College admission consultant recommendation

[Anonymous]

Can anyone recommend one or two college admissions consultants or professional companies/agencies that can help with applications, esp to Ivy League universities?

[Anonymous]

Nina Marks but be warned she is expensive ($800 for a consultation).

[Anonymous]

Google.

[Anonymous]

Nina Marks, but we warned that to hire her is actually a good bit more than $800. But she is great and absolutely knows what she is talking about.

[Anonymous]

You don't have to pay that kind of money OP. There are many others in our area. Bruce Vinik and Wendie Lubic come to mind. Also, you can search for a qualified consultant here at the National Association for College Admissions Counseling:

https://hub.nacacnet.org/independentmemberdirectory?_ga=2.84347866.258097999.1507723148-1197789712.1507723148

[Anonymous]

Such a first world problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nina Marks, but we warned that to hire her is actually a good bit more than $800. But she is great and absolutely knows what she is talking about.

Would you mind giving a sense of the total cost, over what time period/hours of sessions? That would be so helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nina Marks, but we warned that to hire her is actually a good bit more than $800. But she is great and absolutely knows what she is talking about.

Would you mind giving a sense of the total cost, over what time period/hours of sessions? That would be so helpful.

Look on her website. The costs are listed very specifically.

[Anonymous]

OMG!

$14,000 for Nina Marks and Team, or $6,500 for a Counselor for the July 2017-June 2018 contract year

[Anonymous]

What if you don't need help with time management or test prep, have parents who are writers/editors, and you work well with your parents. What does a college consultant do for you in that scenario? I'm really trying to figure this out.

[Anonymous]

Find someone who has actually worked FULL TIME in a college admission office or as a high school counselor. It's amazing how many people who had a part time grad assistant or reader (not decision maker) job in admissions offices that talk as if they were full time AOs.

[Anonymous]

There are too many other reasons to even list them. If the parents are writers/editors and the DC wants to be an engineer, figuring out what schools to apply to would be difficult since the parents may never have been in the engineering world. Even if the DC works well with their parents, they may have some offbeat ideas that need to be controlled. I knew one DC who would only consider schools where they would get merit aid. I know several that have focused themselves down to crazy narrow majors that are only offered by a few schools and will make them virtually unemployable. On here there are lots of stories about balancing kid's sports interests with the best possible school and early decision. Students with any type of special needs might benefit because the generalized answers you find online may not work for them. For us, the big issue was trying to pick the best school to increase our DC's chances of getting into medical school. DC eventually never even applied for medical school but only wanted to apply to medical school feeding LACs which were poor fits in most other ways.

"What if you don't need help with time management or test prep, have parents who are writers/editors, and you work well with your parents. What does a college consultant do for you in that scenario? I'm really trying to figure this out."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are too many other reasons to even list them. If the parents are writers/editors and the DC wants to be an engineer, figuring out what schools to apply to would be difficult since the parents may never have been in the engineering world. Even if the DC works well with their parents, they may have some offbeat ideas that need to be controlled. I knew one DC who would only consider schools where they would get merit aid. I know several that have focused themselves down to crazy narrow majors that are only offered by a few schools and will make them virtually unemployable. On here there are lots of stories about balancing kid's sports interests with the best possible school and early decision. Students with any type of special needs might benefit because the generalized answers you find online may not work for them. For us, the big issue was trying to pick the best school to increase our DC's chances of getting into medical school. DC eventually never even applied for medical school but only wanted to apply to medical school feeding LACs which were poor fits in most other ways.

"What if you don't need help with time management or test prep, have parents who are writers/editors, and you work well with your parents. What does a college consultant do for you in that scenario? I'm really trying to figure this out."

I really appreciate your trying to answer that question, and I didn't realize how open-ended my question was until I read your response, and so that was even more kind of you to try to help. I have a "magnet" kid who would be trying for a top 20-type school (ambitious, likes to be challenged and be surrounded by similar peer group), no big problems, very adaptable and would be happy in lots of environments, has some significant (to this proud parent) music talents but not enough to be a "hook." Between the parents we cover both English-type fields and STEM-type fields and don't expect any financial aid from the types of schools the kid would be applying to. Whether the kid would like an LAC versus a big university would definitely be a question for us, but not sure how the consultant would help with that. Kid could go lots of different directions in college -- from law school to medical school to something else (but not engineering), so no pigeonholing at this point. So, I'm not sure if that gives anyone enough information to explain how a college consultant would help, but if it does I would love to hear from you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find someone who has actually worked FULL TIME in a college admission office or as a high school counselor. It's amazing how many people who had a part time grad assistant or reader (not decision maker) job in admissions offices that talk as if they were full time AOs.

This is spot on! Ideally, you should work with someone who has done both of these before starting an independent counseling practice. That will make a huge difference and often does impact the cost of the services (the more experienced ones charge more, not shocking I suppose). When looking at the pricing for Nina Marks, don't forget that she breaks up her packages by year, but you have to have someone during junior AND senior year at a minimum. You can expect to pay about 5,000-10,000 for a package to get you through junior and senior year with most experienced consultants. Look at the IECA website directory for vetted options. Anyone can sign up through NACAC, the link above - there is no vetting.

https://www.iecaonline.com/quick-links/member-directory/

You have to search separately by state - so DC will exclude consultants in VA/MD and vice versa.

Remember that this is an anonymous board, and anyone can self-promote. Going through IECA makes the most sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if you don't need help with time management or test prep, have parents who are writers/editors, and you work well with your parents. What does a college consultant do for you in that scenario? I'm really trying to figure this out.

Here's why it worked for us: 1) preserved peace at home, and made someone else the editor. (Someone else and not me, a mom who writes for a living, but who can't say "boo" to her kid without him taking it personally. And yeah, a combination of better parenting and different personalities might have meant he could listen to me, but that wasn't where we are. 2) helped my kid learn to articulate what he wanted to study and what he wanted from life in a mature and focused way, which helped us choose the right schools to apply to and helped him write an essay about his goals.

FYI, I didn't spend tens of thousands.