Why You Need an Independent College Counselor

Independent counselors are specialized counselors who can advise you on the college admission process.  High school counselors, although a great source for college, are stretched in many different directions. They have their hands in scheduling, personal counseling, managing graduation requirements, and college counseling in addition to other duties. They also have a large student caseload.  In most situations school counselors have hundreds of students on their caseload, which means they can only spend a limited amount of time with each student.  Often times, students need more than the time a school counselor is able to give them in order to help make one of the most important decisions of their lives. In contrast, independent counselors often limit the number of new students they take on in a given year. This ensures that they will have enough time to see to all of their students’ needs.

Independent counselors are often recently removed from the college admission field, giving them expert knowledge of the admission and recruiting practices of colleges and universities. They can use this knowledge to advise students on the best choices for them. They can also tap any number of contacts from colleges to get help for their students. Independent counselors also spend their summers and down time traveling the nation, touring college campuses so that they have first-hand experiences of colleges when recommending them to their students.  School counselors often do not have the time in their schedules to make these trips. In order to meet with college officials or go on tours, they often have to ask their principals for time away from the school building. Also, school counselors are generally paid on a ten or eleven month schedule, and typically do not take campus tours that are offered during their vacation times.

Independent counselors are able to set aside more time to meet with students and their families. Students can bring their parents and sit down for an hour or two without interruption and discuss exactly what the student wants. Students’ parents can interject with questions that students forget to ask so that everything is covered. The student receives an individual plan from the counselor and usually has easy access to the counselor. Independent counselors can set up meetings at night when their parents are off work, they often work weekends, and some counselors offer an online option where you can chat via the Web. School counselors are not able to give this luxury to students because of their large caseloads and limited school hours.

Independent counselors also offer more options. They can often help with essay writing and grammatical correction, financial aid, scholarship searches, college recommendations, completion of the college application, SAT/ACT prep, and much more. They also offer long term options where students can start working with them as early as their freshman year of high school. This allows the counselor to really get to know the student’s college aspirations and to make sure that the student is making the proper choices as far as class selection, extracurricular activities, and more so that their admission chances are not hurt in the long run.

Should a student need further help once they are in college, the independent counselor is always available to assist. High school counselors, with their large caseloads, are often quite limited in the time they would have to assist students who have already graduated. Students could come to their independent counselor with a variety of needs, including financial aid renewal, transferring schools should they be unhappy with a school for any reason, graduate school testing choices and preparations, graduate school applications and admissions, career choices, and much more.

In short, though high school counselors are absolutely wonderful at what they do, they do not often have the time to commit to the needs of students and parents who need a good deal of assistance with the college planning and admission process. This is especially true of students who have their sights set on an education at exclusive colleges and universities. Often these schools require much more of students and their parents during the admission and financial aid process than state colleges do. Additionally, if a student needs help filling out complicated and lengthy scholarship forms, an independent counselor has more time to devote to their students than high school counselors typically do. Independent counselors are not limited by having other duties beyond college counseling, have small case loads, are able to visit colleges and universities throughout the country, have flexible hours throughout the entire year, and are specialized specifically in the field of college and financial aid counseling. These are among the many reasons that students and parents are choosing independent college counselors to help them through the often difficult college and financial aid admission process.

Steven Crisp is the owner of Crisp College Advising and a former admission and financial aid professional.