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[quote=Anonymous]      Honestly, I realize that some counselors are probably better than others -- and there is certainly a lot of stress in the process --  but I don't see how any parents /kids (except maybe for first generation college students or maybe foreign students) can legitimately feel they are "flying blind" -- not as informed as desired, sure - but bind?  Before we met with our counselor we started to make a long possible list based largely on the off-the-shelf books with descriptions about the schools, admissions criteria, etc.  Yes, that list was too long and we had questions about a number of the schools.  That is where the counselors can really help in terms of describing the feel /culture of a place and whether they thing its likely a good match or not for a given student.  And if your school has Naviance that too can help.

Some of the stress in the process has been created by the colleges themselves.  The ED process -- originally designed to improved school yields and sold as reducing senior year college burden for the student who really knows his/her first choice, has turned into a new stressor as kids/families now have to strategize about where to use that ED card.  The holistic admissions process is itself a greater stressor, because once a student is within range of a schools qualifications it is all about the schools "building classes."  In that regard, counselors themselves are at a bit of a loss.   The current system I would argue is more stressful in some ways than the British system that relies more heavily on testing.  In our system, we have some kids spending 4 years knocking themselves out with EC's and studying to pad their resumes.  If a kid loves an EC, great, do it, but if the kid feels he/she has to do it even if it cuts into sleep after homework, that's a problem with our system that adds to stress. [/quote]

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