Did Private College Counseling workout for your DC in the early rounds (2022-2023 applicants)?

[Anonymous]

Nope. Not a great result in early round. We loved our counselor but our Big 3 kid got rejected at Ivy ED and at a competitive state school, waiting to hear on others but not optimistic.
Our counselor did help us find good safeties and was very much a reality check on how hard it is for unhooked kids, even
with great stats from Big 3 schools to get into top 20 Schools. So our kid is into 2 safeties they really like and would be excited to attend.
For me that is where the value is. And she did the nagging for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who the hell needs a counselor to curate a list?

Because if you are not just looking at DC/MD/VA area schools, a great counselor will help you identify some hidden gems. I know how to do the process and did it for first kid. They applied to 10 and got into 10 with merit at all of the private schools (OOS publics don't typically offer much merit if any at all)---but this was a kid with a 25 ACT and 3.5 UW gpa and no AP classes---so more targeting schools ranked 80+ where acceptance rates are typically over 40%.

2nd kid had scores for elite colleges (1520/3.99UW, 10+ AP and good ECs) and wanted to apply to a few. Counselor helped us curate a great list of colleges---about 75% were on my original list (I'm good at doing the research). But the top Safety and where my kid ultimately ended up were not on my radar initially during junior year. my kid ultimately had 3 final choices, including the top safety, where they are and one other that I had heard of but my kid had said no due to location. Well guess what, those 3 were my kid's ultimate final 3 choices and my kid would have been happy at any of them. Counselor also helped a procrastinator stay on schedule without me having to nag and definately helped brainstorm the essays---my kid did it all themselves, but the counselor pushed them to think of topics, revise and edit and help them target the supplmentals accordingly.
Note: my kid was not targeting schools anywhere near our home---most were 2-3K miles from home. The safety she assisted with finding is a true gem and the defination of a true safety---my kid seriously considered attending they liked it that much. I never would have found that safety from 3K miles away for a school many have not heard of on the other coast.

[Anonymous]

Can I ask the name of the safety on "the other coast"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Not a great result in early round. We loved our counselor but our Big 3 kid got rejected at Ivy ED and at a competitive state school, waiting to hear on others but not optimistic.
Our counselor did help us find good safeties and was very much a reality check on how hard it is for unhooked kids, even
with great stats from Big 3 schools to get into top 20 Schools. So our kid is into 2 safeties they really like and would be excited to attend.
For me that is where the value is. And she did the nagging for us.

Did you use Sybil?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I ask the name of the safety on "the other coast"?

Maybe University of San Diego? UC Merced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who the hell needs a counselor to curate a list?

Because if you are not just looking at DC/MD/VA area schools, a great counselor will help you identify some hidden gems. I know how to do the process and did it for first kid. They applied to 10 and got into 10 with merit at all of the private schools (OOS publics don't typically offer much merit if any at all)---but this was a kid with a 25 ACT and 3.5 UW gpa and no AP classes---so more targeting schools ranked 80+ where acceptance rates are typically over 40%.

2nd kid had scores for elite colleges (1520/3.99UW, 10+ AP and good ECs) and wanted to apply to a few. Counselor helped us curate a great list of colleges---about 75% were on my original list (I'm good at doing the research). But the top Safety and where my kid ultimately ended up were not on my radar initially during junior year. my kid ultimately had 3 final choices, including the top safety, where they are and one other that I had heard of but my kid had said no due to location. Well guess what, those 3 were my kid's ultimate final 3 choices and my kid would have been happy at any of them. Counselor also helped a procrastinator stay on schedule without me having to nag and definately helped brainstorm the essays---my kid did it all themselves, but the counselor pushed them to think of topics, revise and edit and help them target the supplmentals accordingly.
Note: my kid was not targeting schools anywhere near our home---most were 2-3K miles from home. The safety she assisted with finding is a true gem and the defination of a true safety---my kid seriously considered attending they liked it that much. I never would have found that safety from 3K miles away for a school many have not heard of on the other coast.

Also, most counselors charge by the hour or you can sign up for the comprehensive fixed-price service. The fixed-price usually works out to a lower hourly rate if you are hiring a counselor to "outsource" the entire college application process.

I don't think may people are paying a counselor hourly for college curation (usually you pay hourly to help with essays and other targeted things)...but if you already signed up for the fixed price, why the heck not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselor helped my niece to Duke and nephew to UChicago (different sides of the family and on opposite coasts but used same counselor) this year in the early round. I'll be hiring the same person for my DC next year.

Do you mind sharing which counsellor ?

Do you have or can set up a throwaway email address you can post here? If so, I’ll send her contact info to you privately. Like the other PP’s counselor, this one only takes 10 students per year.

So they pick the kids with the best chance of getting into better schools. And the best they could do was Duke and Chicago?? LOL

Save your money, folks.

[Anonymous]

Sara Harberson's methodology is right on, and not expensive. Highly recommend vs private counselors.
We have fantastic results

[Anonymous]

We meaning my two kids

[Anonymous]

Private Counselor had some completely idiotic schools on the list.

We already had done tons of research, visits and trust our kid’s opinion to what he liked more.

I get it for parents that are first Gen, or out of the loop, but most highly educated parents and a Princeton Review college guide will be enough. The only benefit from a college counselor would be the trends they say in a 3-year period, but you can see that on Naviance. Our school has a really good college counselor, so that helps too.

[Anonymous]

Looks like most of the posters had/have high performing kids and you are targeting top schools. Anyone with an average kid (who may end with a 3.8+/3.3+ (weighted/unweighted) GPA but challenging coursework, 1450-1500 SAT and ECs unrelated to academics (think Art, Theatre)? Kid does not know what they want to do and is open to suggestion.

So we'll need help with:
- Identifying schools that accepts kids in his academic range and can blend his interests (CS, Art and Theater)
- that provide support for focus-challenged kids
- Essay strategy to combine his interests
- EC optimization
- We likely won't need essay review help.

If anyone had kids like mine and successfully used a counselor I'd love to hear about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did it by the hour. DC loved the process and by hiring someone to help, it got me, the dad out if the role as “nag”

Did you Sybil?

Would you please cut this out? You are wasting everyone’s time with these posts accusing the responder of feathering their nest. You do this even to me, when I post the name of the consultant we used for counseling and you jump in to accuse me of “being” the counselor we used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We found the person we hired to be invaluable. Her insight into what schools to look at and what those schools want in an applicant was far beyond what our private high school counselor could offer. And, her help with the essays really produced incredible narratives. Results: My son only applied to six schools because he got in ED1 to his top choice. He immediately withdrew the other five. He actually heard from a second school -- he received a huge merit scholarship.

Do you mind sharing the name of the counselor ? Thank you !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For our first and second we hired the same college counselor. She was fantastic a gem for sure.

Pricing she was middle of the road. At the time I thought it was a huge waste and my kids could have easily done everything themselves. MIT & Yale acceptances.

By the third one I parcelled out this kid in particular was Mr who cares I will get in somewhere. I did not want to spend his senior year fighting. He did do some ACT prep for English-type work, no math because he excels at that. He went to CMU.

My last three no college prep. Similar school acceptances.

Please could you share contact details ? Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How was College Bound detrimental? A few posters mentioned that. I understand waste of money but how were they detrimental?

Not advising of deadlines, not responding to questions then trying to cover, skimming essay responses and saying they were good when they weren’t, making suggestions based on zero experience, not being organized.