YCBK 78: Should You Hire an Independent College Counselor?

In this episode you will hear: (4:37) In this week’s news, an article from Business Insider, “7 Admissions Officers Share the Things They Never Tell Applicants” by Joel Butterly. Butterly shares the results from asking admission representatives from Yale, Brown, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, and Princeton & University of Pennsylvania – what they would share with their applicants if they could guide them through the process. They highlight the importance of being kind, respectful of the admissions staff time and the importance of not having a mediocre application, among the 7 key things for students to consider. Mark and Anika discuss all seven of the things they wish they could tell applicants. Mark elaborates on each point by sharing stories from his experience.   (37:22) We are in Chapter 78 of 171 Answers and Mark shares when it may or may not be necessary to hire an independent college counselor.  Mark’s position is that just like some people do test prep on their own very successfully, but others benefit from a tutor, the same is true for an IEC (Independent educational consultant) aka a private college coach. There is not a right or wrong answer as to whether a student would benefit from an IEC. We discuss the growth of the IEC and why this has occurred, but we also discuss the mixed results that IEC receive from the college community. We discuss what it is about IEC that make some college admissions officers love to work with them but we also share many reasons why some colleges are not receptive to working with IEC. One of the reasons this podcast was started was so a family would not feel they had to hire an IEC in order to help them with the college process. For a family that feels they would benefit from an IEC to help them with college list building, admission strategy or scholarship and financial need strategy, Mark shares what you should do in order to research an IEC you are considering hiring.  (49:18) This week’s question asks how a student athlete who wants to play in college can get the attention of college coaches. Mark shares six steps that a family in this situation can and should take in order to not only get the attention of coaches but to get the attention of the right coaches.   (61:29)  Mark moves into Part III of his interview with Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts in “Understanding the University of Virginia”.  Greg gives an overview of the University of Virginia so we understand what makes it distinct and different from other universities. Greg talks about the different schools within the University; he discusses the school of architecture and the McIntyre school of business; then the school of Engineering; Greg talks about the Architecture school and the Engineering school and the Curry School of Education and school of Arts and Sciences and then Greg talks about Nursing. Greg also talks about the Batten school of Engineering and the new Data Science school that will be opening up in the next few years. Greg talks about what went into the decision for UVA to offer Early Decision and he offers the history of Early Decision at UVA; Greg talks about the concerns that ED raises but he shares how UVA is committed to remaining student centric and to not abuse Early Decision  (74:59) Mark’s recommended resource of the week is put the college in Google and click the News link and the video link under the Google search. Start reading everything and watching all the videos. (1:29:04) Our College Spotlight for the week is University of Georgia (GA)   Please complete our podcast survey so we can improve our podcast and meet your needs. Here is the link:   Don’t forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to   Every episode of Your College-Bound Kid will align with a chapter from the book 171 Answers to the Most-Asked College Admission Questions. To get a copy visit  and if you want to see what future episodes will cover just click the red button “See exactly what 171 Answers covers.