Did you go Public With Your Private Counselor?

Hanna
Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:41:05 +0000

I have a number of private-school clients every year who already have a useful, knowledgeable college counselor at the school. Some families tell the counselor about my involvement and others don’t, but no one has ever mentioned to me that they got fewer services from the school as a result. At the prices the prep schools charge, they would face some very angry parents if they didn’t provide 100% of the services paid for! At the schools I’m talking about (St. Paul’s in NH; Latin School, Francis Parker, and U-High in Chicago; etc.), getting outside help is quite routine. Even the best private schools don’t offer the kind of intensive essay work I do with students.

I encourage all my prep-school clients to make full use of their school resources as well as working with me. Sometimes I get questions that a good GC can answer better than I can. For example, does Teacher X have a good track record of getting recommendees into my client’s target college? As Aniger noted, this is an art rather than a science, and different counselors will give different advice. Each decision is ultimately up to the student/family, so getting inputs from multiple sources can help them make the most well-informed decisions.