While looking for schools you will love to apply for, there are some online and offline sources that can be useful, while some aren’t that useful and may lead to further confusion.
This can cause a lot of time to be wasted when carrying out research. This is why it is advisable to apply for courses on college coaching that will provide guidance for students and families in making college application decisions.
One of the best courses parked with information and tips that will help you with decision-making is the “Parent Countdown to College Coach.”
This course doesn’t leave anything out when giving the students and parents the step-by-step guidance that they need. Thereby making them stay organized.
They not only help you in making college decisions, but they also provide you with guidance on how you go about paying the fees of the school, like school fees and other necessary fees. They also provide you with information about available scholarship programs and how to apply and get them.
Some college applicants don’t know how and where to apply, so they make unrealistic choices. Having a college coach as your guide or attending these courses can help you in making realistic choices that are best for you financially, academically, etc. They will also help you get the upper hand in being admitted.
Who Is A College Coach?
Now that we’ve seen the benefits of having a coach to direct you on your college application let’s see what a college coach is.
Also known as an independent education consultant, a college coach is a professional that guides students in their preparation and application to get into college.
They are able to carry out their function well because of their knowledge of how application into colleges works.
They are professionals that will help you every step of the way in your trying to get into college. Some of these coaches have, in fact, worked in college admissions.
What Do College Coaches Do?
A college coach’s job is to provide guidance for students who are applying for admission into colleges.
Some offer guidance both for private and public schools or for one type. The guidance you’ll receive also might differ from coach to coach.
They provide step-by-step guidance on how to apply to the right school and also help you when making the decision of which school to apply to.
Below is a list of the main assistance you can receive from college coaches when applying for college.
- Best schools to apply for: Choosing the school to apply to can be difficult for college applicants. Meeting the requirements for applying to a college can also pose difficulty. A college coach can help the student in deciding which school to choose as well as have the school’s requirements for admission.
- Financial aid process: A college coach can also help college applicants in looking for financial aid like scholarship programs, how to get grants, loans, and work-study that they can apply for, and also guide them on how to get them.
- Making the applicant stand out: For your application to stand out as an applicant, your resume has to be good. The job of the college coach is to help you find extracurricular activities and jobs you can volunteer for so that you can have things to add to your resume so as to make it outstanding.
You might want to opt for your high school’s guidance counselor instead of going to a college coach, but you’ll be competing for their attention with many other students that go through them.
So it is better to pay a college coach and have their undivided attention and guidance in making your decision.
Can College Coaches Help With Admission?
The job of a college coach is to guide you in making the right decisions when applying for a college, help you prepare the requirements for admission into a college, and help you know the financial aid available for you and how to apply for them.
Though the guidance that a college coach will provide for you can boost your chances of getting into a particular college of your choice, it doesn’t mean that your chances of getting an acceptance into that school are absolute.
The reason why your chances aren’t absolute is because of the many factors the school’s board of admissions looks into before giving you admission. Some of these factors are your extracurricular activities, your GPA, your level of interest, your ranking in class, your personal statement, and your admission essay.
All these factors are out of the control of the college coach.
This means that though the college coach can help take away the stress that you would have gone through if you were to have researched on your own and also help boost your acceptance chances, the factors mentioned above can even make you not gain that admission if it is very poor.
But if those factors are good, then your chances of getting that admission would be very hard because they are guiding to give you an edge over others that didn’t go through any form of guidance.
For the fact that some of these coaches know how the college admissions office works either from working with admission boards of colleges or from their own personal experience, your chances of getting an acceptance into the college of your choice will be higher.
Their guidance can help you avoid those mistakes that students often make when applying for college admissions.
If your parent is very good at research, there are thousands of online and offline sources that can guide you in choosing the right school; how to apply, and how they can boost their chances of being accepted into that college, then you do not require the help or guidance of a college coach if you as a parent can do all these for your child or children.
How Much Do College Coaches Cost?
There is no fixed price for a college coach’s assistance; the price you pay for a college coach depends on what the college coach charges.
The Independent Educational Consultants Association carried out a study on the rates college coaches charge per hour, and that study found out that the price starts from $85 to about $350 hourly.
You can also go for the comprehensive package, which costs even more. The price for these packages ranges from $850 to about $10,000.
Another thing that can make you spend much more when hiring a college coach is the level of experience the college coach you are hiring has.
When the level of experience he or she has is high, then the price you will pay for his or her services will be much higher.
But if you do not have enough money to spend on getting a college coach, you can as well do the research yourself by getting courses and two kids that will cause less than $100 or more.
Why You May Not Need A College Coach
It is very important to note that it’s not compulsory for you to hire a college coach as a parent for your child’s admission into a college.
You can actually do the research yourself if you want, for there are many online sources where you can get the information that is either free or cost a little.
You also have the option of leaving guardians for your child’s high school guidance counselor to do. Meaning the school’s guidance counselor has that expertise on how to guide your child in deciding which school they want to apply to and how to apply there.
Help Your Child Choose A Major
It is important for you as a parent to know what your child wants to study. They can have lots of course choices they want to major in, and those choices might not be the right ones for them.
It is important to know what your child’s interest is in life and what their hobbies are too. To find out what each college can offer based on what your child wants to major in, you can actually enquire from friends or relatives that know about the colleges or rely on your child’s high school guidance counselor for help.
Note we’re not advising you to select the major for your child. What we are trying to say here is that when you know your child’s interests, what they like, and what they want to be, you can help them in selecting the best courses they can major in out of their numerous options.
There are a lot of things you can do to help your child select the best major out of the numerous choices as a parent.
You can do this earlier mentioned by knowing what and where they want to be in the future, what they want to study, their hobbies, and their interest in life.
You can, as a parent, also encourage your children to explore more on their options more so that they can have more clarity as to what they actually want to be.
Don’t try to pressure them into making hasty decisions; give them time to think so they can make the best decisions.
The knowledge of their interests and hobbies can also help you know the best topics that they can actually fit into.
It is also important that you start early to prepare them for making this decision so that it will be much easier for them when they are about to enter college.
From the decisions they have made, you can then start doing your research on the best universities for them to apply to and how they can apply there.
Below are some of the things you should look out for when choosing the best colleges for them to applying:
- You can review the statistics and rank of the colleges you would like your child to apply to (like the U.S. News & World Report) to be sure they are good.
- Instead of entirely trusting what you see online about the university or what you see on their brochure, or school’s website, you should rather visit the university or campus in person to see for yourself whether the school would be best for your child.
Conclusion.
There are lots of college coaches out there that you can select based on the ones you can afford.
Don’t be surprised that some students in the school you’re applying to were guided by them. They are able to give you guidance in choosing the school to apply to.
It is important to know that it is not mandatory that you should hire a college coach for guidance in applying for college. You have the option of doing it yourself and finding out the important information you need if you are good at doing research.
For those who are not good with research, going through a college coach is good. Some of these coaches may have worked on the admission board of some schools, so they are well informed on what the school’s board of admission seeks out when admitting students.