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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So on the college counselor point and hiring an outside consultant--here are two posts from the college admission board I just saw.  So hiring a counselor seems rationale.

Anonymous

I think you need to be mindful of the difficult role the college counselors face. A very large chunk of the class is made up of high achievers, many or most of whom have highly educated parents. Given the competition faced by students, placement has the potential to be a nightmare. As a result, I think there is a surprising amount of "under-selling" that goes on. Although it worked out very well for our DD in the end, we were surprise at how low the counselor was shooting, in terms of characterizing what were match schools and what were reach schools. Even where naviance showed our daughter had higher/much higher scores than prior admitted students, the counselor saw virtually everything on her list as a reach (or very high reach). Other parents commented on the same phenomena. I don't fault them for managing expectations of course, but I do think the vested interest in avoiding disappointment can manifest itself in problematic ways.
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[Post New]07/14/2016 12:58
    Subject: What do I need to know about College Placement from Private School
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Anonymous

You have to be knowledgeable and very hands on in selecting and applying to colleges. At our DD's big three the only weak link is college counseling. The turnover rate is high but keeps missing the worst employee. They are like realtors who want you to sell low so they can be done without effort. They suggest lowball offers then promise the moon in the same breath. It's apparent that they really have no clue. Take control and stay involved unless you only want some tiny ridiculous LAS from the beginning. [/quote]

OP here.  This is exactly why I asked the question - people who do not have kids in private school assume that private school kids are getting amazing, super helpful college counseling but my admittedly mostly anecdotal research suggests otherwise.  In particular, I have not heard positive things about Potomac's college counseling and it concerns me that I can't find any real data.  Sending our kid to Potomac will be a major expense for us and I am trying to see if we will also need to budget for college counseling down the road.[/quote]

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