Admission Consultant Recommendation - Hourly services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the very good advice I got early on was: your kid is not that special.

+ look at the college placement from your high school from the last three years.

+ remove the schools that aren't a good fit/too high/too low. So for us that was the military academies, the super stem schools, the lows. The "highs" are a little harder to lop off .. isn't my kid a high too? So okay, keep the highs.

+ there's your draft list of 30-50 colleges. then run the NPC and knock a few more out.

+ then visit big small rural city big small schools. knock out the kind of school doesn't fit for your kid. down to 20.

+ Now it's junior year late spring and your kid has to research these 20 schools. You have your grades now and test scores. some of the "highs" no longer realistic. narrow it down to 12.

+ higher an essay coach to help but nothing else.

This advice works if your kid goes to a solid high school where kids go to good schools. If your kid will be the first to ever consider Princeton from Iowa City High, you'll need more help.

What is the NPC mentioned above? Very good advice here I think, though this is the first time I’ve gone through it but I have noticed a pattern of certain schools liking more kids than expected,or not taking even very very high stat kids from my child’s HS. Kind of eye opening.

+1

NP here. This is the most helpful post I have ever seen on this sub, and I have tried to be helpful on this sub, in the past, which is not the norm. There are too many "list" posts, especially rankings and ingenuous comparisons, and ingenuous "what do you think of this school?" posts, which help no one. Most often, bad information is given, which is obvious to those parents who have kids in college or older. Those posts mean nothing, and are not helpful.

This post is exactly true, and parents not in the know can be shocked when their high stats kid is NOT picked in favor of a lower stats kid for/from the same college/high school. Parents need to be aware, and consequently, prepared. For many years, colleges denied they had "spots to fill" for certain students (females in STEM, particularly CS, in colleges that were not traditionally strong in CS, for one example); and also that they only chose so many kids from one high school. The latter is obvious, since there are only so many spots each year.

I didn't find it helpful I found it generic. Who wants to start with a list of 20-50 potential colleges? That's insane. it is like a hobby list for those with OCD.

Most of my kids are already in college and it is a very helpful way to know target places for your high school, for kids with your kids stats, in conjunction with Naviance. This is more than half the problem - parents being unrealistic regarding their high school's and their child's targets. You can easily whittle the resulting list of colleges down, according to location, size and major in relation to your applicant child. There has to be some research, otherwise how does your child know where to apply? You make no sense.

If you have anything constructive to add, that would be helpful, instead of dismissing and being unhelpful.

Of course, there are certain parents for whom only certain colleges will do, and that is your prerogative.

I make perfect sense. We live in California. Our kids will be applying to some of the UC and maybe one or two CS colleges. That's it. There's enough of a range of reach / target / safety within those colleges and we can afford $40k per year x 2

The rest is BS. No one needs to waste their time in the way you're suggesting.

Many/most kids at top 20 private colleges have a net price far lower than 40k. But we get that if you’re only looking at your in-state publics, the process is indeed simpler and you don’t need to spend much time on sites like this. Lucky you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

For the last 6-8 months or so (since spring of my kid's junior year), I have been excessively, depressingly obsessive about this forum, College Confidential, r/a2c, and multiple college planning FB groups. I could tell you everything there is to know about Kat Cohen, Sarah Harberson, and a host of other counselors (many of whom I think are hacks, like Julie Kim.) You know whose name NEVER comes up outside of DCUM? This Montauk fellow. And yet he gets mentioned here ALL the time. Why is that?

There's a couple (maybe only 1 actually) of die-hard fans of his who frequent this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

He specialized in British schools. Oxford is mentioned in his website as is LRE. I learned about the reputation of Imperial college from him. He’s also very knowledgeable about German and Dutch schools. He also does law school applications

Our child who worked with Richard was rejected by a UK college but accepted by a T10 US college.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to one of the existing threads next time someone asks for a recommendation, rather than telling your Oxford story for the 51st time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

He specialized in British schools. Oxford is mentioned in his website as is LRE. I learned about the reputation of Imperial college from him. He’s also very knowledgeable about German and Dutch schools. He also does law school applications

Our child who worked with Richard was rejected by a UK college but accepted by a T10 US college.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to one of the existing threads next time someone asks for a recommendation, rather than telling your Oxford story for the 51st time.

I'm not the Oxford PP. But I suggest you just run "Montauk" through the search function. You'll find them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

He specialized in British schools. Oxford is mentioned in his website as is LRE. I learned about the reputation of Imperial college from him. He’s also very knowledgeable about German and Dutch schools. He also does law school applications

Our child who worked with Richard was rejected by a UK college but accepted by a T10 US college.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to one of the existing threads next time someone asks for a recommendation, rather than telling your Oxford story for the 51st time.

I'm not the Oxford PP. But I suggest you just run "Montauk" through the search function. You'll find them all.

I agree. I just don't understand why people keep creating new threads asking for the college counselor recommendations, over and over. Next time the Oxford PP reads a new thread with the same subject, they should just provide a link to the existing threads, rather than re-tell their story. It would be even better to lock all the new threads with the same recommendation requests linking them to the existing one(s).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

He specialized in British schools. Oxford is mentioned in his website as is LRE. I learned about the reputation of Imperial college from him. He’s also very knowledgeable about German and Dutch schools. He also does law school applications

Our child who worked with Richard was rejected by a UK college but accepted by a T10 US college.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to one of the existing threads next time someone asks for a recommendation, rather than telling your Oxford story for the 51st time.

I'm not the Oxford PP. But I suggest you just run "Montauk" through the search function. You'll find them all.

I agree. I just don't understand why people keep creating new threads asking for the college counselor recommendations, over and over. Next time the Oxford PP reads a new thread with the same subject, they should just provide a link to the existing threads, rather than re-tell their story. It would be even better to lock all the new threads with the same recommendation requests linking them to the existing one(s).

That poster, the "Oxford" poster, should be doing a lot of things differently. Like not posting about it ever again or being such a massive loon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the very good advice I got early on was: your kid is not that special.

+ look at the college placement from your high school from the last three years.

+ remove the schools that aren't a good fit/too high/too low. So for us that was the military academies, the super stem schools, the lows. The "highs" are a little harder to lop off .. isn't my kid a high too? So okay, keep the highs.

+ there's your draft list of 30-50 colleges. then run the NPC and knock a few more out.

+ then visit big small rural city big small schools. knock out the kind of school doesn't fit for your kid. down to 20.

+ Now it's junior year late spring and your kid has to research these 20 schools. You have your grades now and test scores. some of the "highs" no longer realistic. narrow it down to 12.

+ higher an essay coach to help but nothing else.

This advice works if your kid goes to a solid high school where kids go to good schools. If your kid will be the first to ever consider Princeton from Iowa City High, you'll need more help.

What is the NPC mentioned above? Very good advice here I think, though this is the first time I’ve gone through it but I have noticed a pattern of certain schools liking more kids than expected,or not taking even very very high stat kids from my child’s HS. Kind of eye opening.

+1

NP here. This is the most helpful post I have ever seen on this sub, and I have tried to be helpful on this sub, in the past, which is not the norm. There are too many "list" posts, especially rankings and ingenuous comparisons, and ingenuous "what do you think of this school?" posts, which help no one. Most often, bad information is given, which is obvious to those parents who have kids in college or older. Those posts mean nothing, and are not helpful.

This post is exactly true, and parents not in the know can be shocked when their high stats kid is NOT picked in favor of a lower stats kid for/from the same college/high school. Parents need to be aware, and consequently, prepared. For many years, colleges denied they had "spots to fill" for certain students (females in STEM, particularly CS, in colleges that were not traditionally strong in CS, for one example); and also that they only chose so many kids from one high school. The latter is obvious, since there are only so many spots each year.

I didn't find it helpful I found it generic. Who wants to start with a list of 20-50 potential colleges? That's insane. it is like a hobby list for those with OCD.

Most of my kids are already in college and it is a very helpful way to know target places for your high school, for kids with your kids stats, in conjunction with Naviance. This is more than half the problem - parents being unrealistic regarding their high school's and their child's targets. You can easily whittle the resulting list of colleges down, according to location, size and major in relation to your applicant child. There has to be some research, otherwise how does your child know where to apply? You make no sense.

If you have anything constructive to add, that would be helpful, instead of dismissing and being unhelpful.

Of course, there are certain parents for whom only certain colleges will do, and that is your prerogative.

I make perfect sense. We live in California. Our kids will be applying to some of the UC and maybe one or two CS colleges. That's it. There's enough of a range of reach / target / safety within those colleges and we can afford $40k per year x 2

The rest is BS. No one needs to waste their time in the way you're suggesting.

Good to know. Your opinion is useless to anyone here. Stop offering it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is a senior or even a junior, you won’t be able to get on the calendar of anyone good. They fill their rosters early, and stop accepting clients.

On that note, a senior year package service is a waste. College applications are completed by the first semester. Package consultants will charge for the whole year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

He specialized in British schools. Oxford is mentioned in his website as is LRE. I learned about the reputation of Imperial college from him. He’s also very knowledgeable about German and Dutch schools. He also does law school applications

Our child who worked with Richard was rejected by a UK college but accepted by a T10 US college.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to one of the existing threads next time someone asks for a recommendation, rather than telling your Oxford story for the 51st time.

I'm not the Oxford PP. But I suggest you just run "Montauk" through the search function. You'll find them all.

He's got seven books on Amazon on the admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

He specialized in British schools. Oxford is mentioned in his website as is LRE. I learned about the reputation of Imperial college from him. He’s also very knowledgeable about German and Dutch schools. He also does law school applications

Our child who worked with Richard was rejected by a UK college but accepted by a T10 US college.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to one of the existing threads next time someone asks for a recommendation, rather than telling your Oxford story for the 51st time.

I'm not the Oxford PP. But I suggest you just run "Montauk" through the search function. You'll find them all.

He's got seven books on Amazon on the admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've heard about this one Oxford/montauk situation about 50 times already and I'm not an especially close reader of this site.

For the last 6-8 months or so (since spring of my kid's junior year), I have been excessively, depressingly obsessive about this forum, College Confidential, r/a2c, and multiple college planning FB groups. I could tell you everything there is to know about Kat Cohen, Sarah Harberson, and a host of other counselors (many of whom I think are hacks, like Julie Kim.) You know whose name NEVER comes up outside of DCUM? This Montauk fellow. And yet he gets mentioned here ALL the time. Why is that?

Try googling. I did with one click and this came up. https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/setting-yourself-up-for-success-an-overview-of-the-us-college-admissions-process-with-richard-montauk-ages-14-adult-2-2/.

We used him. It was successful and reasonably priced by the hour. Friends of mine who have college-bound kids also used him. They got into their desired reaches (St John's, Ivies, etc.). All I can say is that my kid likes working with him and will do so again. And he was by the hour. https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/setting-yourself-up-for-success-an-overview-of-the-us-college-admissions-process-with-richard-montauk-ages-14-adult-2-2/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Richard Montauk. Richardmontauk.com. We paid hourly for him to review Oxbridge application and essay This was two years back but I believe he was under $300 an hour. Total fee was under $3000. DD got into Oxford, then chose to use him again for grad school applications. She got in again and is there now starting her DPhil. I found him too late to help DS. There are just too many moving parts and too much to learn today to rely upon your public or private high school counselor. I, like some other posters here, think hiring an advisor is somehow cheating the system. I learned the hard way. We could have done better for the first child. And, FWIW, before the juvenile hecklers come on, I never dealt with Richard personally. He lives somewhere in New England. I am not he. I'm sure the moderator can confirm

He lives in Providence RI and sometimes does post on this site, but gets deleted.

no. [b]he has never posted here. He doesn't even know DCUM exists. Nor does he need to know. Want me to ask Jeff to confirm? I didn't think so.

We are in the Charlottesville area near UVA. I assume Jeff can pick that up. I don't know where Montauk is. All of his (xlnt) session are handled with your CHILD (not the adult) via computer.

I've never seen Jeff erase anything of that type. But I welcome him if so to call me.

I think it is YOU that have issues

I don't have issues. I wish I had hired someone for my SN kid but wasn't plugged enough in to realize that i could (no legacy/no money/ no first generation.

I post here because I made a mistake with my daughter. Langly public is processing 450 kids every year plus trying to deal with the quesitons of the junior parents below.

Either YOU the parent have to take on reading everything you can put your hand on or YOU need hire someone who knows what to do. It's that difficult. And yes

I I have a resume you would awe over. But I don't know squat about college admissions.

I'm very happy to ask Jeff to prove you wrong. I have no financial issue in the matter. I can confirm the oxford acceptance. Shall I ask Jeff?

Wrong and wrong again.

Seriously. I am happy to report this to Jeff and have him sort it out for you. I am a happy client of Montauk for my DS. DS would say the same. I am trying to help other parents because I wish I had done same for the older child but didn't. Had I known DCUM existed back when DC was applying, I might have learned about private coaches. I might have made smarter decisions for my DC. I didn't. Because I didn't knw such services existed. (think URM and first generation).
I stupidly relied upon the well-meaning FCPS college counselor. DD was a SN kid and we could have used private coaching. For some strange reason my husband and I thought we should rely upon the public high school counselor (don't get me wrong - they mean well, but they are processing 100s of kids to college). Instead, I relied on the overburdenede Langley hihg school college coach who was processing 400 seniors while coaching the parents and students of the 400 in the next junior class. I have no affiliation with Richard Montak. I am in Charlottesville area, formerly of Mclean, which I assume Jeff the moderator can figure out. I don't' know where Montauk is - my DS dealt with him (as do all coaches these days) by computer I just sent hte money which I thought was reasonable, more so with the Oxford results. Do you want a cancelled check? What IS your problem? Are you a competitor in the field trying to branch out?

I interviewed 3 college counselors and Montauk was my least favorite. I told him what kind of college DC was interested in (small liberal arts college not too far from home). Then he spent the entire conversation pushing international universities.

This is all the info I have, but I did get his name from DCUM and it was a dead end for us, so I am putting this out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't found anyone inexpensive who knows all the colleges that well. Maybe they exist out there, but the really knowledgeable and helpful experts are definitely not working for $120/hr for three, one-off sessions.

I think the hive mind on here, or maybe CC, is better if you want inexpensive advice concerning admission to a "top college".

There is a lack of genuine knowledge on here. In fact, the real knowledge, when it does exist, is kept close to everyone's chest for fear of raising the competition. Otherwise it's just opinion and conjecture and very few actual stats. There's a lot of BS.

We worked with a very expensive private college counselor who charges by the hour. A fraction of their advice was really very good. The rest of the time they made wild suggestions that were untenable or told long boring stories of their successes (student success) while simultaneously deriding and mocking those same students or their families. That didn't instill confidence in us to continue working with them.

What was the really very good advice?

[Anonymous]

Rick Singer
www.singforthemoment.com

His site said he helped several varsity athletes of famous and wealthy parents secure spots at prominent schools such as Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown.

I hear he is "full" for 3.5 years due to other commitments so depends on your kids' ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Richard Montauk. Richardmontauk.com. We paid hourly for him to review Oxbridge application and essay This was two years back but I believe he was under $300 an hour. Total fee was under $3000. DD got into Oxford, then chose to use him again for grad school applications. She got in again and is there now starting her DPhil. I found him too late to help DS. There are just too many moving parts and too much to learn today to rely upon your public or private high school counselor. I, like some other posters here, think hiring an advisor is somehow cheating the system. I learned the hard way. We could have done better for the first child. And, FWIW, before the juvenile hecklers come on, I never dealt with Richard personally. He lives somewhere in New England. I am not he. I'm sure the moderator can confirm

He lives in Providence RI and sometimes[b] does post on this site, but gets deleted.

no. [b]he has never posted here. He doesn't even know DCUM exists. Nor does he need to know. Want me to ask Jeff to confirm? I didn't think so.

We are in the Charlottesville area near UVA. I assume Jeff can pick that up. I don't know where Montauk is. All of his (xlnt) session are handled with your CHILD (not the adult) via computer.

I've never seen Jeff erase anything of that type. But I welcome him if so to call me.

I think it is YOU that have issues

I don't have issues. I wish I had hired someone for my SN kid but wasn't plugged enough in to realize that i could (no legacy/no money/ no first generation.

I post here because I made a mistake with my daughter. Langly public is processing 450 kids every year plus trying to deal with the quesitons of the junior parents below.

Either YOU the parent have to take on reading everything you can put your hand on or YOU need hire someone who knows what to do. It's that difficult. And yes

I I have a resume you would awe over. But I don't know squat about college admissions.

I'm very happy to ask Jeff to prove you wrong. I have no financial issue in the matter. I can confirm the oxford acceptance. Shall I ask Jeff?

Wrong and wrong again.

Seriously. I am happy to report this to Jeff and have him sort it out for you. I am a happy client of Montauk for my DS. DS would say the same. I am trying to help other parents because I wish I had done same for the older child but didn't. Had I known DCUM existed back when DC was applying, I might have learned about private coaches. I might have made smarter decisions for my DC. I didn't. Because I didn't knw such services existed. (think URM and first generation).
I stupidly relied upon the well-meaning FCPS college counselor. DD was a SN kid and we could have used private coaching. For some strange reason my husband and I thought we should rely upon the public high school counselor (don't get me wrong - they mean well, but they are processing 100s of kids to college). Instead, I relied on the overburdenede Langley hihg school college coach who was processing 400 seniors while coaching the parents and students of the 400 in the next junior class. I have no affiliation with Richard Montak. I am in Charlottesville area, formerly of Mclean, which I assume Jeff the moderator can figure out. I don't' know where Montauk is - my DS dealt with him (as do all coaches these days) by computer I just sent hte money which I thought was reasonable, more so with the Oxford results. Do you want a cancelled check? What IS your problem? Are you a competitor in the field trying to branch out?

I interviewed 3 college counselors and Montauk was my least favorite. I told him what kind of college DC was interested in (small liberal arts college not too far from home). Then he spent the entire conversation pushing international universities.
[/b]
This is all the info I have, but I did get his name from DCUM and it was a dead end for us, so I am putting this out there.

Adults learn to control conversations, especially if they are the purchaser of a service.