@Pizzagirl, our experiences differ.
GC had 30-40 students, spent a lot of time with DS working on a list of colleges, spoke to DS’s teachers about him, vetted the LoRs provided by DS’s teachers, introduced DS to Yale regional AO when she visited the HS, etc. She invested a lot of time on DS. I know that many GC don’t have this kind of luxury.
As it happens, GC went into private practice the year after DS graduated.
My kids’ private high school had 4-5 college counselors for 120 kids, and that was in addition to regular GCs. They were required to visit every college their students were interested in applying. They jokingly told me they were lobbying for some kids to apply to HI.
Their strategy was always to get kids into their ED/EA schools because they knew RD rounds were generally harder. Their messages to the parents were not to apply for FA unless it was absolutely necessary.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. In a large suburban high school, I can’t imagine why or how a HS GC would even know that a family had engaged a private counselor. They just didn’t intersect in any way.
My kids’ GCs would have been offended if they knew anyone had engaged a private counselor, so people generally had to hide it. We didn’t for D1 and looking back I kind of wish we did. I think the outcome may have been a bit different, but then she wouldn’t have ended up at the perfect school for her. 
We also got great upfront direction from the GC, some pushing. Priceless. But different kids/families will see if differently.
The year D2 started college, the school had a focus group re: both college planning and prep. All the parents there had kids happy with their colleges. Most complained they hadn’t gotten the attention and support they thought was needed.
I think they wanted the personal shoulder to lean on, maybe even sit downs to go over the app/shops. And more. They wanted what a good private counselor can do.
I agree with alot of the above posts. I have a son who graduated college in 2014 and now have a daughter who’s a senior in college so I have been through this twice. Now its my turn to help my step daughter. CC helped me through the process. Meet with your GC and do your research!! I dont think anyone really NEEDS a private counselor. I’m sure it helps but there are alot of great people on this site with alot of knowledge. Good Luck!
We are lucky to have a pubic school GC who is very good. Not all families at our school are so lucky, but service overall is good. Counselors are assigned by last name. We have ~2000 students and 6 counselors. So, each counselor has about 350 students of whom 80-90 are seniors.
Our GCs say they would like to meet with the kid and parents together once per year for planning purposes. Because the school has ~40% low-income and 60%+ go to 2-year colleges or straight to the job market, few take advantage of this offer. Many students also are aiming for only CSUs and UCs, which don’t require recommendations. So, that lowers their college-related workload a bit. They still have to deal with scheduling issues, kids not passing, kids with social issues, kids not getting food at home, and worse. So, I’m not saying their workload is light.
Anyway, we have met in Jan-Feb with our GC the past 3 years to plan classes for his remaining years, plan testing, and talk about his ECs and plans. She is on top of things enough to have suggested taking SAT IIs freshman year after he took Precalc and AP Physics B. She knows DS17 well and got him into a nomination-only program for just a few kids locally that lets them take classes at our local UC. (Lots of kids take CC classes.) she responds to email within 24 hours and even responded over the summer when I CCed her on a message to the counselor working during the summer.
She liked his college list on Naviance, but didn’t have additional suggestions. We have told her we won’t need financial aid, so I have no knowledge of how she helps families who need to develop a list with financial or merit aid considerations. I expect she is well-informed about that also. I’m happy to have her doing the GC end of his applications.
I think she probably knows almost all her kids if they have come to her office. She’s one of those people who can remember a lot of names.
That all said, we do have an hourly CC with whom I’ve discussed his summer choices and college list in more detail. She’s made suggestions on his summer program essays and will do the same for college essays (providing they are drafted early…). I don’t think our GC would be offended at all that we have someone to advise on essays. The GC has never offered to look at essays, and that isn’t a part of their job at a large public school.
“@Hanna the developmental need to push back on everything? When does it end?”
Depends on the kid! If you’re still giving your parents headaches when you’re in your fifties, I’d say it’s time to dial it back. 
@oldfort You wrote, ‘Their strategy was always to get kids into their ED/EA schools because they knew RD rounds were generally harder. Their messages to the parents were not to apply for FA unless it was absolutely necessary.’
Thanks. That is one of the most succinct and useful posts I have seen.
tl;dr; The achievement gap is a hard problem. Our schools are working on it, but are only making small progress.
Our area has a bicameral distribution of scores and GPAs. It is both home to many low-income, hard-working English learner Latino families and at the same time the bedroom community for a UC campus that is strong in STEM and has a good amount of high-tech industry. The school has to serve all its populations. It works hard to involve all families in parent organizations, etc.
In my son’s specific case, he took Alg II/Trig in 9th, which was the normal advanced track (prior to Common Core integrated math). He took Precalc online through Art of Problem Solving the same year. That didn’t count for credit, but there is a calculus readiness test that all students have to take in order to take the dual-enrollment Calc BC offered at the HS campus. So 9th was the sensible year for him to take the SAT II in math.
The school offered an extra section of AP Physics B the last year before it was replaced by AP Physics 1&2–believing correctly that a lot of students would prefer that over 2 years of physics, which they might not be able to fit into 4 years. They offered seats in the class to 9th graders taking Alg II after offering it to upper grades.
The school isn’t super advanced as far as curriculum. They offer no math after Calc BC, unless you want to count AP Statistics. They have never offered AP Physics C, though it is listed in the catalog.
“it keeps selective colleges diverse with students of varying true capabilities.”
You are assuming that there is any meaningful difference in “true capability” among students who attend, or who ought to attend, schools that are ranked 5-10 spots higher. That’s the gap between, say, Duke and Vandy. There is no meaningful difference in the qualifications or capabilities of the students there, and that would be true even if there were no independent counselors. The independent counselor is helping the student stand out in a pool of equally qualified kids. These top schools only differ in the number of outstanding students they turn away, not in the merit of the outstanding students they admit.
Shaking my head at the idea that any process could distinguish the “true capabilities” of students who belong at Chicago vs. JHU or Dartmouth vs. Notre Dame.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare getting help on an admissions essay to work a student would do in an academic setting, re: being called before the honor board for getting help. The admissions essay is a personal memoir; more akin to journalism or creative writing (depending on the student) than an academic paper. And no creative writing or journalism student would get pulled in front of an honor board for having someone–like a professor, editor, or peer-editor–look over their work and giving developmental feedback. That’s what an editor/mentor is FOR, and how those arenas work.
I agree that all students should have someone look over their admissions essay–friend, teacher, parent; ideally a stranger (people close to us tend to give positive/sugar-coated feedback on writing). Personal memoir is hard, even for professionals, let alone 17-year-olds. It can be highly beneficial to get an outside opinion, especially one that might steer the student toward or away from certain ideas/expressions that could make or break them–or just make the essay stronger. Not everyone needs to or should pay for that (many amazing people on CC do this for free), but some students do, indeed, benefit from private counseling and that’s up to them. If you will need hours and hours of help, it would behoove you to pay someone. As someone else said: a good private consultant works with the student to develop their voice; they don’t write the essay for them, or polish it to the point it’s clear an adult had a heavy hand in it.
Personal “narrative.” A tale meant to illustrate attributes, not a memoir, per se. But agree, it’s something most kids have never done before. It’s risky to go in cold, assume that you’re going to master it.
It’s not cheating to discuss it, to go beyond the rote, somewhat formulaic writing experiences in high school (or put a nicer way, the lessons in ‘structured’ writing that hs tries to train kids in.) That can be a good thing. If a counselor can clue a kid in, fine by me.
The question you have to ask yourself at every stage is whether you are simply coaching an otherwise totally qualified kid on how to put their best foot forward in a process that is wholly unfamiliar to them, or trying to make a kid who’s NOT qualified for the college(s) in question (or the experience as a whole) seem like something they’re not. If the former, fine. If the latter, you’re doing the kid a huge disservice.
" trying to make a kid who’s NOT qualified for the college(s) in question (or the experience as a whole) seem like something they’re not."
Yeah, this doesn’t work. We’re not miracle workers.
@sleeplessmom1
I went through the same decision process with both of my children.
For the first child in a public school, if money were no object, I would still hire an outside counselor, at least for review of the essay and resume items, as well as the strategy about how many safe, match and reach colleges should be on the final application list.
Bottom line: For a child in a private school, it might not be necessary to spend the extra money on an outside counselor, especially if the school college counselor and the AP English teacher are experienced and seem enthusiastic about going the extra mile for your child and your family.
But, that said, I was heavily involved in the college admissions process for both of my kids. If a parent does not have time to be involved or if a child will not respond well to a parent’s involvement, then I recommend an outside college counselor just to ease the pain, especially if the child is applying to colleges that require more than just name, contact info, GPA, and test scores. Deciding which colleges to apply to and writing the main Common App essay were the hardest parts of the application process for my sons.
@Hanna. “That’s the gap between, say, Duke and Vandy. There is no meaningful difference in the qualifications or capabilities of the students there”
At our HS we regularly get kids in the top 10 percent with a 32 into Vandy. We’ve never since tracking gotten a kid into Duke unless top 3 percent and a 35+. Maybe our school is an anamoloy but this pattern seems to hold.
My neice with a 32 got into every school she applied to ranked 12-20. And not one in the 1-11 rank that she applied to. So it depends what you mean by " qualifications".
@MurphyBrown We heard that “peasant hunting” example at two different colleges last year. Kind of funny. Maybe both admissions officers went to the same training or something. Or the same kid applied to both colleges?
^^^^^^ Yes! And the adcoms did not exclaim to each other, ‘Wow, we need to admit this kid! Guaranteed his essay wasn’t ghost-written!’ They expect a level of preparation and thoughtfulness, something that suggests the essay was not just something tossed out in a hurry. Just as they expect many SAT/ACT scores will be higher due to studying and tutoring and retaking. Better to have a 1400 superscored from two 1300s than a 1350 from one sitting.
Murphy, made me laugh. One of the worst essays I ever saw was a gal who wrote how she wanted to kill her younger brother. Now, I can imagine the arc she was looking for, that she wasn’t serious. And I can imagine that, if she had written it for class, some free assignment, the teacher thinking, “Oh, I know Sally’s kidding, being funny, is really a smart, sweet kid.” But sheesh, for a college app?
Yes, “expect a level of preparation and thoughtfulness.” And perspective and some self-editing. Not all colleges, sure. But this is one of the things high school too often can’t quite teach.