We had a counselor- huge waste of money! I’d only recommend it for essays.

only for essays.
huge difference (merit $$$ for ones where we used the edited essays, and reach admits).

We used a college admission counselor for one kid and college essay for the other. It came down to what was the gap between what the school offered, what our kid was doing on their own and where we could effectively help. For the one with essay only, their private school had good guidance counselors and a class time where they worked in many aspects of the college admissions process. The gap was the brainstorming and getting that first draft of the essays. With the one where we did the full package, they needed more organizational help as well as essays and some help with the list. Their school did not do as much with the college counseling.

Honestly, most comprehensive services offer essay editing as part of the package. They want to ensure your kid has the best possible outcome so they can use their "success story" to hike prices and entice other families to sign up.

This is asked a lot on this forum. Posters rarely list specific counselors. Some because they use individual consultants who only advertise by word of mouth. Apparently others because they are competitive. You will find that the threads usually say the same thing. If you want specific names ask friends, family, teachers, neighbors, colleagues, and acquaintances.

PP. so sorry, I thought was in a different forum!!

Recommend you search the college forum. There are many threads on this.

I am curious - which ones did you use and did they help?