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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a private college counselor myself and found this thread to be interesting. Here are some points to think about:

-Hiring a private college counselor is not a necessity for anyone. It is a service that people use to make their lives easier and improve their chances of admission. I absolutely believe that a parent with enough time, self-motivation, etc can really learn up on the college process and fully educate himself about it, and then help his own child through the process. The reality though is that many parents just don't have the time to devote to it... and I think the key is that a lot of background research needs to be done *before* one can start helping one's own child, because things have changed SO much since all of us applied to college. Honestly, it's no different than hiring a cleaning lady, landscaper, outsourcing a birthday cake to a bakery, giving our kids private tennis lessons, whatever - these are all services that we have the option of using to make our lives as parents easier. None of them are necessary.

-I have noticed that a pretty high number of my clients essentially use me for what I refer to as "babysitting." They do not want to do ANYTHING with their kids at home, they do not want to enforce having their kids do homework for me, and so I have to go to their house and sit there for five hours each week while little Johnny works on all of his essay drafts. These are the people that end up paying a huge bill at the end. It would be so easy to just sit home with Johnny, do the essay drafts, and come to me for revisions and help... and so much cheaper. However, it's their choice and if this is how they want to spend their money, more power to them. And the truth is, I guess if I had a senior in high school and an extra 10k to blow (which I do not, by the way, but if I did..) - maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to just wash my hands of it and let a professional take over and do everything. Kind of like hiring a wedding planner.

- I can't emphasize this enough, but in order to really get your full value from a private counselor, you need to trust them and follow their advice. I have had a few clients with overbearing parents, where Mom steps in and doesn't like the changes I suggested for Junior's essay and then changes everything back. Well- fine- but you can't sit there and claim that my help was not effective if you did not give me the opportunity. I assure you that I know what I am doing. Same thing with choice of college list, whether to apply early or not, etc. I really believe that some people want to hire me to tell them that they are right, not give them my actual opinion. As a rule, I have found that the VAST majority of people think that their kids' essays are absolutely brilliant when in fact they are not and they need a lot of editing. It shocks me, because these are kids with good grades from good schools - and I just don't understand how they produce such poor written work.

-The number one thing is that the student's transcript and SAT scores are so much more important than anything else. A great essay and all the community service in the world is not going to get your kid with a 1300 into Harvard. [/quote]

Great post, 15:02.  The candid advice at the end is very appreciated, as is the comment about the generally tepid quality of most essay first drafts.

At our school the parents most upset about the results are the ones who ignored the school counselor's advice about adding schools to the list; applying early; and realizing that the 2100 SAT score of 2013 will not have the same impact of the SAT Verbal/Math 1400 of 1983 (hey everyone, did you know the SAT made the scale easier in 1996?  True fact!  SAT grade inflation, in other words).  They then storm into the school, harass the counselor, and chew everyone's ears off at school-related events about how disappointed they were with the "support given [child]" by the school.
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