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<p>I’ve wondered what sort of number that might be also.</p>
<p>has anyone used Elizabeth Wissner Gross, the author of a couple of books on getting into elite colleges?</p>
<p>My son attends a private school with an excellence college counseling reputation (2 counselors for 60-70 kids) but we still chose to utilize a private counselor.</p>
<p>Our son is very quiet and can be hard to get to know. His private counselor met with him nearly every week this summer helping him figure out what type of school would be best suited for him. What emerged was our son wants to be somewhere where most of the students are intellectually curious, are serious students and aren’t into the frat scene. He wants to be at a college where the students think it’s cool to stay up late discussing philosophy and the meaning of life. </p>
<p>The counselor (who spends a great deal of his time visiting colleges all year) crafted a list of colleges that son could reasonably expect to get in that fit this description. I can guarantee our school GC would not have come up with such a list. She would have put his stats into their computer system and spit out a list of matches.</p>
<p>Every kids is different and not all need private counseling. A lot know they want to go to the state university and look no further. Others are the top students and are looking to get into the Ivies and the GC naturally put a lot of effort into those few kids because it makes the school look more prestigious. Still others are very independent and self-motivated enough to do all the research themselves.</p>
<p>But, some, like my son, need someone to spend a lot more time with them and to ask the right questions. My husband and I did not feel we had enough knowledge to guide him through the process. We are, for the most part, looking at schools in the $40-50k per year range. I consider the $2,000 we are spending on the private counselor to be a worthwhile investment. We aren’t looking to get son into any particular school and an ethical counselor should never promise that. Nor should the counselor be writing essays or telling the applicant to embellish their qualifications. We are simply looking for the best fit for our son, as well as making sure that the $200k we invest in his college education is worth it.</p>
<p>Debbie,
Sounds like your S & the counselor did some good “soul searching” and helped your kid figure out his priorities. I hope that the school he matriculates at matches up to his hopes and expectations. </p>
<p>My S also wanted a school where he could talk with people who were intellectually curious and read and study for the love of learning. He also wanted to graduate with a marketable degree so he ended up at USoCal, where he has made some good friends but has not really found the intellectual mecca he had hoped for (even in the engineering department). I guess in the bigger school, you can find a niche that works even if it is not quite your “ideal,” and help make it more what you want. </p>
<p>It does sound like you got a lot of value for the $2000 you spent, helping your S hone the schools he is interested in and helping get good, realistic fits for him.</p>
<p>I think if my kid went to a large public whose advising was limited or missing, I’d definitely hire a private counselor. If the CC’s were not aware of schools outside of the home state/area, I’d definitely be hiring a private counselor (as was the case with our older D). In other words, there are lots of reasons why hiring a private counselor is very wise.</p>
<p>On the other hand, do not suppose that just because a kid goes to private school that they are getting some unfair advantage in college admissions. Having had one kid graduate from public and one from private, I can tell you that my son is MUCH better prepared for the level of work offered at the college level, if only in reading and writing! In fairness to the Public school teachers, they would not have the time to grade all those papers and have writing conferences, etc that S had as a matter of course. Beyond the college counseling issues, perhaps my kid didn’t have the same high GPA (or perfect as the case often is) as he might have had in the public school, but he wouldn’t have been nearly as scrutinized either. It is amazing how different the educations are. This goes doubly true for our younger D who is not as high achieving as her brother. She would surely fall thru the cracks at public and perhaps, like many do, start to not care or work as hard or… It’s proven pretty clear to us that having those teachers really know ALL the students (due to small class size, classroom size etc) is to get them connected and encouraged. </p>
<p>The point being… stats are clearly not the only thing worth considering when looking at students for certain institutions.</p>