AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2006 > March > 02 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USPaying for College Counseling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some parents pay top dollar for a private counselor to shepherd their child through the college admissions process. This AP story says, “one exclusive two-year consulting program rings up at nearly $40,000.”
Yikes!
I wrote about local private consultants a few years ago, and the prices were not anywhere close to that. The main advantage I saw was that students got exposed to many low-profile schools, like Elon University, that might not have otherwise gotten onto their radar. With so many students focusing on the same few schools like Duke and UVA, the chances of even a smart student getting in are often slim.
Parents who paid for the service generally told me they thought the guidance counselor at their child’s school was too busy to provide the level of service they wanted.
Parents, have you paid for counseling? Would you consider paying?
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By SET
March 2, 2006 02:58 PM | Link to this
This is a similar issue to the College App frenzy. Getting into the right school is of major importance to people now - and not because they like the food service.
People want their children and grandchildren in school because of the value of the degree and the social networks these schools represent. College and professional school is where many people find their lifelong friends, their spouses and their careers. Certain schools are known as feeder schools for certain graduate programs.
Actually in some cities such as Los Angeles the fight to get placed in the right schools starts in pre-school, grade school and private high school prep schools. Reportedly the white population of LA Unified is down somewhere near 7%. It’s not that they don’t live in the district at all, that population has voted with their feet for the church and private school network. And the Blacks and Asians who have the $$ are at the front of the line with them.
In the SF East Bay people are spending 10-20K per child per year for Church and private prep schools. Can you imagine what they will spend on consultants for a 2 or 3 year plan to get Sonny and Cher into Stanford? (And if Standford is a reach there is the UC system and out of state near ivy schools)
Yes anybody with the money will spend the money for consultants as long as they have already invested such huge sums of money in private elementry and secondary school. It’s not that much in comparison to the Kid’s school budgets anyway.
One parent I know laughed when he told me that when the older kid goes to college they may save money because the college budget isn’t as bad as the high school budget. You can get student loans and deduct or tax credit school expenses for college but not for high school. - Plus they have hopes for a sports scholarship for even better cash flow.
Money for placement experts to make all this happen is money well spent. Things have changed so much since my generation went to college that Mommy and Daddy are not up on the game and they know it. They are used to spending money on experts of all kinds anyway (interior decorators, personal trainers, cosmetic dentists, sports camp, etc.).
As far as how much to pay - well, compare it to the children’s cellphone, CATV and Internet provider budget.
When I went to Univ of CA you just applied, got accepted, and paid your $600/year Tuition and $500/mo dorm & food fee. Not anymore.
But then a new Camaro was aprox $3200 on the showroom floor.
Brave new world!
By John
March 2, 2006 04:30 PM | Link to this
A total waste of time and money. There is a wealth of good, accurate information from colleges, libraries, counselors and the web. There is no need to expend preious resources on bogus college and scholarship hunting sites.
By jim dumond
March 2, 2006 04:41 PM | Link to this
Didn’t Clark Howard do a peice on this subject about a year or so ago? and what a waste of your hard earned dollars it was?
By jim dumond
March 3, 2006 08:15 AM | Link to this
Right you are John, here’s a few links.
Main page http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/
Short cut to search http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/
Main page http://www.collegeresults.org/
Short cut to search http://www.collegeresults.org/search_basic.aspx
By Judy
March 3, 2006 08:29 AM | Link to this
If parents and students start planning earlier enough, they will have many opportunities for college. Check out www.GAcollege411.org. Through that site, students can also be connected to out of state schools. Planning early is the key.
By Lee
March 3, 2006 09:53 AM | Link to this
If you’re paying 15-20K for private school, more than likely, they have a pretty good guidance program.
Public school’s guidance counselors are a mixed lot, IMHO. Some are good, others are a waste of time. My oldest child’s HS counselor would fall into the second category. There were so many scholarships and programs that she could have applied for but didn’t - if we had only known. We found out later when she was in college and she began talking to other students in her classes.
A good guidance counselor should be intimately knowledgable about local colleges and major in-state universities.
As others have noted, there is now a wealth of information on the internet. They key is to start looking early - a year or two before their senior year. I made that mistake with my oldest child, I wont make it with the youngest….
By Jim
March 3, 2006 09:58 AM | Link to this
Private consultants do have a place in the college process. They can give you objectivity that the parent-child relationship may not have. Suggestions are taken and acted on. Not always so if a parent makes the same request. In addition to the selection process, they should help organize and suggest classes and activities that will help get your child into that selective school. Some may even help with atheltic opportunites. Lastly, they help you organize how to pay for college. Where to save your money, what to spend first, and how to maximize your financial aid package. You could do all this but how many of us have time to do this and have a life too?
By Jim
March 3, 2006 10:26 AM | Link to this
Lee, I think most public guidance counselors do know and push the local and in state majors. I just had my junior advisement for son and that’s about all they know. The results, 70% of the kids going to college from my high school go to major locals and small locals. I think this is a disservice to our kids that they are not exposed to opportunities out of the area but that’s all they have time to research. Many have to deal with other counseling issues like behavior that eat up their time.
By SET
March 3, 2006 11:36 AM | Link to this
One of the reasons people pay to hire a consultant is like getting your own Drunk Driving lawyer, they don’t want a public defender who doesn’t have time to do hand holding.
Private consultants can spend as much time with the client as the client wants to pay for. Even private school counselors has to allocate their time between far more clients.
The people with this kind of $$ are used to having things their way.
By Amazed (Independent Woman)
March 3, 2006 11:44 AM | Link to this
Patti,
How about a new blog topic - the one about the NAEP versus the CRCT? This report has brought to light, what I have been saying for sometime now about education in GA.
Our standards are too low. We need to focus more on elementary and middle school.
Everyone has always believed we were at the bottom, because we have a larger precentage of students taking the SAT.
I can’t wait to hear the fire storm from our teachers about this report. I don’t believe everything I see or hear, but the proof is the assignments my daughter brings home every night.
By Nel
March 3, 2006 03:35 PM | Link to this
Jim, to your public school counselor point, a friend of ours told us about a relative who is 4.0 student wanting to apply to Ivy league school and the counselor nixed the idea saying she should go locally. The mother hit the roof when she found out and went to the school and had it out with he counselor who said she wanted to spare the child being rejected because she knew the mother couldn’t affort the tuition (you can well imagine mom’s comments to that). The bigger problem with this situation is that the child is black and her friends with lower grades who are white, were encouraged to apply. I had a similar experience in school so I know this type of thing happens but it’s a shame that there are still people out there who are pushing the wrong agenda and assuming that certain kids won’t make it through.
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