Oct 29, 2019, 4:41 PM
(from the Wall Street Journal) In the wake of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, independent schools are increasing efforts to discourage their students from working with independent college counselors. High-school counselors, many of whom have experience working in college admissions offices, carefully curate relationships with university gatekeepers and are concerned about teens submitting applications riddled with falsehoods, or at least embellishments, if they can’t maintain a close watch over the process. They say outside counselors can confuse students with conflicting or uninformed advice, and tend to be too aggressive in packaging students, even if they don’t go to illegal lengths
Douglas Burdett at Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut, says his office sends a “polite request” that families not engage outside help, starting freshman year, and he thinks most oblige but can’t know for sure. At the all-girls Branksome Hall in Toronto, Cory Miller says there is no written policy against independent counselors, but she worries about the increase in students getting writing help from unknown outsiders who can end up overshadowing their natural voice and undermining their applications. The Cate School near Santa Barbara, Calif., asks students on a questionnaire if they have hired outside assistance. In January after years of verbal warnings, Flintridge posted on its website statement on independent counselors that includes the bolded, italicized line, “The college counseling department strongly discourages securing outside counseling,” and says colleges can tell if adults meddled too much in an application. The college counselor mailed it to parents this summer and says her counterparts at area schools have asked for copies since then.
Some schools maintain lists of preferred independent consultants, in an effort to maintain quality control.
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