someone else. And we've already paid them a lot of $$$ - now we will effectively have to double pay if we want to find a new provider. They couldn't even see the current juniors through to completion of the cycle. This is so awful!

Someone asked if PrepMatters gave a reason for this sudden turn of events. The email was short and curt and only said "With the many changes in recent years, we are no longer able to offer counseling services that meet our educational standards in a way that is financially viable."

You should be requesting money back. How much were their packages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re paying big money for that in-house counseling with way more attention/expertise.

No need to pay for even more.

+1

DC sophomore at private school, have already had grade specific sessions and meetings with college counseling department that started last year. Will be assigned their counselor early next year. I have full confidence in the CC office at school.

I *did* run interviews with some college counseling services (e.g. IvyWise etc) and while some were more impressive than others, I couldn’t justify the incremental spend when the CC dept. at school by all appearances is great (both in what we’ve experienced so far, word of mouth from upper class families and college acceptances at school).

[Anonymous]

We used a private counselling company. Waste of money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received an email this morning that Prepmatters is closing down the college counseling arm of their business, effective end of the week. It seems rather abrupt since many kids are still deciding. We have had good experiences with their tutors.

Did they give a reason for why they were closing down their college counseling services?

I received that email, too. I'm furious. We signed up with them two years ago so that my child, who is now a junior, would have a space in their 2025 class.

But now they have abruptly closed their doors and leaving my child high and dry and needing to start over with someone else. And we've already paid them a lot of $$$ - now we will effectively have to double pay if we want to find a new provider. They couldn't even see the current juniors through to completion of the cycle. This is so awful!

Someone asked if PrepMatters gave a reason for this sudden turn of events. The email was short and curt and only said "With the many changes in recent years, we are no longer able to offer counseling services that meet our educational standards in a way that is financially viable."

You should be requesting money back. How much were their packages?

The whole thing with PrepMatters stinks!!!!

That they suddenly abandoned their junior 2025 students (and all their college advising student customers, really) leaving them high and dry is abhorrent.

As for how much we paid:

* We signed up during our child's freshman year and paid more than $2,000 up front with the understanding that this would ensure a spot in their 2025 student roster (they cap how many they take each year) - and we paid this up front with the understanding that the lion's share of the work would come the summer after junior year and into the fall of senior year. I suppose they call this an "onboarding fee".

* In addition, we also paid them by the hour whenever we had consults with them re course selection, college visits, SAT or ACT, etc.

So now, we have to start over which will cause us more time and money spent.

Yes, my wife will be calling them this week to ask about the money. We will take a tempered and empathetic approach but get very firm if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School counselor is not enough, unless you have a perfect stats and very dynamic kid.

False

I really think it depends how much time you as the parent can spend doing research and assisting your child. We hired a expensive college counselor, local to the DC area however they seem to not know much about our child’s public school and the context in which our child sits in terms of the course selection or the activities they have been involved in and how that all fits together in relation to others at their school. They don’t usually know the school that you come from as well as the school counselor or frankly as well as you do, if you ask questions.
I’m not sure we are getting much value out of the private college counselor to be honest, it’s a crapshoot these days and the college counselors are not going to help you get in more these days , as they might have 10 years ago. They also seem to be less concerned with “where you can get in” as a sure thing vs where you want to go, or big picture thinking.

[Anonymous]

Typo above: I meant to write that they seem to be MORE concerned with where you can get in as a “sure thing” vs where you would want to go. I think they don’t want the client to feel disappointed so they try to convince them of less selective options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School counselor is not enough, unless you have a perfect stats and very dynamic kid.

False

It actually depends how much the counselor likes your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both people I know who hired counselors had really disappointing results. I don’t know if this is because their expectations were too high, but their kids ended up at schools arguably “worse” than other kids with similar profiles.

College counselors are not miracle workers. They cannot guarantee admission to T20 schools.

We hired ours for Time management, essay planning & review, generating a great list of colleges to consider. A good one will help you find a list of 10-12 schools, including 3-4 reaches, 3-4 Targets, and 3-4 Safeties (with at least 1 being a Likely). If you need merit, they will help direct you to schools where your kid will get the merit you need.

For our kid, they helped identify the best fit schools, that we may not have even put in the list (and I know what I'm doing, ran the process for first kid with 1250SAT/3.5UW/No APs and they got into all 10 schools, many with great merit and we were not searching merit) Of my kid's top 3 choices, only 1 was on my radar--and where my kid is currently was not that school.The top 3 list also included a hidden gem of a Safety school, so good it was in the Top 3 for my kid until the end. IMO, the CC was worth the $4K we paid total and that included all 4 years of HS (but we only used it from Jan junior year onward). That and the managing time so I didn't have to nag my procrastinator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School counselor is not enough, unless you have a perfect stats and very dynamic kid.

False

I really think it depends how much time you as the parent can spend doing research and assisting your child. We hired a expensive college counselor, local to the DC area however they seem to not know much about our child’s public school and the context in which our child sits in terms of the course selection or the activities they have been involved in and how that all fits together in relation to others at their school. They don’t usually know the school that you come from as well as the school counselor or frankly as well as you do, if you ask questions.
I’m not sure we are getting much value out of the private college counselor to be honest, it’s a crapshoot these days and the college counselors are not going to help you get in more these days , as they might have 10 years ago. They also seem to be less concerned with “where you can get in” as a sure thing vs where you want to go, or big picture thinking.

Have you shared these concerns with your counselor? You should.

[Anonymous]

I think some of them, at least the one we encountered, have a kind of pattern or schedule they always follow, regardless of the client. And as a result it doesn't always work out or seem fitting.

If you say "we're not considering the Ivies" to a counselor who likes to coach people for the ivies, they should, in theory be able to adapt their schtick to the kid applying to other colleges. In our experience this wasn't the case. The counselor spent over an hour talking to our kid about all the things they should do over the next 2yrs (11th & 12th grade / summers etc) to get into x or y Ivy League.

Total waste of time, that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both people I know who hired counselors had really disappointing results. I don’t know if this is because their expectations were too high, but their kids ended up at schools arguably “worse” than other kids with similar profiles.

College counselors are not miracle workers. They cannot guarantee admission to T20 schools.

We hired ours for Time management, essay planning & review, generating a great list of colleges to consider. A good one will help you find a list of 10-12 schools, including 3-4 reaches, 3-4 Targets, and 3-4 Safeties (with at least 1 being a Likely). If you need merit, they will help direct you to schools where your kid will get the merit you need.

For our kid, they helped identify the best fit schools, that we may not have even put in the list (and I know what I'm doing, ran the process for first kid with 1250SAT/3.5UW/No APs and they got into all 10 schools, many with great merit and we were not searching merit) Of my kid's top 3 choices, only 1 was on my radar--and where my kid is currently was not that school.The top 3 list also included a hidden gem of a Safety school, so good it was in the Top 3 for my kid until the end. IMO, the CC was worth the $4K we paid total and that included all 4 years of HS (but we only used it from Jan junior year onward). That and the managing time so I didn't have to nag my procrastinator

This sounds perfect. Care to share a name?