College Counseling

College Consulting Services

College Consulting, College Admissions Consulting Service, Services for College Consulting

Fill out our free college admissions consultation form, and we’ll promptly get back to you.

Many parents and students often ask us why we prefer that they fill out our free 30-minute college consulting form prior to calling us. The answer is a simple one. We are more than happy to provide a free consultation to parents and students — regardless of whether or not they ultimately choose to use our services — but students and parents should a.) have an idea of the college consulting services we offer prior to our conversation so that we don’t have to waste these valuable minutes describing our services, and b.) we’ll have a better understanding of your child with the information you present to us on the form. We won’t have to ask a question like, “What grade is your child in” or “Where are you from?”

Does it make more sense now? Once you fill out the form for the free college admissions consultation, we’ll promptly write you back. In our email back, we’ll delineate our college consulting services and fees. We’ll outline our various packages and give you a better understanding of the value we add to your (or your child’s) case for admission to a highly selective college. In the twenty years that The Ivy Coach has been in business, we find that this system is the most effective, one that makes the most students and parents happy and satisfied.

So if you’re interested in our college consulting services, fill out the form and we’ll get back to you right away to schedule your free college admissions consultation. It’s that easy. If you call us directly without filling out our form, that’s OK — we’re just going to ask if you’ve filled out our form so that we can schedule the consultation. So fill one out today!

College Counseling Help

Want college counseling help? Well, some guidance counselors are better than others. Shocker, we know this. According to the College Board’s “2011 National Survey of School Counselors,” many guidance counselors or high school college counselors just don’t have that much faith in their college advising knowledge and skill-set based on a lack of training. In fact, it’s the minority of high school counselors who express full confidence in their own abilities! According to the survey, “Only a small minority feel very well trained for their jobs (only 16 percent rate their training as a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale).”

College Counseling Assistance, College Counseling, College Counselors, College Counselor

College counseling help is not created equal at every high school in America. Check out these statistics on high school counselors like Tammy Taylor in "Friday Night Lights." Okay, she's fictitious. But the actress who plays her - Connie Britton - is a graduate of Dartmouth College!

Does that surprise you? If you’ve been reading our blog over the years, it shouldn’t. And, most of the time, it’s not the fault of high school counselors. Expertise in college admissions counseling doesn’t come via osmosis. Where do high school counselors receive training in college admissions counseling? They don’t usually! Are they trained in helping students suffering from depression? Maybe. In dealing with an ailing parent? Maybe. In a student coming out of the closet? Maybe. But not necessarily in college counseling…much less highly selective college counseling!

According to the survey, “The majority of counselors have a master’s degree (73 percent) and important prior work experience (58 percent were teachers or administrators)…Nearly three in 10 (28 percent) believe their training did not prepare them well for their job and more than half (56 percent) feel only somewhat well trained.” And a master’s degree in counseling, by the way, doesn’t typically entail a whole lot of training in college counseling. So even the majority of the 73% aren’t necessarily helpful…through no fault of their own! Are there exceptions? Of course! There are some fantastic high school counselors out there who know the ins and outs of the college admissions process.

Check out this post on private college counselors or this one on college counseling. And let’s hear your thoughts on the college counseling help you’re getting at your high school!

College Admission Counselors

College admission counselors don’t like thick files. In fact, there’s an old saying in college admissions that predates submitting applications online. Yes, there really was a time when students mailed in their applications via snail mail! That old college admissions saying is: “The thicker the file, the thicker the student.” But what does that mean, you ask?

University Admission Counselors, College Counselors, College Admissions Counselors, College Counseling

For college admission counselors, the thicker the file...the thicker the student.

It means that college admission counselors don’t want to read the extra letter of recommendation from your local congressman. They don’t want to watch the DVD of you hitting a flat on the piano when you should have hit a sharp. They don’t want to receive a book that you wrote as a precocious third grader. They don’t want to watch you play tennis in a forty-five minute video. Rather, college admissions counselors will think if you’re so good, how come you’re not on the coach’s radar?

In college admissions, stick to the real estate you are given. If you’re given 500 words in a supplement, don’t try to put in 800. If an essay prompt asks for five adjectives to describe you, don’t give them nine! The playing field is even when you are given 500 words max so don’t try to give yourself an advantage by writing more. It will do just the opposite to your candidacy. Less is more. Be precise. Succinct. Terse. Add whatever SAT word you want here but make sure you stick to the real estate afforded to you. You’d be amazed how many people don’t seem to get this.

College Counselors

While Connie Britton's character on the critically acclaimed "Friday Night Lights" may have jumped from guidance counselor to dean of admissions, her character never demonstrated an expertise in college admissions. And that's why her storyline is fiction. As an aside, Connie Britton attended Dartmouth College.

It’s not the fault of high school college counselors. Most don’t even go by this title. Most, like Connie Britton’s character on critical darling “Friday Night Lights” go by guidance counselor. College counseling is just one of the many duties of these hard working individuals who received master’s degrees in counseling that just didn’t cover the highly selective college admissions process. Instead, counseling degrees cover mental health counseling and this lack of college counseling training invariably creates a knowledge gap.

According to the blog “College Solution,” “This lack of training on the graduate level is ‘pretty scary,’ suggests Bob Bardwell, a public high school counselor in Massachusetts and a vice president at the American School Counselor Association. A few years ago, Bardwell was a member of a NACAC task force, which experienced limited success in encouraging graduate schools to add even a single college planning class to their curriculum. While there are hundreds of these graduate programs across the country, Bardwell estimates that only two dozen or so offer a college counseling class.”

In our recent newsletter on private college counselors, we delineated other reasons why high school counselors, despite their best intentions, may not be the most valuable resource to you as you navigate the highly competitive college admissions process. The knowledge gap, lack of personal attention, and non-college counseling responsibilities are a few of the reasons why many students and parents turn to private college counselors. It is, however, always important to turn to the right private college counselor. Check to make sure the college counselor is a member of NACAC and IECA before proceeding.

College Counselor

With so many students and so few high school college counselors, the Western Association of College Admission Counseling (WACAC) has begun a campaign to support college counseling throughout the American west. According to WACAC, “the national student-to-counselor ratio is 477 to 1. California’s is 945 to 1.” With such a dismal ratio, high school students – particularly those in less affluent communities – don’t receive the counseling they need to succeed in the college admissions process. They don’t know where they can seek out scholarships. They don’t know which universities they should consider applying to. And they’re overwhelmed, just like the college counselors in these states with enormously high caseloads.

The shortage of college counselors in states like California is a problem that the Western Association for College Admission Counseling is trying to combat.

With states like California in major budget crises, it doesn’t seem this disproportionate college counselor to student ratio is going to be fixed anytime soon. And that’s why WACAC has released the following video, to get the word out and to encourage Americans living in the west to contact their legislators in support of changing this broken system. Take a look at the video below and let us know your thoughts about the college counselor to student ratio in your school district. Are you or is your child getting the college counseling they need to succeed?

Check out WACAC’s video on the need for more college counselors.

According to Jason Koebler of “US News & World Report,” “A 2005 study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) reported that the average public high school student got about 38 minutes of college advising per year from their guidance counselor, and a 2009 study by the National Center for Education Statistics said the average public school had 457 students per counselor.” What kind of college counseling is your student receiving at his / her high school?

Is your student’s high school guidance counselor giving your child the personal attention that he/she needs to gain admission to highly competitive universities? Is your student’s guidance counselor up to speed on the latest trends in competitive college admissions? Do they visit colleges and universities throughout the year? Are they burdened with job responsibilities that do not involve college counseling? These are all very important questions as you help your child navigate the college admissions process.

College Admissions Counseling, College Consulting, College Admissions Consulting, College Counselor, College Admissions Counselor

College counseling is The Ivy Coach's expertise. Help your student gain an edge and eliminate so much stress in the highly competitive college admissions process.

At The Ivy Coach, we provide the personalized college counseling that may well be the difference of your child getting into the college of his/her dreams and attending his/her safety college. We have the expertise and experience to guide your child through the high stakes college admissions process. The process doesn’t have to be so stressful. The process doesn’t have to result in family discord and constant arguments at the dinner table. And with The Ivy Coach, you don’t have to worry about so many of the pitfalls of the college application — we make sure our students don’t make the common mistakes that lead to college denials. As college counseling specialists, this is what we do.

^{Koebler, Jason. “Make the Most of College Admissions Counseling.” US News & World Report Blog. 1 April 2011. Web. 16 April 2011.}

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