College admissions consultants

[Anonymous]

$12,000. Quite disappointed. Make sure you go over expectations going in. We wanted honesty and help with a realistic college list, real expertise. Instead we got a college list circa 2019, prepandemic. It was not even close to realistic and of course DC wanted to trust the private counselor instead of the school counselor. School counselor was not so great either. Everything turned out OK in the end, and DC is very happy. However, we could have saved a lot of time and emotional energy had we prepared a list with many, many more realistic “likelies.” Doing it again, we would have spent far less $ for sole targeted help with essays.

[Anonymous]

We are in the soup now. big 3.
School counselor seems overwhelmed with 30+ students and appointments for kids out 2-3 weeks in advance.

We have an outside - who has been great at keeping kid on schedule and ahead of the game for last 10 months.

Ask me in 5 mos how it all goes.

We also have an outside essay person we recently found on Wyzant (not cheap at all - hundreds per hour) and they have been FAR better than either school or outside counselor at essay help

Also used outside 1:1 SAT tutor.

We have the means to do all of this. At the end of the day, if I had more constraints, I would just use SAT 1:1 and essay reader.

[Anonymous]

We have one in college at a top tier SLAC and another in their college search now. We are at a “next tier” private and have been more than happy with our school’s college counselors who have longevity and the school has a terrific track record for placement. There are some families at our school who seek outside counseling but it is very small and their results are the same. The thought of dropping thousands on an outside counselor after paying tuition is unfathomable to me, that is unless there are special circumstances that need expertise outside the mainstream.

[Anonymous]

I am not rich, quite the opposite but here is my plan. I am learning the ropes myself (the college essay guy on YouTube is great), so that I can at least control what’s going on.
I am also keeping an eye out for worthwhile events at DC’s high school making sure he attends (he is supposed to plan it himself but you know how kids are…)
Then I will pay for a few hours of test prep focusing mainly on strategies (he can practice on his own).
Then a few hours of essay writing incl supplemental questions - developing the setup and then commenting on the rough draft.
My understanding is that by “you need to start around 8th grade” they mean learning the ropes of what’s needed and loosely following the framework: kid has a sport, an extracurricular or two, keeps up the grades, maybe a part time job, volunteer hours (preferably in one area to show continuity). Well at least some of that. Plus college prep per se.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the soup now. big 3.
School counselor seems overwhelmed with 30+ students and appointments for kids out 2-3 weeks in advance.

We have an outside - who has been great at keeping kid on schedule and ahead of the game for last 10 months.

Ask me in 5 mos how it all goes.

We also have an outside essay person we recently found on Wyzant (not cheap at all - hundreds per hour) and they have been FAR better than either school or outside counselor at essay help

Also used outside 1:1 SAT tutor.

We have the means to do all of this. At the end of the day, if I had more constraints, I would just use SAT 1:1 and essay reader.

This sounds so intense to me. I get test prep, but an essay writer/reader? This just feels like overkill to me if your kid is at a Big 3. Did your child write the essay or did you pay someone to write it for them?

[Anonymous]

The main reason to do this is to have a buffer to keep your kid on track, rather than you being the nag.

If you don't need that buffer, then it is probably a waste of time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have one in college at a top tier SLAC and another in their college search now. We are at a “next tier” private and have been more than happy with our school’s college counselors who have longevity and the school has a terrific track record for placement. There are some families at our school who seek outside counseling but it is very small and their results are the same. The thought of dropping thousands on an outside counselor after paying tuition is unfathomable to me, that is unless there are special circumstances that need expertise outside the mainstream.

Which school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the soup now. big 3.
School counselor seems overwhelmed with 30+ students and appointments for kids out 2-3 weeks in advance.

We have an outside - who has been great at keeping kid on schedule and ahead of the game for last 10 months.

Ask me in 5 mos how it all goes.

We also have an outside essay person we recently found on Wyzant (not cheap at all - hundreds per hour) and they have been FAR better than either school or outside counselor at essay help

Also used outside 1:1 SAT tutor.

We have the means to do all of this. At the end of the day, if I had more constraints, I would just use SAT 1:1 and essay reader.

This sounds so intense to me. I get test prep, but an essay writer/reader? This just feels like overkill to me if your kid is at a Big 3. Did your child write the essay or did you pay someone to write it for them?

Yeah i posted that/ The essay reader (a reader - def not a writer) has been actually the most invaluable of all of the pieces for my kid. The Top 3 school college office is overwhelmed - 35 kids per counselor and seem to me like they want to just check off other to do list when it came to essay. The outside person really pushed my kid to express thoughts much more clearly, forcefully, and frankly spent the time that college office at school would not - at school kid is getting 20 min here and there and the counselor is scheduled out 2 weeks at a time.

The outside counselor is good at pushing deadlines but not (in our case) someone who has an eye towards what a GREAT and compelling essay would be

Like I said though, that's what has worked for us. Might not work for everyone. My kid says several others at his school have the same (outside counselor, outside SAT private, and outside essay reader)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The main reason to do this is to have a buffer to keep your kid on track, rather than you being the nag.

If you don't need that buffer, then it is probably a waste of time and money.

This is exactly what our close friends currently going through the process (or did so last year) have said. The consultants serve as a "neutral third party" of sorts and mitigate what friction may arise between the parents and child. To our friends, that was the main value-add. I highly doubt they move the needle when it comes to increasing admissions chances at any given school.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the importance of the essay help. I am just stating this whole process for my kid and have watched some webinars and YouTube videos to just get the idea, and turns out it’s a distinct genre quite different from what I thought it would be! I was thinking more along the lines of a cover letter tbh! Maybe I am naive but it’s not anything like the personal statements I wrote back in the day for similar purposes.
I am sure someone who knows the rules and has seen so many compelling essays can be a huge asset

[Anonymous]

We have not used an outside college counselor. Find the counselor at kid’s school to be responsive and helpful. Kid has high test scores, lots of rigor, good but not perfect grades. There have been a few hiccups (generally when he was stuck on an essay), but I value the time we have spent together as he goes through this process. His application feels authentic but not earth-shattering, which is who he is. His top choice is a match school according the counselor.

Ask me in two months if I feel differently about the counseling office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The main reason to do this is to have a buffer to keep your kid on track, rather than you being the nag.

If you don't need that buffer, then it is probably a waste of time and money.

This is exactly what our close friends currently going through the process (or did so last year) have said. The consultants serve as a "neutral third party" of sorts and mitigate what friction may arise between the parents and child. To our friends, that was the main value-add. I highly doubt they move the needle when it comes to increasing admissions chances at any given school.

There is absolutely NO moving of the needle that an independent consultant can do with admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one in college at a top tier SLAC and another in their college search now. We are at a “next tier” private and have been more than happy with our school’s college counselors who have longevity and the school has a terrific track record for placement. There are some families at our school who seek outside counseling but it is very small and their results are the same. The thought of dropping thousands on an outside counselor after paying tuition is unfathomable to me, that is unless there are special circumstances that need expertise outside the mainstream.

Which school?

I am not PP but our experience seems similar - and ours is with St Andrew’s.

[Anonymous]

When does one find/hire the outside essay consultant? Spring junior year?

[Anonymous]

Can people recommend their trap prep tutors they liked?
Also can they suggest the webinar/YouTube programs that suggest starting
In 9th grade or even 8th. Could use it to motivate my freshman.