Question for Parents of Students Admitted to Top 25 Colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will not get an honest answer. Like asking did anyone use ChatGPT to write their essays, or did parents help set up non-profits and secure research/intern positions. Sure, it's an anonymous board, but parents have a tendency for "we did it all on our own!"

Yeah, and "we used Khan Academy for SAT prep....we didn't spend a dime on test prep!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will not get an honest answer. Like asking did anyone use ChatGPT to write their essays, or did parents help set up non-profits and secure research/intern positions. Sure, it's an anonymous board, but parents have a tendency for "we did it all on our own!"

Yeah, and "we used Khan Academy for SAT prep....we didn't spend a dime on test prep!"

Honestly this one is true for a good chunk of T15 admits. They don’t need to prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will not get an honest answer. Like asking did anyone use ChatGPT to write their essays, or did parents help set up non-profits and secure research/intern positions. Sure, it's an anonymous board, but parents have a tendency for "we did it all on our own!"

Yeah, and "we used Khan Academy for SAT prep....we didn't spend a dime on test prep!"

Honestly this one is true for a good chunk of T15 admits. They don’t need to prep.

Don't be that naive. They all pay for test prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will not get an honest answer. Like asking did anyone use ChatGPT to write their essays, or did parents help set up non-profits and secure research/intern positions. Sure, it's an anonymous board, but parents have a tendency for "we did it all on our own!"

Yeah, and "we used Khan Academy for SAT prep....we didn't spend a dime on test prep!"

Honestly this one is true for a good chunk of T15 admits. They don’t need to prep.

Don't be that naive. They all pay for test prep.

I know it’s easier to believe that, but it’s not true.

[Anonymous]

If that test is hard and requires extensive prep then I wish you lots of luck at a T15, you’re going to need it.

[Anonymous]

We used Principia Tutors in McLean. We love the personal attention and great care. Pricey but worth it.

[Anonymous]

The secret is to have excellent stats, a clear (succinct) personal narrative that makes sense, and apply a lot of places.

if you have the stats and they need you to fill a "type" you will get an offer.

The counselor can help you define your narrative, but they can't help you get good grades, which are kind of a must.

[Anonymous]

My 2nd kid heading to a T25. First is at a T20 SLAC.

I was a member of AN for both kids. I did not purchase any additional sessions or reviews. $80/month while a member.

We did hire an essay person for both kids. For older kid it was a group workshop type setup so was about $400 total.

For younger one we hired a private essay person who was recommended. When the essay was done it was awful. Then we went to another tutor and they helped rewrite that one and we were also very underwhelmed. That was a total of about $2k.

We ended up rewriting/ writing a completely new main essay and moving forward on our own for supplemental essays after that.

One more to go in a few years!

[Anonymous]

We did. DC went to a fairly large public school. School counselor was great but overworked. Consultant helped keep the peace in the family. We didn't talk constantly about college. DC had a great senior year. Worth it for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will not get an honest answer. Like asking did anyone use ChatGPT to write their essays, or did parents help set up non-profits and secure research/intern positions. Sure, it's an anonymous board, but parents have a tendency for "we did it all on our own!"

Yeah, and "we used Khan Academy for SAT prep....we didn't spend a dime on test prep!"

Honestly this one is true for a good chunk of T15 admits. They don’t need to prep.

Don't be that naive. They all pay for test prep.

I know it’s easier to believe that, but it’s not true.

Bless your heart.

[Anonymous]

Two kids at a T10. No admissions consultant. However, have older kids and I've been reading college admissions forums for years. Had consultant essay help for oldest child years ago (attended a T30, wasn't aiming higher), saw the process, so I did it myself for my younger kids - helped with brainstorming and the review. You can probably do this yourself or have some other person help them, family friend or potentially a teacher. Tons of online resources.

We did use an independent SAT tutor, 6 to 10 meetings per kid.

If you have time to read a bit, you can find all you need to know for free. Keep in mind that all the best advice in the world can't turn an average kid into a T20 admit. They have to have the goods to start with, the course rigor, grades, scores. Where consultant advice comes in is activity descriptions and essays and, most importantly, the college list.

Know your goal, finding a school that fits your child's needs and is affordable. One of my older kids attended a T80-90 (not sure where it is these days) with merit, had a blast, and is now in grad school - said he'd do it all over again. That's a win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two kids at a T10. No admissions consultant. However, have older kids and I've been reading college admissions forums for years. Had consultant essay help for oldest child years ago (attended a T30, wasn't aiming higher), saw the process, so I did it myself for my younger kids - helped with brainstorming and the review. You can probably do this yourself or have some other person help them, family friend or potentially a teacher. Tons of online resources.

We did use an independent SAT tutor, 6 to 10 meetings per kid.

If you have time to read a bit, you can find all you need to know for free. Keep in mind that all the best advice in the world can't turn an average kid into a T20 admit. They have to have the goods to start with, the course rigor, grades, scores. Where consultant advice comes in is activity descriptions and essays and, most importantly, the college list.

Know your goal, finding a school that fits your child's needs and is affordable. One of my older kids attended a T80-90 (not sure where it is these days) with merit, had a blast, and is now in grad school - said he'd do it all over again. That's a win.

Meant to add, there is a lot beyond anyone's control in this process. Algorithms, financial considerations, who/how many others are applying from the high school, institutional needs, etc. Apply widely with a solid list and then see what happens. If you can afford what Net Price Calculators tell you for price estimates and your kid has a clear top choice, consider binding ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did. DC went to a fairly large public school. School counselor was great but overworked. Consultant helped keep the peace in the family. We didn't talk constantly about college. DC had a great senior year. Worth it for us.

This. Every penny was worth me not having to research, think about deadlines, or nag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this question has probably been asked many times before, but I wanted to reach out specifically to parents whose kids were admitted to a top 25 schools, either in the most recent admissions cycle or in the past few years.

Which college consultant (if any) did you use, and how was your experience?

Please, no snark , just hoping for genuine, firsthand recommendations or feedback from those who have real information to share.

Thanks in advance!

Used an essay consultant to protect parent-child relationship. DC was rejected REA from HYPS. No contact with essay coach after Nov 15 (was in contract, but we did not realize that we could need someone to talk to if rejected REA) so I had to step in to provide my advice to DC who decided to follow most of my advice, but not all. Admitted to multiple HYPSM RD. As I looked over my notes from podcasts, etc. I found that the consultant had not known what each college looks for. E.g., Yale does not care about your career aspirations. Most importantly, DC did not understand that essays needed “reflection” and I blame the coach 100% for this. To add insult to injury, after RD decisions were released, coach asked to share DC essay that had been worked on separately for something else, but used for college apps. Ummm, no way — the essay help the coach had provided was not worth it and we did not want him to sell his services based on DC’s results after he just made sure DC stuck to a schedule. This was a reputed coach that we paid a ton of money for so be careful — really, really careful. Once you sign a contract, you might find that they have zero accountability.

If I had to do it again, and our family had just regular amount of stress, I’d listen to DC and myself — no consultant required.

Great points.

This was our experience for our first child w/a private counselor/essay coach. After being deferred early decision from T10, we went at it alone and had much better T25 and Ivy results.

The problem is a lot of these consultants overpromise and underdeliver - probably because they take on too many clients in the fall and they really cannot service that many. I know a new consultant with 43 clients. It’s her second year. There is no way she can individually handle that flow in a high-quality way. There is a lack of customization and a lack of systemization of the application process. In some ways, doing a 1 week summer workshop with one of these bigger shops to give you an overview of how to research and frame your supp essays is all you need.

Then maybe someone to do final application review reviews before you submit.

The personal essay is its own beast and the best thing to do is to have your kid read narrative style essays in junior year. They need to become familiar with what these essays look like. It is not an English essay. It is not a resume essay. It is a story. It is your brand.

Second child had much better results than first child (though weaker academically) and was a TO applicant. We read everything here and elsewhere; listened to all the podcasts, created notes on what every school looked for and did formal application reviews after the top drafts were ready.

My top advice is to use this site for its Search function. No one is going to give you a shortcut. You have to do the research yourself.

There’s a great post from this winter called “lessons learned”. Search for it - a lot of great tips in there if this is your first rodeo.

Agree, agree, agree.
If aiming high (private T20), make detailed research notes on what each school looks for. Do the research yourself. Start early - it takes time (make a new Google doc for each school with hyperlinks). Help your kids with this research.

We found that private college counseling firms similarly didn't know how important certain essays were for which school: (e.g., never talk about Stanford /why Stanford in the Stanford roommate essay - only talk about yourself - its a why me essay not why me at Stanford)or that Brown is looking to see how you've ALREADY taken that intellectual initiative /love of learning and you have ample evidence sprinkled throughout with very wide (not narrow) academic interests). And how Kindness, joy, happiness and enthusiasm are particularly valued at certain T20.....

[Anonymous]

As someone who currently has one, I can confirm it’s a huge waste of money!