<p>Some parents are spending tens of thousands of dollars to hire private practice college counselors to help their children navigate the college selection and admission processes.</p>
<p>Just wondering: For tens of thousands of dollars, what is the difference between what the private college counselor offers their clients versus what a very competent and experienced school counselor would offer? </p>
<p>I noticed that some of these private counselors guarantee admission to the student’s first-choice college. Do these counselors have special insider knowledge or connections that regular school counselors don’t have.</p>
<p>If they are guaranteeing placement into a student’s first-choice college, it may indeed be worth spending that kind of money on!</p>
<p>On guaranteeing and possible inside connections:</p>
<p>If the counselors know they will only by successful half the time, they can increase the price 3x with that guarantee and still make money. I heard of a counselor who claims to have inside connections with Brown and would recommend anyone who pays $1000 with a money back guarantee if the student didn’t get admitted. She didn’t really have those connections. She refunded anyone who didn’t get in, but could still pocket $1000 from students who got in Brown on their own ability. I doubt there is really inside knowledge.</p>
<p>On the worse side, I met a person whose “highly-paid” counselor told him to apply to Princeton, Yale, Stanford, another highly-selective school, and use Northwestern as his safety. I’m sure he’s qualified, but this type of advice got him rejected from every school in August, except for a waitlist at Northwestern.</p>
<p>I never used a private counselor for my son, but for those who do and can afford it, the answer may be “time”. I believe that my son’s high school counselor probably met with him 3 times in two years, for a total of maybe 45 minutes, with the bulk of that time being spent on how and when to get his paperwork submitted rather than much discussion on what would constitute a good college fit; they ran some kind on on-line match software for him, I think.</p>
<p>lebedev: Are you saying that these private counselors can “pull some strings” to get their clients into colleges where they know people in admissions? Sounds UNETHICAL to me, but hey, the wealthy have all other kinds of advantages in getting into an elite college…why not pay a private counselor $20,000 so they have even more of a chance of gaining a coveted slot in an elite college!</p>
<p>I guess that those of modest financial means must simply face the fact the it’s an unfair world in which we live, and the slogan, “the rich get richer” certainly applies.</p>
<p>Weldon: I spent 30 years as a college counselor in a public school. You’re right, public school counselors have a limited amount of time to spend with each student. But, in my experience, I spent countless hours with those students who took the initiative to come in for appointments above and beyond the “basic” appointments initiated by the counseling office. I can think of numerous cases where I met 10-20 times with individual students when THEY took the initiative to ask for help. </p>
<p>Beyond that, though, is this question: What kind of “secret tactics” or “insider knowledge” do these private counselors who charge tens of thousands for their services employ to make their services worth that much. I consider myself as good as any college counselor (private or public) in the country, and there were no “secret tactics” that I used with my students, yet they got into the most elite colleges in the country.</p>
<p>If anyone can give me examples of these “special tactics” or “insider knowledge” these private counselors use to give their clients “an edge” in the elite college admission process, please share them. I’m anxious to learn of these special tactics that people are paying tens of thousands for.</p>