Private College Consulting

As we approach the beginning of the new school year, the time is just around the corner for seniors to be applying to colleges. And many students and their parents are looking for help, overwhelmed by the highly selective college admissions process…and uninformed (or misinformed). As parents and students seek out private college consulting, they need to be sure to hire a private college consultant who will successfully help them in the stressful process. Not just any private college consultant is a good one. Frankly, the vast majority aren’t. So we’d like to help point out to you some warning signs to look out for when seeking private college consulting.

Private College Consultants, Private College Consultant, Private University Consulting

Do your research when seeking out private college consulting. The consultant should be a member of NACAC and IECA.

Always hire a private college consultant who is a member of NACAC and IECA. NACAC is the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. IECA is the Independent Educational Consultants Association. These logos for the two organizations should appear on the consultant’s website. If you don’t see those logos, you should indeed start to become a bit suspicious. Like in every other industry, there are hacks in the admissions business, too. It should be noted that The Ivy Coach is a member in good standing of both NACAC and IECA. These logos appear at the bottom of our homepage — which you’re welcome to check for yourself.

IECA lists some other warning signs that the private college consultant you’re considering hiring isn’t the right choice for you. Let’s share a few with you. “They tell you not to worry about all the details on the application forms…they’ll take care of those for you.” It’s all in the details! Oy vey. “They indicate that their background, training, and years of experience are unimportant details not worth getting into.” Uh huh. “They promise to use their ‘pull’ or ‘connection’ to secure admission to a particular school or college.” Right. Get the idea?

Private College Consultant

Mark Sklarow, the Executive Director of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) to which The Ivy Coach is a member in good standing, posted today about high school students’ need for the private college consultant. Citing statistics that show an average student to high school counselor ration in high schools as 350:1, Sklarow also writes in his post on college consultants that “in many parts of the country the number is two or three times this.”

Do you think Emma Pillsbury's character on "Glee" is an expert in highly selective college admissions? No. And most high school counselors aren't. Therein lies the need for the private college consultant.

He also writes about a 2010 National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) to which The Ivy Coach is a member in good standing that indicates counselors in public schools spend just “22% of their time on college advising, with the rest occupied by personal counseling, academic advising, course selection, teaching, and administrative tasks like lunchroom or bus duty.” And not only are high school counselors overwhelmed by their workload but there are many high school counselors out there who just aren’t experts on college admissions. Maybe they became guidance counselors to counsel troubled teens. They didn’t all necessarily become counselors to help get kids into Ivy League colleges.

Check out our newsletter on the private college consultant and have a look at this post on private college counselors. What do you think about the need for high school students to hire a private college consultant to improve their chances of admission to highly competitive colleges? Let us know your thoughts by posting below!

Private College Counselor

In our upcoming newsletter, we’re going to discuss reasons why you may want to strongly consider hiring a private college counselor. And not just any private college counselor. The right kind of credentialed college admissions advisor who has experience in admissions and is a member of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) as well as the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).

The right private college counselor can be the difference between an admission and a denial.

We’d like to share with you some findings by one of these very organizations that govern credentialed private college counselors – NACAC – in a report entitled “2010 State of College Admission.” According to the findings of the study, at public schools across the nation, only 34% have at least one counselor whose chief responsibility is college counseling. In fact, 34% is probably quite high. In California, for instance, the study by NACAC finds that the college counselor to student ratio is 814:1. In Minnesota, it’s 759:1. And in Arizona, it’s 743:1.

Additionally, the NACAC study found that private school counselors were more likely to rate “helping students plan and prepare for postsecondary education” as their number one priority than were public school counselors. According to the NACAC report, “Results of NACAC’s survey showed that in 2009, high school counseling staffs spent an average of only 26 percent of their time on postsecondary admission counseling. Counselors in public schools reported spending only 22 percent of their time on college counseling, compared to 54 percent for private school counselors.”

With limited time available, non-college counseling responsibilities, and ridiculously high counselor to student ratios across the nation, good private college counselors can indeed be quite helpful to students seeking to gain some much needed advice and attention in the highly competitive college admissions process.

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