Hiring a college consultant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we paid $800 an hour two years ago, about five hours total.

I'm not shocked at the $800, not after reading about SAT tutors charging over $500/hr.

What I'm shocked about is the 5 hours. That's it? That was enough to help your kid through the entire process, help with the essays, etc?

Can you share the outcomes?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Are there any good ones that do hourly without a minimum? I’m pretty informed but have a few questions I’d like to run by someone who preferably worked in admissions before.

We used Richard Montauk. He was by the hour. RichardMontauk.com.

DP. When did you begin to engage him? Can you outline what he did? Also, if you don't mind sharing, how much did he charge per hour and how many hours did you need from start to finish?

LOL! I swear these threads are started by people like Richard Montauk just to attract business. This isn't your personal advertising space

Yep, without fail, copy paste the ad for that guy in every single thread about college consultants.

True. About a year ago, I found his info in one of those threads and reached out to him. He was very helpful, no regrets. It’s a bit early to tell exactly what the results are: two acceptances and one MIT deferral thus far, waiting to hear back from 10+ more colleges.

And was it $800/hour?

Oh no, much less. When I first emailed him, he offered to talk over the phone for about 30 minutes for free. During that call he explained how he can help and how much he charges (I think he wanted 2 hours minimum).

[Anonymous]

We paid 750 for 1 hour with a “top” local consultant. Found it to be completely utterly useless.

[Anonymous]

My kid zoomed with an essay consultant In Ohio. $60/hour, took two sessions and done with common app essay. Can get behind this but not 750 or 800 an hour!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid 750 for 1 hour with a “top” local consultant. Found it to be completely utterly useless.

There was a time in the past when they could tell you what the colleges wanted and help with the essays. Those days are over. Unless you can take the first generation/overcoming many hurdles like Mackenzie Fierceton -- they're as clueless as anyone else.

[Anonymous]

We paid $125 an hour last year, worth it for me not to have to nag then HS senior about getting applications done. Totally worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid $125 an hour last year, worth it for me not to have to nag then HS senior about getting applications done. Totally worth it

can you share the name?

[Anonymous]

Whether or not it's worth it depends on the situation. Our consultant was not much help in identifying reach/target/safeties beyond what you can figure out on your own with Naviance and sites like College Vine. They were, however, a big help in working with DC to stay organized and on task pulling together an academic resume, populating the common app, lining up LORs, and writing the main essay and supplemental essays. We started in spring and before school started this year, DC was +90% complete with apps for 16 schools. All apps were submitted in early October which was a big relief. We did the 10-hour package with ForWard Consulting.

If your DC is motivated and organized and you have the time to really dig in and help them, you can skip the consultant.

Our DC is motivated but is not organized and tends to procrastinate and get distracted when facing big, long term projects like this. For us, it was worth it.

[Anonymous]

I suppose if the parents didn’t attend college or simply went to big state U then it may make sense but I don’t think these consultants add any real value other than as babysitters.

[Anonymous]

We hired one for our oldest but will not for our next child. It was a good introduction to us on how it works. Also our oldest tended to be uncooperative with us in terms of meeting deadlines a motivating to write essays, so this helped take the pressure off us. The outcome was good (admitted to top 20), but I think I could do just as good a job with my very motivated and cooperative DD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI that is eyes popping out of head emoji. Seriously $800/hr?

But the packages the local advisors use start at $6k

[Anonymous]

Hi, we also only used a counselor for about five hours. We used the counselor as a reference point throughout the process, starting spring of sophomore year. It was very helpful to think though high school course selection, extra curriculars (very useful for all of us to hear how much ECs don't really matter) how to decide between ACT And SAT and most importantly, school selection. It gave our child a lot more confidence throughout the process. ED 1 to an ivy and was deferred and ED 2 to top ten non-ivy and was accepted. We did one session for essay review, but that actually really wasn't very helpful in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, we also only used a counselor for about five hours. We used the counselor as a reference point throughout the process, starting spring of sophomore year. It was very helpful to think though high school course selection, extra curriculars (very useful for all of us to hear how much ECs don't really matter) how to decide between ACT And SAT and most importantly, school selection. It gave our child a lot more confidence throughout the process. ED 1 to an ivy and was deferred and ED 2 to top ten non-ivy and was accepted. We did one session for essay review, but that actually really wasn't very helpful in my opinion.

Can you share who it was and cost?

[Anonymous]

We paid $280/hour. Worth every penny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, we also only used a counselor for about five hours. We used the counselor as a reference point throughout the process, starting spring of sophomore year. It was very helpful to think though high school course selection, extra curriculars (very useful for all of us to hear how much ECs don't really matter) how to decide between ACT And SAT and most importantly, school selection. It gave our child a lot more confidence throughout the process. ED 1 to an ivy and was deferred and ED 2 to top ten non-ivy and was accepted. We did one session for essay review, but that actually really wasn't very helpful in my opinion.

Thanks for sharing. Can you tell us who you used?