Is hiring a consultant a must?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I hired a consultant for my kid from a very reputable firm. It can be very, very expensive. However, if you want to maximize your chances, then yes it is worth it.

Make sure you ask for disaggregated acceptance rate by school. In many cases they'll say "95% were admitted to one of their top 3 choices" but they won't tell you they select the top 3 for your kid.

In the end, they helped mold my children to exceptional and interesting applicants. Both of my kids got into T10 schools.

can you share the name?

I used AtomicMind

https://www.atomicmind.com/the-atomicmind-advantage

[Anonymous]

Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

[Anonymous]

Ask me next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

15 hours is about 10k (senior year). I wonder if its worth it if you already have essay drafts, narratives of everything built out? What do you think? If $$ is no object?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

What a scam. They admit it, too. The linked page says:

we only include results when our assessment of the student for a particular school illustrates that they are feasible candidates for admission. So, if a student applies to a particular school against our recommendation, we do not include these results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

15 hours is about 10k (senior year). I wonder if its worth it if you already have essay drafts, narratives of everything built out? What do you think? If $$ is no object?

there's a famous counselor who charges $1000/hour, so this is definitely less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

What a scam. They admit it, too. The linked page says:

we only include results when our assessment of the student for a particular school illustrates that they are feasible candidates for admission. So, if a student applies to a particular school against our recommendation, we do not include these results.

honest question: don't they all do this? I would imagine this is standard. If you have a 3.7uw you shouldn't be applying to Stanford. You are not competitive....

[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.

I agree with all of this. But will add. In D.C. so state school not an option. DC not sure what major will be. And, you have to find the right person who really knows the schools, the current environment and is on the same page as DC and parents - whether that is fit, cost, location, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

15 hours is about 10k (senior year). I wonder if its worth it if you already have essay drafts, narratives of everything built out? What do you think? If $$ is no object?

Odds are that your essays and narratives are far worse than you think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

What a scam. They admit it, too. The linked page says:

we only include results when our assessment of the student for a particular school illustrates that they are feasible candidates for admission. So, if a student applies to a particular school against our recommendation, we do not include these results.

honest question: don't they all do this? I would imagine this is standard. If you have a 3.7uw you shouldn't be applying to Stanford. You are not competitive....

Exactly! A good CC (even the $4K ones, not the $50K+) have a job to do. A main part is to help your kid generate a well curated list of Reaches, Targets, Safeties and Likelies. They are not doing their job if all your kid does is apply to 15 schools with single digit acceptance rates.

And even with the reaches, they should help you find ones where you are competitive. If the list is accurate, your kid should get into 75-80% of their targets, all of their safeties and likelies and maybe a few reaches (maybe not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

What a scam. They admit it, too. The linked page says:

we only include results when our assessment of the student for a particular school illustrates that they are feasible candidates for admission. So, if a student applies to a particular school against our recommendation, we do not include these results.

honest question: don't they all do this? I would imagine this is standard. If you have a 3.7uw you shouldn't be applying to Stanford. You are not competitive....

Exactly! A good CC (even the $4K ones, not the $50K+) have a job to do. A main part is to help your kid generate a well curated list of Reaches, Targets, Safeties and Likelies. They are not doing their job if all your kid does is apply to 15 schools with single digit acceptance rates.

And even with the reaches, they should help you find ones where you are competitive. If the list is accurate, your kid should get into 75-80% of their targets, all of their safeties and likelies and maybe a few reaches (maybe not).

I’ve read if you are a cusp candidate, you should do 3 safeties, 3-5 targets and the remainder all reaches (12-14).
Do you agree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Data from Spark Admissions shows they have a 50% admit rate to Stanford and 48% admit rate to Harvard.

So, it looks like it is worth it if you want to take your kids chances at a T5 from minuscule to a coin-flip.

https://www.sparkadmissions.com/college-admissions-rates/

What a scam. They admit it, too. The linked page says:

we only include results when our assessment of the student for a particular school illustrates that they are feasible candidates for admission. So, if a student applies to a particular school against our recommendation, we do not include these results.

This is more about predicting who can get in than helping them get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you hire one of your child goes to a large public school where guidance counselors simply do not have enough time to help? Do you feel it is needed and worth the expense?

Unless they have recent hires from admissions committees you are interested in, they are selling you conventional wisdoms.
But just like some people need a financial planner, some people need a college counselor.
If this is you, then do it.

[Anonymous]

I hired Montauk after reading about him on here.
He was like "Oh I spent two hours reading through your kids transcripts, that's $600"

TWO HOURS

No you bastard, that's charlatan money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all.

The big, public, competitive schools are very useful because you have a strong cohort of students who know how to roll. You don't need to pay a consultant to tell you what Ryan from Multivariable is already telling you. And he knows things because his sister Sarah goes to Brown.

A consultant is not going to be better than that.

I disagree with this heavily. The top students often put together terrible college applications. The fact his sister goes to Brown means nothing. Students don't know why they got into certain colleges.

I’m guessing you’re a college counselor