Is hiring a consultant a must?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Huge waste of money.

This.

[Anonymous]

It is a nice to have. We hired one for our son and now our daughter. We started with our daughter in sophomore year. The consultant has given us very good advice so far...one in particular that is a game changer for her in her junior year...much less stressful year but still with a rigorous schedule.

With our son, it was helpful to not have to nag him to do tasks. The consultant kept him on track. Much less stressful homelife.

[Anonymous]

No of course not, but if you are already asking this question, you are probably going to do it anyway. Or balance the fact that you didn't hire a consultant for any substandard outcome.

[Anonymous]

If you need an executive functioning coach for your kid already, you'll need a college consultation too.

It's just a "tutor" for college applications.

[Anonymous]

We send our kids to a large urban high school and hired a consultant for both kids. Really, the school was not able to provide much support at all which is what we expected. The consultant was very helpful in (a) helping our child identify and research a school list, (b) develop essays, (c) keep on a schedule for getting everything done and (d) provided current knowledgeable perspective on what certain schools are looking fo (and proving that our knowledge from applying back i the 1990s is pretty out of date). We made sure that our student was part of the consultant selection process and the consultant both times did prove to be a key tool in allowing our student to be in charge of the process instead of it being parent led. yes, you can do it without a consultant but it was within our budget and we have been happy with the outcomes. However, for parents who are going to insist on being in charge of decide if where their student applies and wants to write their students essays, they probably will find little value in a consultant.

[Anonymous]

I paid one $7000 and all he told me was Bucknell had an awesome pipeline to some street, Northeastern was the next Harvard, & SUNYs were awesome. Don’t know where the heck he was getting his information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No of course not, but if you are already asking this question, you are probably going to do it anyway. Or balance the fact that you didn't hire a consultant for any substandard outcome.

OP- No, I would much rather not. I just worry that maybe I am doing ds a disservice because maybe they know "special" ways of phrasing things on the common app, know how to handle all the minute details. We filled most of it out but what if we did some of it wrong?

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who will help with the essay. I'm hoping offloading the essay stress will be enough to preserve our sanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No of course not, but if you are already asking this question, you are probably going to do it anyway. Or balance the fact that you didn't hire a consultant for any substandard outcome.

OP- No, I would much rather not. I just worry that maybe I am doing ds a disservice because maybe they know "special" ways of phrasing things on the common app, know how to handle all the minute details. We filled most of it out but what if we did some of it wrong?

Honestly they don't deal with that kind of minute detail. They deal mostly in generalizations like
take all three sciences at AP level, take the top FL to AP level, have a sport even if it is outside school, join a club and make a difference, do something in the community - or get a job, take online classes with colleges in the subject that interests you. Write essays about overcoming conflict

yada yada.

[Anonymous]

I'm torn. We got one b/c our school only has one college counselor and the class is too big for that. Additionally, everyone we knew was getting one. I'm not going to lie. There was a part of us that worried that we would be doing our kid a disservice if we didn't get one (we could afford it) when all their peers had one. It's been helpful in providing framework for the research and selection, understanding the realities of lottery admissions and creating timelines for applications. My DC is in a good place right now in terms of progress and I'm not sure that would have happened if there wasn't someone else creating deadlines. It's interesting b/c my kid doesn't have EF challenges and is on top of school work w/o me ever having to say anything. However, they have enough trepidation about this process that they would likely try to procrastinate without guidance.

[Anonymous]

Oh, the reason I'm torn is because we aren't done with the process. Right now, I think it's worth it for all the reasons I listed. I know they can't guarantee acceptance anywhere, but I'm hopeful that their guidance will make those targets and reaches more attainable.

[Anonymous]

No it isn't, but if your child is interested in elite colleges and you've never been or know nothing about it you likely don't know what it takes to get in.

[Anonymous]

I considered it for my son with ADHD and autism - either a regular consultant or someone who specializes in students with different learning profiles.

In the end, DCUM persuaded me not to, and they were right (DCUM isn't right for everything, mind you!).

Parents have the urge to outsource when they feel overwhelmed by the complexities of US college admissions, and that's very understandable. Nowhere else in the world is it as complicated! In other countries, students are selected on academic merit. You either get it with grades, or you don't. No one agonizes for years over which strategy is the best to tailor the kid's extra-curriculars, internships, volunteering, etc for the eyes of the admissions officers.

So I dived in, read a ton online, spoke to parents who had already been there, done that, researched universities, their acceptance rates, test scores of accepted students, propensity to want demontrated interest, whether early actions changed anything, etc... and ultimately coached my son myself. it was a lot of work, because he wasn't able to study in 12th grade and be reliable for application deadlines. The essay-writing portion was EXCRUCIATING.

In the end it worked out, and now we know what to do for the younger kids.

[Anonymous]

We got one and I'm glad we did. However, you know your kid and really need to work in tandem with what counselor is telling you. For instance, our DC toured and liked a SLAC and mentioned that - next thing we knew, counselor presented a list of SLACs they thought DC should apply to. Liking and wanting to go there were different things. However, counselor was extremely helpful in how to list ECs on common app, answered questions we had about what activities mattered, which DC could omit, and keeping DC on a schedule for applications and essays that preserved our relationship with DC. DC ended up in a T25 flagship in state and is thrilled - a school that was not on counselor's list for them. Nice to have the expertise of what admissions officers are looking for, but ultimately you know your kid the best. And, based on my DC's very successful admissions process - I think it was worth it. Paid about $7000.