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

[Anonymous]

We hired an independent consultant 3 years back and he made our life (parents) much easier and most importantly brought new perspectives to the table.
DD was struggling with SAT and reached plateau at one point. He suggested to try ACT. So DD changed her course and focused on ACT. DD got a 36 on ACT!! We were so relieved.
His wife was a journalist, and reviews/comments on all essays and writings.
DD had a less stressful cycle and now a Junior at a T20 school. The consultant charged $3,500 per cycle. Unlimited essay review. calls, email, text. Meet in person monthly (if I remember correctly). He was quite responsive too.

I think he is now retired due to health issue. Finding the right consultant does help the process.

[Anonymous]

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

It's actually on your coast as I'm no longer in the DCUM area.

WPI---excellent engineering school---truly a hidden gem. Previous president (left last summer to head up JPL) worked hard to work towards 50/50 makeup of students. They are at about 55/45 (M/F) last I checked. My kid is not a "nerd" or "geeky" so somewhere like RPI wasn't going to work (for many other reasons as well) but kid also did not want anything larger than 8K or so (so VaTech/GATech/Purdue/etc were not appealing) and wanted a place where they could change majors as they desire without having to fight to gain admission to the major at a later date. At WPI majority of kids seemed "normal" not like a traditional only engineering school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

RIght---it's part of the package. We paid $4k for the entire package for all of HS. Didn't start until Spring junior year---due to covid and not realizing the benefits since we were totally capable of planning course schedule in HS and ECs (I let my kid pick what they wanted to focus on and they did that for 20-25+hours per week). But we easily had 40 hours of working with our counselor in just 9 months. It would have been an even better deal had we started in freshman year. But at a charge of $150/hr for independent use, it was cheaper to pay for the package and with the package it is easier to get scheduled with the counselor (hourly clients typically are 2nd tiered--which makes sense)
Best part: I didn't have to nag the procrastinator. Counselor set schedule and makes kid stick to it, keeping everything on track so that by early Nov they are done with 90-95% of applications and just working on the few RD (where EA is not a choice at the school) in case they don't get in ED1. Then you have your Holidays without stress (ok, with less, cause with a teenager/senior in HS there is always a bit of stress )

[Anonymous]

I don’t think they are needed if one or both parents is willing to play the role, but some adult needs to assist the student in most cases. I have twins and one barely needed assistance but the other has needed help every step along the way and then some. Even the with it kid needed help, albeit only a small amount and mostly just project management type assistance.

If you don’t have a parent or adult willing to handle in your house, I can see how an hourly consultant would be worth it, particularly for essays.

Special shout out to DCUM: we are our own counselors when it comes to creating the list of schools! If you put out basic info about your student, kind people are here to help suggest a list (if you can cut through the mean comments without getting upset).

[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.

Please would you be willing to share who the counselor was ? You could email [e-mail].

Thank you

[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.

Please could you share name ? I'd be really grateful. My email is [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We hired one for DS. It cost about 2500. It did force him to be disciplined. I feel like the school choices were random but I think that was DS’s fault as he was not emotionally prepared to make decisions. He is in at 8 and deferred at 3. I think that was predictable based on stats.

Hired a different one for DD20. Hers was $500 an hour, spent close to $20k. They really clicked but not worth the $$. Private counselor and school counselor came up with basically the same list. Her essay was decent but spent a ton of time online with the counselor brainstorming. She was going for higher ranked schools than DS. Got into 7 of 9.

I think they can be good for helping with the list (neither of ours were great for that), getting the CA essay done early, helping with/encouraging time management, and keeping expectations real (like not applying to all reaches).

You could easily do this process without, but it does help.

Not trying to be snarky, but why do people need to hire a college counselor to come up with a list of colleges to apply to? College info is easily accessible, and kids obviously know what their preferences are as far as location/size/ greek life, etc.

Maybe your kids know their preferences. Ours did not. Also, some students want unique programs that may be uncommon. There also is the temperament of the child and the college. Finally, some parents don't have the time to do that research and don't want to put their children completely in charge of a $300,000+ expenditure.

And there are some kids who are a nightmare with their parents in this process (even chill parents) and parents want there to be an adult (that the child will respect) who is giving solid advice and paying attention to whether the child is staying on track.

[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.

can you share what a safety school is for your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is what we did but with mixed results so far. Some of her advice contradicts what HS counselors say. For example, Sara says to never report at 4 to a reach school (i.e. Ivy). School counselor said that was ridiculous.

Same here. Our CC insisted reporting all 4s when our student said she would not based on SH.

Our school counselor AND private counselor both said to report a 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Please would you be willing to share who the counselor was ? You could email [e-mail].

Thank you

Also interested if you are sharing [e-mail] (please reference Big3 so I can match reference to this DCUM post)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Please could you share name ? I'd be really grateful. My email is [e-mail]

Also interested if you are sharing [e-mail] (please reference Merit Scholarship so I can match reference to this DCUM post)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

It's actually on your coast as I'm no longer in the DCUM area.

WPI---excellent engineering school---truly a hidden gem. Previous president (left last summer to head up JPL) worked hard to work towards 50/50 makeup of students. They are at about 55/45 (M/F) last I checked. My kid is not a "nerd" or "geeky" so somewhere like RPI wasn't going to work (for many other reasons as well) but kid also did not want anything larger than 8K or so (so VaTech/GATech/Purdue/etc were not appealing) and wanted a place where they could change majors as they desire without having to fight to gain admission to the major at a later date. At WPI majority of kids seemed "normal" not like a traditional only engineering school.

Happy to hear these great things about WPI. It's on my kid's list, but we haven't visited yet. I liked it for my kid because it seems like less pressure than other tech/enginneering programs (i.e. not trying to weed out half the class in the first year).

[Anonymous]

Yes!

Hired CC during DC's sophomore year - and where they were most helpful was in advising about course load, ECs and creating DC's narrative over the course of sophomore-senior years (including summers). One area in particular which set DC a part from classmates was the international independent research study/paper DC's undertook which resulted in their being published in a prestigious international scholarly journal. DC would have never known the current trend of colleges valuing these research papers nor how to navigate which research study programs to apply to w/o college counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used a independent counselor. But, before hiring her, we interviewed a wide variety of of counselors, some independent and others members of larger firms. All were highly recommended to us by folks who had actually used their services. We let our DS select the person with whom he felt most comfortable. The counselor we hired began working with DS in 10th grade. She helped him with course selection, summer school applications to highly selective programs, ECs, college list, essays, interview prep and the common app itself. Her guidance went so far beyond what our private school could provide. Very pleased with the investment -- money well spent.

How can I get a name of this counselor, please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes!

Hired CC during DC's sophomore year - and where they were most helpful was in advising about course load, ECs and creating DC's narrative over the course of sophomore-senior years (including summers). One area in particular which set DC a part from classmates was the international independent research study/paper DC's undertook which resulted in their being published in a prestigious international scholarly journal. DC would have never known the current trend of colleges valuing these research papers nor how to navigate which research study programs to apply to w/o college counselor.

PP Here. To give context - DC accepted EA at top 25 school, accepted significant merit w/merit money at several good schools, and deferred at three other top 25 schools - still waiting to hear outcome on those. Very happy with results. DC DEFINITELY has had better admissions results than classmates with similar GPAs. I credit DC's strong ECs (president of several clubs related to DC's interest in business/finance and said published research paper which was written under the mentorship of a renowned Cambridge economics professor) as well as DC's strong SATs score.