Need an Independent Counselor? Start Here

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

This father called me from out of nowhere, getting my name from one of my clients at school. The father was desperate—could I please meet with him and his son to talk about his college plans? Knowing nothing about the family, the student, or the college goals, I said yes.

We met around their kitchen table at 7 PM, and, like many of my clients, the first thing the father needed to do was vent. That out of the way, I suggested we answer his questions first.

He was only too happy to do so. “OK” he said, taking a deep breath, “How do we register for the ACT?”

That best sums up the tenor of all of the questions the father had, while the son sat quietly. Once we reached the end of the father’s questions, he sighed again, his shoulders dropped, and he said “Great. Thank you.”

I checked my watch. It was 7:15, and the student hadn’t said a word.

I moved rather easily into the junior interview mode I used at my local school and the student came to life. By the time we were finished, we’d covered schedule, grades, life interests, test scores, letters of recommendation, and a timeline for applications. With all that behind us, I felt like I could take the father’s check, and still sleep at night.

Everyone has different needs, and they often need to be met in different ways. If I’m not the person who can meet that need, it’s more than OK if families reach out to someone else who can. That doesn’t make me a bad counselor; it means someone else is better suited to help this student.

With one important caveat—that person has to know what they’re doing. If someone claims to be an independent college counselor, and their training solely consists of getting their own child into college, that’s not a professional relationship—that’s a conversation over pizza. To me, this is the main reason so many school counselors don’t trust independent counselors—there are too many whose expertise don’t line up with the student’s needs.

If you (or a client) are looking for some kind of reliable independent help, there are two ways to find it. Look for independent counselors who have earned the Certified Educational Planner (CEP) credential from the American Institute of Certified Educational Planners. Earning this credential requires the counselor to complete a rigorous exam of their knowledge of colleges, college counseling, and the college admission process. The counselor has to visit at least 30 college campuses before taking the exam, and it requires the counselor to visit college campuses to maintain their CEP status once they’ve earned it.

The CEP exam is no walk in the park—it includes two case studies the counselor has never seen before, where the candidate is asked to develop a list of potential colleges, and why they work, in about an hour. It may not be a perfect system, but it sure beats leaving a student’s future to chance, or to someone whose kid really got into college because they were from South Dakota, not because of anything the counselor did.

The other way is to ask around and see who else has used an independent counselor—but be careful. Meeting one student’s needs doesn’t make this counselor a perfect fit for all students. Ask lots of questions about their background, and especially how they go about getting to know a student. If they’re starting from ground zero, they’re going to need a lot of background. Ask how they do that.