Reply to Fascinating article from the WSJ re the methods of an "elite" college counseling firm

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Clearly we need a new checkbox on the Common App: Did you work with a college counselor other than the one at your school on this application?[/quote]

And then what? Colleges have no interest in removing these students from the applicant pool. There’s a host of reasons people use counselors: maybe parents are from abroad and find our system confusing. Many a kid is first gen and getting free counseling from a CBO. Maybe a kid has learning differences and searching for a special college that fits well.  Maybe students are looking for merit and a counselor is advising them on list building?

Using a counselor isn’t problematic. But using someone who writes your essay & creates a false profile is. Big difference [/quote]

Yup!  A good CC (by my definition) helps you over the 4 years (if needed) to create a list of courses to be ready for college (someone first gen may not have parents who understand this fully), helps you know that you need some EC activities in HS and that it's good to find a few that you like and pursue them for all of HS (dont' just bounce from 1 activity to another every few months---they like to see 4 years of band/orch or 4 years of drama club or 4 years of a sport), encourage you to find volunteering that is meaningful and does more than just check a box, help you find a few EC activities to supplement your academic interests, help create a great list of potential colleges for your intended majors (they are highly skilled at this and will help you have a great list of ones you can afford as well as true Reaches, targets and safeties that your kid actually likes), help with test prep, and help with essay development (brainstorming, but the kid does 99% of the work, CC just guides and makes them think and revise).  And most importantly, it saves your sanity senior year so you do NOT have to nag your kid to stay on schedule.

Yes, it's a privilege to be able to afford that.  Yes, you can do most of it yourself.  Aside from the essay writing, I can do the rest.  But our CC helped find some hidden gems for my kid---ones I may not have found.  Then they let us know the top choice really wants you to do an "interview" so after the visit if we liked it, you schedule an interview immediately.  My kid did, did the interview the next week over the Summer and is attending that school.  But I wouldn't have know just how important that interview/expressing interest is to getting admission.  o it's the little things that help Make the process easier.  
But our CC told me I could do 95% of her job, as I demonstrated (did it all with my first kid).  But My kid was much more receptive to hearing about schools from the CC than from me, and listening to suggestions of small things to do.  So it made my life easier and less stressful. A nd I figure if I'm willing to pay $90K/year for college, the least I can do is pay $1K/year in HS (or 4K total) to assist

I would not pay $20K+---not worth it

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