Equity - Private College Counselor and HS Counselor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the public counselor will not care. It doesn't matter. And, I think it sends the wrong message to coach kids not to reveal information like this to their school staff - if your kid might mention it naturally, they should. That said, I'll admit that I cringed inside when our DD mentioned support with a private counselor in a parent-teacher conference at our public last year. But the teacher later asked if DD could team up with her on a project to get more college search and application process information out to other students during homeroom meetings, get the word out about free resources, etc. DD was really into this and followed through with the teacher and made it happen. And her private counselor was actually supportive of this!

On another note, I was surprised to see that our DD's ED school had a question on the application that asked students to check off the supports used to prepare the application. Independent counselor was one of the options. DD answered honestly and reported support from a private counselor.

What school, if you don’t mind sharing? That’s interesting. Did the app ask about SAT prep?

This was Carleton College. It didn't ask about SAT prep. Just asked what kind of support was used in preparing the app and listed things like high school counselor, family members, independent counselor, etc. FWIW, DD had completed about nine other apps prior to ED admittance to Carleton including a couple of Ivies, and this question wasn't on any of the other apps that I recall.

Is that an optional question?

It looks optional:

"We'd love to learn more about you and your experience applying to college. Which resources did you use to prepare your application? Check as many as apply:

School: teacher, counselor, etc.
Community-based organization: counselor, mentor, etc.
Friend or classmate
Independent counselor
Parent or other family member
Other mentor: sports coach, work supervisor, religious leader, etc.
Chat GPT or other AI
Online resources or guidebooks
Limited access to any support or resources
Other response"

I would take the 5th amendment

[Anonymous]

I highly doubt a public counselor will care. I have no idea if my kids mentioned their private counselor to the school counselor. Hiding it never occurred to me. If anything I’d think school counselor would be glad to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselors are busy since they have hundreds of students to deal with. I'm sure they'd be very happy if some students had private college counselors.

But I wouldn't say anything. Think of it as bonus advice.

They wouldn’t be any less busy. They still have to meet with all their students and verify class placement is appropriate, graduation requirements,
Etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselors are busy since they have hundreds of students to deal with. I'm sure they'd be very happy if some students had private college counselors.

But I wouldn't say anything. Think of it as bonus advice.

They wouldn’t be any less busy. They still have to meet with all their students and verify class placement is appropriate, graduation requirements,
Etc.

They’re bothered with a million random college app questions too. It’s very difficult and time consuming to answer them all. So if students have a different resource then it helps lighten their load so they can assist other students.

[Anonymous]

We are in a large public school, no private counselor but our DC did ask for and get several meetings with her school's councelor to discuss thier options. I think it is important for kids to leverage the school councelor more than a casual hello. Whether you are using external counselor or not, having the HS counselor know a lot about the child is important - they are the ones writing a recommendation letter and thier bias will come out. As for us, our DC relied heavily on youtube videos (private counselors, AOs etc), collegevine (and similar sites) to come up with their initial list which the HS councelor helped trim (and matched most of our suggestions ). So I know I am not answering the original question but this is my way of saying - dont overlook the public HS councelors even if you have a private coach helping you.