Interesting article in the WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/whose-advice-are-you-taking-the-fight-over-college-counseling-at-elite-high-schools-11572082200?mod=hp_lead_pos5
Wow, I knew my kids had an uphill battle coming from a big public HS with a student to GC ratio of 330-1. Some relevant excerpts because of the paywall:
"At Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, families receive a 43-page handbook on college planning. Students meet with their counselors, known as deans, sophomore year to discuss course selection and extracurriculars. Spring of junior year, they begin college counseling meetings, bringing parents along to some. Summer before senior year, the school hosts college essay-writing workshops…
High-school counselors, many of whom have experience working in college admissions offices, carefully curate relationships with university gatekeepers and are concerned about teens submitting applications riddled with falsehoods, or at least embellishments, if they can’t maintain a close watch over the process. They say outside counselors can confuse students with conflicting or uninformed advice, and tend to be too aggressive in packaging students, even if they don’t go to illegal lengths like Mr. Singer…
Some families who hire independent counselors say even top high schools start the guidance process too late. Some also say schools can be controlling, discouraging kids from applying to certain programs in an effort to manage admit rates across the class…
The family chose to keep working with the outside counselor, and while Ms. Ventura did write a recommendation letter, she declined to provide any further edits or advice, she says. When colleges called with questions about the boy, she said she was unable to answer since she didn’t know what materials he had submitted…
'It did impact his outcomes,” Ms. Ventura says. ‘That’s what parents don’t quite understand, the role that we play in the process of advocating for students.’"