In Southern California where the ratio of counselors to students is 700:1, an ethical college consultant can help pick up the slack. Ethical consultants do not lobby to get kids into certain colleges, write their essays, or manufacture activities that did not happen.
I charge $2100 for up to 4 years of counseling, as much help as the student needs. I am able to steer students to colleges that fit their interests and their parents' pocketbooks. For children of immigrants, their parents want guidance and a chance to learn the admissions process in an unhurried, non-judgmental atmosphere. Some of my students' parents are well off, but most are middle income.
Public high school counselors wear many hats: scheduler, psychologist, disciplinarian, paper pusher. College counselor is in there somewhere, but the percentage of time devoted to this area is small.
I know one who's not a fraud. He told me about being hired by parents who wanted their son to get into college. After getting to know the boy, he realized that this kid wanted to work with his hands and was interested in construction. Aptitude tests said he'd make a good electrician, and my friend directed him to the right classes. Now the kid's making six figures while his Ivy League educated sister is making coffee at Starbucks.
@flexy: one of, if not the greatest travesties that has been visited on america's education system was institutionalizing the message that trade schools were a bad place to end up and everyone should attend a 4 year college.
just donate that much money to the school your kid wants to go to and she will get in. that's what my boss did and now his idiot daughter is going to an ivy.
@Hamilton: One of the companies whose website you link to ("pretty modest price chart") is CollegeAdmissionEssay.com, which appears to be a subsidiary of or to contract its business out to The Penn Group: http://www.pegr.com/projects.html
It's a ghost writing firm, whose recent accomplishments include:
•A nonfiction book by a prominent publisher;
•The authorized biography of a historical icon;
•The life story of a former mafia kingpin.
So, it's basically about paying thousands of dollars for a ghost writer to write your college essay.
The problem is these parents think that getting into Harvard/Yale/Princeton et al will ensure that their kid is successful. Now certainly a degree from Harvard will help get you the first job, but what you learned in college (including things like a work ethic, time management, as well as your academic subjects) is what will get you the promotion and the next job.
I went to public schools through grad school and now I make enough that I could easily afford the services of these boils on the buttocks of humanity for my kids. Fortunately I'm not a breeder, so no kids. However I do have a group of adorable nieces. They know if they work hard, and get into any school.... the local community college through Yale their uncle will make sure they have the money to go. But they also know they have to do the work and make the grades. Unfortunately if they want to get into an Ivy, they will be competing against malignantly entitled twats whose parents buy them these sort of services.
Though fortunately, I imagine admissions folks are as savvy as the douches who charge $40k for these services and they can tell a hard working kid from a lazy shitstain with rich parents.
The sad thing is, the incredible pressure to get into a top-flight school coupled with an ever-growing population of applicants drives seemingly-sane but increasingly-desperate famlies into the arms of these outrageously expensive shysters. When little Timmy will kill himself if he doesn't get into Dartmouth, where do you turn for expert advice? How do you seperate the wolves from the sheep?
That's why for a mere $35,000 I offer the comprensive guidance and preparation your family needs to choose the Independent College Counselor that's right for you. Yes, for just $35k, we will find the right person for you to pay to call colleges on your behalf to find out exactly how large of a donation you'll need to make so that Timmy doesn't end up toiling away at one of the lesser investment banks for ever and ever. Call me!
God, I hate these people. Let's ignore the question of whether they're effective or worth the money--at the end of the day, they're being hired to get some kid who's not qualified into Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke et al.
Yes, I said it. There are people who aren't qualified to go to Harvard. And they shouldn't go to Harvard. They should go to a school that fits their qualifications--whether academic, sport, music etc. Because from what I've seen since graduating, there are plenty of people who are successful precisely because they went to, say, OSU and took finance classes, which they understood and excelled in. Contrast that to some ex-ibanker history major legacy from Yale who blundered into his job, and now that he's laid off, has no tangible skills or grounding to find another job.
And to summarize, that's why these college counseling programs suck: there's a reason not everyone should go to the Ivy League, and it has nothing to do with smarts.
Got a very smart kid? Skip the gifted programs and send him/her to a mediocre school where comparatively good grades will let Junior shine like the top of the Chrysler Building. Of course, you'll have to get the kid lots of tutoring after school, and he/she will be forever embarrassed to name the old alma mater, but the Ivys love valedictorians! Right?
@The_Lovely_Miss_Bronx: Being the valedictorian of an unimpressive high school isn't gonna get you into an Ivy. That's the reason these counselors exist -- it's insanely difficult to get into the universities with the best brands, because they are everyone's first choice. There are simply too many kids out there with spotless transcripts and overloaded schedules for them all to be accepted, so people turn to these counselors hoping it will give them some kind of advantage.
@BBooms: My best friend was valedictorian at our public high school, and she got into Harvard without wealthy, well-connected parents or expensive college counselors.
I can do this shit for free: (1) Invent time machine; (2) go back and tell great grandfather to change his last name to "Smyth" and to go work in a bank; (3) travel back to the future and call Princeton's dean of admissions to tell him your dorm room requirements.
Also, did Ms. Hernandez really compare her counseling of the dim spawn of the nouveau riche to brain surgery? As a survivor of [watching movies about people who die from] brain cancer, I find her repugnant.
If anything, this is just another example of the private market filling in for the overburdened public programs, like say public school high school counselors that are assigned 500 students a year. Le Sigh.
@Trulymadlyme: Of course, in typical private-market fashion, it caters exclusively to the people who can afford it, as opposed to the people who actually need it.
08/02/09
07/20/09
I charge $2100 for up to 4 years of counseling, as much help as the student needs. I am able to steer students to colleges that fit their interests and their parents' pocketbooks. For children of immigrants, their parents want guidance and a chance to learn the admissions process in an unhurried, non-judgmental atmosphere. Some of my students' parents are well off, but most are middle income.
Public high school counselors wear many hats: scheduler, psychologist, disciplinarian, paper pusher. College counselor is in there somewhere, but the percentage of time devoted to this area is small.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
It's a ghost writing firm, whose recent accomplishments include:
•A nonfiction book by a prominent publisher;
•The authorized biography of a historical icon;
•The life story of a former mafia kingpin.
So, it's basically about paying thousands of dollars for a ghost writer to write your college essay.
07/20/09
I went to public schools through grad school and now I make enough that I could easily afford the services of these boils on the buttocks of humanity for my kids. Fortunately I'm not a breeder, so no kids. However I do have a group of adorable nieces. They know if they work hard, and get into any school.... the local community college through Yale their uncle will make sure they have the money to go. But they also know they have to do the work and make the grades. Unfortunately if they want to get into an Ivy, they will be competing against malignantly entitled twats whose parents buy them these sort of services.
Though fortunately, I imagine admissions folks are as savvy as the douches who charge $40k for these services and they can tell a hard working kid from a lazy shitstain with rich parents.
07/20/09
That's why for a mere $35,000 I offer the comprensive guidance and preparation your family needs to choose the Independent College Counselor that's right for you. Yes, for just $35k, we will find the right person for you to pay to call colleges on your behalf to find out exactly how large of a donation you'll need to make so that Timmy doesn't end up toiling away at one of the lesser investment banks for ever and ever. Call me!
07/20/09
Yes, I said it. There are people who aren't qualified to go to Harvard. And they shouldn't go to Harvard. They should go to a school that fits their qualifications--whether academic, sport, music etc. Because from what I've seen since graduating, there are plenty of people who are successful precisely because they went to, say, OSU and took finance classes, which they understood and excelled in. Contrast that to some ex-ibanker history major legacy from Yale who blundered into his job, and now that he's laid off, has no tangible skills or grounding to find another job.
And to summarize, that's why these college counseling programs suck: there's a reason not everyone should go to the Ivy League, and it has nothing to do with smarts.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
Got a very smart kid? Skip the gifted programs and send him/her to a mediocre school where comparatively good grades will let Junior shine like the top of the Chrysler Building. Of course, you'll have to get the kid lots of tutoring after school, and he/she will be forever embarrassed to name the old alma mater, but the Ivys love valedictorians! Right?
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
Also, did Ms. Hernandez really compare her counseling of the dim spawn of the nouveau riche to brain surgery? As a survivor of [watching movies about people who die from] brain cancer, I find her repugnant.
07/20/09
My fee is between one and two cans of beans for each session. Each tearful, tearful session.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09