By Quinn Kropschot
Staff Writer
Although Mira Costa provides students with two different college counselors on campus, Gail Currey and Katherine Folkman, hiring an outside private counselor is becoming more popular throughout the student body. Getting a private counselor is a great supplement to the counselors Costa offers for students who wish to have extraordinary help in the college planning process and is worth the cost.
The college counseling staff at Mira Costa does its best to cater to each student but cannot provide the intimate help an independent counselor could provide. There are approximately 2,500 students that attend Mira Costa each year, meaning that each counselor on campus serves nearly 1,250 students alone. Although the counselors at Costa are available to every grade, their services are prioritized toward juniors and seniors, which can leave underclassmen wanting to get a head start on college without options.
The significant help provided by the private counselors in the financial aid process will often earn students back the fee they paid the independent college advisors. The financial aid process is complicated, and opportunities for scholarships will often go unnoticed by uninformed students. College counselors will not only help their clients identify potential financial aid opportunities, but also help with the large amounts of paperwork required to apply for both private and public scholarships.
According to Folkman, private counselors are beneficial to students who have trouble staying organized. Private counselors can “hold the hand” of the student throughout the process and are able to ensure that the student stays on top of the important deadlines and admission inquiries.
Another benefit of hiring an independent college counselor is that they help students present themselves to college admission boards in the best way possible. While Costa’s college counselors cannot personally edit all of a student’s supplemental essays, this is a service offered by nearly all independent counselors.
Independent advisors are able to help students narrow their interests and decide what is most important to them when selecting a college. They have abundant resources that help students with their search, and are familiar with an expansive variety of school cultures.
Private counselors are quite costly, but they are worth the price. Despite the fact that Costa does offer a free choice, having an additional independent counselor is a helpful tool in the application process. Students who wish to have more help in the college application process should consider hiring an outside counselor.
More and more students are choosing to invest in private counselors. The private option can give a more personal focus than Costa’s counselors, simply because of the volume of students they must work with.
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