Sara Harberson Application Nation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the group College Admissions Experts was really helpful. Lots of crowdsourcing information, people LINKED to websites to show how they came up with their opinion, and it seemed like there was respect for every college (unlike here).

There are some essay tutors and indie counselors there, so there's a mix of observations.

Yes, I like that one. There’s another one as well called college.talk that is good too.

[Anonymous]

I’m in AN and I’m shocked at people criticizing Sara here without actually having used her services.

First of all, there are many parents who come back to AN for their second and third children after Sara helped with the first one. Many of them get into top schools.

There are so many nuances in college admissions I had no idea about and I’m thankful that Sara made us aware.

She provides excellent structure and timeline so parents and kids don’t feel overwhelmed.

She does not have an obsession with Ivies like some counselors or parents and recommends a down to earth approach of finding best fit and not chasing prestige.

It has been a delightful experience so far.

[Anonymous]

I was a member for a few months with my older child. It was helpful to understand the college process these days but I found some of her advice formulaic. For example she says not to submit any AP scores under 5 for top schools. My son had one 4 (in his intended major no less!) and I thought I would be a red flag not to submit(that they would think it was a 2 or 3). He submitted and got into a HPYS school. He asked to review his application during his freshman year (he was curious) and for “tests” he got a checkmark and for “academics” they marked him as a 1.5 (scored in a range of 1-5 with 1 best best). Also none of the reviewers comments were about his test scores.

Ultimately I think she does a good job at volume but her advice is based on her experience which may not always be applicable for a particular kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a member for a few months with my older child. It was helpful to understand the college process these days but I found some of her advice formulaic. For example she says not to submit any AP scores under 5 for top schools. My son had one 4 (in his intended major no less!) and I thought I would be a red flag not to submit(that they would think it was a 2 or 3). He submitted and got into a HPYS school. He asked to review his application during his freshman year (he was curious) and for “tests” he got a checkmark and for “academics” they marked him as a 1.5 (scored in a range of 1-5 with 1 best best). Also none of the reviewers comments were about his test scores.

Ultimately I think she does a good job at volume but her advice is based on her experience which may not always be applicable for a particular kid.

Agree that her advice about only submitting the AP scores of “5” is dated. She was working on the admissions side over a decade ago. In 2026, advice is to submit all 4s and 5s from virtually every other college counselor. Overall, loved the AN experience and Sara is super engaged with the group.

[Anonymous]

AN is not helpful for T20 and is actually detrimental in many many cases. Her Penn knowledge is outdated and most of the team's thinking is influenced by SLAC admissions/processes which is quite different from T20.

For my own child, we ignored her advice, because it pretty much violated the vast majority of what makes my child stand out. That is from personal essay (she suggested a complete rewrite), supplemental essays (she did not like), activities (she did not like).

Kid ended up at a HYPSM and acceptances to three other T20 schools. I do not think my kid would have gotten in if we followed her recommendations, which is mostly because she has no clue about some of these things.

It is good that is not focusing on T20, after all she promotes herself as "America's college counselor" and her target market is outside of T40. For T20 I would not follow her advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in AN and I’m shocked at people criticizing Sara here without actually having used her services.

First of all, there are many parents who come back to AN for their second and third children after Sara helped with the first one. Many of them get into top schools.

There are so many nuances in college admissions I had no idea about and I’m thankful that Sara made us aware.

She provides excellent structure and timeline so parents and kids don’t feel overwhelmed.

She does not have an obsession with Ivies like some counselors or parents and recommends a down to earth approach of finding best fit and not chasing prestige.

It has been a delightful experience so far.

I think it's because there's a bit of a cultish vibe to some of the posts. I'm not saying it's warranted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did the AN26 kids do this cycle?

Thinking about joining for my sophomore next year - and would love some intel.

from their instagram and FB reels - seems pretty impressive. For what we pay monthly I feel like it's worth it. They really do answer questions timely

They do! My only quibble is that there are a couple non-AN employees (i.e., random parents!) who try to jump in with responses before the staff actually sees them. And then they're sort of responding to these random people as well. Not a big deal, I'm sure they would disagree if it was wrong info, but I want to hear from the AN people, not this random person. (Also, why are those couple people on all day, responding to every post??)

That's an interesting take. I did AN twice and actually found the other parents (for the most part) really helpful in terms of generating discussion. I think one of the flaws of AN is that folks take everything the AN team says as gospel when the perspective of parents on the other side can add so much nuance. This is such a subjective process that thinking answers through with multiple perspectives really felt like a win. I thought they did a good job of always answering quickly, and maintaing authority, but sometimes the discussions died once they chimed in. The overall vibe was quite different between the two years we participated though. There were some Alpha parents whose kids were "perfect" that dominated the conversations one year. In the end, while the advice is solid and the model is fantastic, it is a business and the advice can skew that way at times. The knowledgeable parents, to me, provide a gut check there to think beyond the AN answer as the only way to do things and help create a trusting and supportive community.

PP here. No, I do generally really appreciate the parents. There are just a couple who chime in all the time and take over conversations. No issue with parents generally participating. It helps generate discussion and new ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AN is not helpful for T20 and is actually detrimental in many many cases. Her Penn knowledge is outdated and most of the team's thinking is influenced by SLAC admissions/processes which is quite different from T20.

For my own child, we ignored her advice, because it pretty much violated the vast majority of what makes my child stand out. That is from personal essay (she suggested a complete rewrite), supplemental essays (she did not like), activities (she did not like).

Kid ended up at a HYPSM and acceptances to three other T20 schools. I do not think my kid would have gotten in if we followed her recommendations, which is mostly because she has no clue about some of these things.

It is good that is not focusing on T20, after all she promotes herself as "America's college counselor" and her target market is outside of T40. For T20 I would not follow her advice.

Curious what your kids major was?
Maybe it depends on your kid? How long ago was this?

Mine got into 4 T20 (AN25)…. Humanities major.
And we did a few add-ons and essay editing.

Everyone’s experience is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AN is not helpful for T20 and is actually detrimental in many many cases. Her Penn knowledge is outdated and most of the team's thinking is influenced by SLAC admissions/processes which is quite different from T20.

For my own child, we ignored her advice, because it pretty much violated the vast majority of what makes my child stand out. That is from personal essay (she suggested a complete rewrite), supplemental essays (she did not like), activities (she did not like).

Kid ended up at a HYPSM and acceptances to three other T20 schools. I do not think my kid would have gotten in if we followed her recommendations, which is mostly because she has no clue about some of these things.

It is good that is not focusing on T20, after all she promotes herself as "America's college counselor" and her target market is outside of T40. For T20 I would not follow her advice.

Curious what your kids major was?
Maybe it depends on your kid? How long ago was this?

Mine got into 4 T20 (AN25)…. Humanities major.
And we did a few add-ons and essay editing.

Everyone’s experience is different.

I think you definitely have to take the framework and apply it to your kid as there is definitely some advice that is generalized. Perhaps paying for 1:1 and other add-ons helps trailor the advice, but we didnt go that route. I think there is a bit of truth to being slightly out of touch on a few areas, but I disagree that they arent good for T10. There are plenty of kids that excel in top admits--in fact, I have found myself saying that their advice sometimes skews to heavily to the ivys/T10 vs. a kids trying to get in a T30-50.

I understand Sara's "rules" for essay topics, etc. but she will even admit that this is only if they are editing them (which is understandable). Mine chose a topic that would not be "approved" but her advice helped shape it in a meaningful way. I really think it is a phenomenal way to approach the process, stay on track, and get advice as needed for a really great application in an ecponomical way. But you have to do the work and be willing to take the advice with a grain of salt and apply it to your kid as needed/or not. Overall, her advice is very sound. Mine both had great outcomes that would not have been possible without spending a ton of money otherwise.

[Anonymous]

We did not follow all the advice but I would say 90% - you need to form your own opinions and trust your judgement. There is so much conflicting advice out there but I found the vast majority very helpful. I do think that submitting AP scores has gotten more important especially if test optional. Essay had some elements that they would have said to take out because of privilege. Activity list included one paid summer program (but omitted two others). Used a lot of advice for how to do some activities that are different from the sports/drama/music that everyone else spends the vast majority of their time on, how to provide brag sheets to recommenders, how to craft interesting activity lists, and how to approach essays. I do believe these things mattered a lot to my DC success which exceeded our expectations including with top 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AN is not helpful for T20 and is actually detrimental in many many cases. Her Penn knowledge is outdated and most of the team's thinking is influenced by SLAC admissions/processes which is quite different from T20.

For my own child, we ignored her advice, because it pretty much violated the vast majority of what makes my child stand out. That is from personal essay (she suggested a complete rewrite), supplemental essays (she did not like), activities (she did not like).

Kid ended up at a HYPSM and acceptances to three other T20 schools. I do not think my kid would have gotten in if we followed her recommendations, which is mostly because she has no clue about some of these things.

It is good that is not focusing on T20, after all she promotes herself as "America's college counselor" and her target market is outside of T40. For T20 I would not follow her advice.

This. And cannot stand her giving herself that self-declared title out of nothing but her own “sound bite.” It appears to elevate her when a lot of her info IS outdated and she really is for families who need the basics + for kids aiming for lower schools. No problem with that except that should be disclosed BY HER.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AN is not helpful for T20 and is actually detrimental in many many cases. Her Penn knowledge is outdated and most of the team's thinking is influenced by SLAC admissions/processes which is quite different from T20.

For my own child, we ignored her advice, because it pretty much violated the vast majority of what makes my child stand out. That is from personal essay (she suggested a complete rewrite), supplemental essays (she did not like), activities (she did not like).

Kid ended up at a HYPSM and acceptances to three other T20 schools. I do not think my kid would have gotten in if we followed her recommendations, which is mostly because she has no clue about some of these things.

It is good that is not focusing on T20, after all she promotes herself as "America's college counselor" and her target market is outside of T40. For T20 I would not follow her advice.

Can you please elaborate what advice you found wrong without going into too much detail?

My only concern right now is they push for essays about personal life and character traits and I’m wondering if essay should be somehow linked to the major interests, otherwise it feels irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AN is not helpful for T20 and is actually detrimental in many many cases. Her Penn knowledge is outdated and most of the team's thinking is influenced by SLAC admissions/processes which is quite different from T20.

For my own child, we ignored her advice, because it pretty much violated the vast majority of what makes my child stand out. That is from personal essay (she suggested a complete rewrite), supplemental essays (she did not like), activities (she did not like).

Kid ended up at a HYPSM and acceptances to three other T20 schools. I do not think my kid would have gotten in if we followed her recommendations, which is mostly because she has no clue about some of these things.

It is good that is not focusing on T20, after all she promotes herself as "America's college counselor" and her target market is outside of T40. For T20 I would not follow her advice.

Isn’t it oxymoron for anyone targeting outside of T40 to need a private consultant? Actually, things get much easier outside of the T30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did not follow all the advice but I would say 90% - you need to form your own opinions and trust your judgement. There is so much conflicting advice out there but I found the vast majority very helpful. I do think that submitting AP scores has gotten more important especially if test optional. Essay had some elements that they would have said to take out because of privilege. Activity list included one paid summer program (but omitted two others). Used a lot of advice for how to do some activities that are different from the sports/drama/music that everyone else spends the vast majority of their time on, how to provide brag sheets to recommenders, how to craft interesting activity lists, and how to approach essays. I do believe these things mattered a lot to my DC success which exceeded our expectations including with top 20.

does she say to omit paid summer programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not follow all the advice but I would say 90% - you need to form your own opinions and trust your judgement. There is so much conflicting advice out there but I found the vast majority very helpful. I do think that submitting AP scores has gotten more important especially if test optional. Essay had some elements that they would have said to take out because of privilege. Activity list included one paid summer program (but omitted two others). Used a lot of advice for how to do some activities that are different from the sports/drama/music that everyone else spends the vast majority of their time on, how to provide brag sheets to recommenders, how to craft interesting activity lists, and how to approach essays. I do believe these things mattered a lot to my DC success which exceeded our expectations including with top 20.

does she say to omit paid summer programs?

yes.