Reply to Are Private Counselors a Bad Idea?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This whole thread is a bit frightening. As an UMC striver parent myself with two teen kids, who are not going to ivys but the oldest class of 2024 got into great schools, I’m appalled and frustrated at the amount of money people are paying for the college applications process to elite schools.

Just like there should be no billionaires, having to spends 5-10k+ on an APPLICATION process is ludicrous.

Also I agree it’s the new SAHM UMC MLM scheme. The person I personally know who does this graduated from the same T20 school as me but has a kid at a top 200 and has never worked in admissions or education ever. It’s just preying on parents’ anxieties. [/quote]

I'm also an UMC striver parent with teen kids and I've come around on this subject.  I was initially appalled that people would spend this kind of money on counselors, but in my affluent suburban private school, I would guess that about 80% of families hire private counselors for one or more of the following reasons:

-  Our public school has one college counselor for 350+ seniors, so who has time to review your kids' EC list or essays or anything?  Certainly not the one person.
-  Everything in college admissions has changed since we parents attended back in the 1990s.  Rankings are all over the place, what used to be a party school is now a grinder school, and you cannot rely on old stereotypes - so how does your kid figure out which school is a good fit for them now?  What was once a target or even a likely school for a top school is now a way harder admit, places that used to be considered safeties are practicing yield management and are not a sure thing anymore.  None of us are experts just because we are successful and went to really good colleges ourselves.
-  Many, many parents have told me that a counselor helped make the whole process way less stressful for them as the parent.  For those of us who have kids who don't love hearing their parents nag them about stuff, this itself is worth it.
-  We are not billionaires (far from it), and $6-$10k is worth it for the potential investment of close to $400k in college tuition for my kid that will hopefully set them on a good path.
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