College advising at area privates

[Anonymous]

What we see on paper for college matriculation is a small part of the picture. Id like to know if people feel they get the same personal attention and attempt to match kids with the right school that in the way that NCS and Field apparently do. Or, are there schools that are on the other end of the spectrum that leave parents frustrated.

[Anonymous]

What is experience of people at maret and Sidwell? We are considering these for our kids. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What we see on paper for college matriculation is a small part of the picture. Id like to know if people feel they get the same personal attention and attempt to match kids with the right school that in the way that NCS and Field apparently do. Or, are there schools that are on the other end of the spectrum that leave parents frustrated.

My advice would be to stop trolling for negative comments about college counselors and when you apply to specific schools, talk to current families to see how they've liked the college counseling set-up/experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we see on paper for college matriculation is a small part of the picture. Id like to know if people feel they get the same personal attention and attempt to match kids with the right school that in the way that NCS and Field apparently do. Or, are there schools that are on the other end of the spectrum that leave parents frustrated.

My advice would be to stop trolling for negative comments about college counselors and when you apply to specific schools, talk to current families to see how they've liked the college counseling set-up/experience.

I agree. Intentionally or not, this thread is just fishing for negative comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is experience of people at maret and Sidwell? We are considering these for our kids. Thanks.

Honestly, all of the independent schools basically have a similar set-up. Good ratios of counselors to student. Use of the Naviance database to show families where their kid stacks up on the numbers compared to recent grads of the same independent school in terms of success applying to any given college. The college counselor statement will be a lengthy narrative that draws extensively on the detailed written teacher comments for the student throughout the high school years. Generally there are workshops on essay writing and the college counselors will comment/give feedback on essays.

All of this sounds great to me, a public school grad with a very good but overworked guidance counselor who had, say 150 students as his caseload, and who didn't have time to proofread or comment on college essays.

If you are curious, I would first start at a school's web site and see if they describe their approach or have a timeline -- many do. Then -- if you get into a school as highly selective as either Maret or Sidwell -- there is plenty of time to find out more about college counseling by talking to other families.

Even with the much greater transparency of the process now (access to things like Naviance; NY Times coverage of the process; acceptance ratios; yield numbers; tell-all books by former college admissions officers), many parents seem to default reflexively to what it was like when we applied to college. Very understandable. However, if you do some background reading, you'll see that insiders really do believe there's been a sea change, for all the reasons discussed (Common App; internet democratization of application process; robust international competition for undergrad slots; colleges playing to the U.S. News & World ranking system). To pick just one example, liberal arts colleges are far more likely to put large numbers of very good students on waiting lists these days. That allows them to lower their acceptance rate -- a key element in the ratings system -- and then pull kids off the waiting list (and oh, by the way, even at need blind schools generally the waitings list admissions are NOT need-blind). 30 years ago, even 15 years ago, you didn't see a very qualified kid with 5-6 WL results, but it's not uncommon now.

It's worth doing the research, even if it gives you a little bit of heartburn. It will save you and your child angst in the long run and probably as a by-produce not think that the college counselor doesn't know your kid, or care about your kid, or is under-selling your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So thus far all we've learned is that NCS seems to have a decent system and that Sidwell's is in transition. Can people be a little more detailed and also refer to their school by name? It would be really helpful to see how school x compares to school y. As the parent of a middle schooler, such info would be helpful.

GDS is very good, as evidenced by their amazing placement record at the Top Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What we see on paper for college matriculation is a small part of the picture. Id like to know if people feel they get the same personal attention and attempt to match kids with the right school that in the way that NCS and Field apparently do. Or, are there schools that are on the other end of the spectrum that leave parents frustrated.

Former NCS and Field parents here. NCS does not give nearly the same expertise. I did not know anyone in person who was happy with their approach, though they do have to deal with a lot of entitled parents. Field was universally appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Our NCS counselor has been of little help to date.
We have experience with college placement ( from another Big 3) and see a big gap in attitude, interest and know how on the NCS side. . There is no comparison-NCS doesn't offer much information other than the standard recommendation. Lots of dissatisfied families and no one cares...

[Anonymous]

This thread is pretty frustrating. Parents of kids who got up their first choice thing the advising is great. Parents of kids who got into their last choice think it's terrible. Odds of a straight answer on this forum are ridiculously slim. You need to talk to a real human, in person.

[Anonymous]

We were very pleased with the college counseling at St. Andrew's. They put a number of required meetings with the kids and parents on the calendar throughout junior and senior year (some preliminary work with the kids earlier), and we found the counselor very accessible to set up additional calls/meetings as requested. Before senior year, I felt the counselor was getting to know our child and ourselves very well, and that was quite valuable in answering questions about which schools should /should not be on the final lists -- and that was much deeper than just SATs and GPA -- it was really fit in intangible ways. Beyond that, he weighed in on course selection, summer activities, and even suggested paths for what was reasonable or not in terms of school visits. My sense is that most people would say similar things about college counseling there, but I would admit that you probably get the most out of it if you do as much work on your own as possible before going in to talk with the counselors. That's how you can take advantage of their real knowledge of schools and process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is pretty frustrating. Parents of kids who got up their first choice thing the advising is great. Parents of kids who got into their last choice think it's terrible. Odds of a straight answer on this forum are ridiculously slim. You need to talk to a real human, in person.

Actually, I posted that our kids got into their first-choice school (early action, in fact), but we were disappointed in the counseling process nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, I have known the new counselor at SFS in a different context (we are talking about c.z., right?) and he is a really good guy, a really competent person. I think he will do a good job. No skin in the game here at sidwell but I think they made a good choice.

[Anonymous]

We had a very good experience at GDS. Advice spot-on, really spent time getting to know my kid, had a team approach which decreased angst over whether assigned the strongest or newest person, and really tried very hard to put the responsibility, decision making etc on the kid and not the parents or the counselor. A clear schedule, set of expectations. No matter what not everyone is going to be happy if they are not admitted to their first choice, but an amazing number of kids seemed to be going where they wanted, and most others to their 2nd or 3rd choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is pretty frustrating. Parents of kids who got up their first choice thing the advising is great. Parents of kids who got into their last choice think it's terrible. Odds of a straight answer on this forum are ridiculously slim. You need to talk to a real human, in person.

Actually, I posted that our kids got into their first-choice school (early action, in fact), but we were disappointed in the counseling process nonetheless.

Dear me. What would have been enough to please your Royal Highness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a very good experience at GDS. Advice spot-on, really spent time getting to know my kid, had a team approach which decreased angst over whether assigned the strongest or newest person, and really tried very hard to put the responsibility, decision making etc on the kid and not the parents or the counselor. A clear schedule, set of expectations. No matter what not everyone is going to be happy if they are not admitted to their first choice, but an amazing number of kids seemed to be going where they wanted, and most others to their 2nd or 3rd choice.

So true. GDS has a simply amazing record at getting students into first choice schools, including the Top Ivies.