In hindsight, was your college counselor worth it? If so, can you share who it was?

[Anonymous]

We found that meeting with the high school college counselor was fine to get grounded in the process, get suggestions on colleges and understand the landscape of what tasks needed to be handled. But you know your kid better than anyone, and are in the best position to help them narrow down the college list and fine tune the details.

If the cost of a private counselor were reasonable (say $50 to $100 per hour), then getting their support here and there might be justified. But for most students, a package costing multiple thousands of dollars is not worth it and is not likely to yield a proportionately better result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This seems affordable
https://www.crimsoneducation.org/sg/resources/essay-review/

Crimson is hit or miss, mostly miss. They are a large organization and have an application template, if you kids fits into their model, it works. Most don’t. If you are looking for personal essay coach, I think Wyzant or a college kid would be much better.

We tried Crimson and bailed. We mostly did it ourselves but did a 90-minute strategy session with a local college counselor to review our list, common app answers, essay and think about overall narrative/ED strategy. That was very helpful. She had insight on schools on our list, where DC would most likely be successful in ED and why, different strategies for applying to reach schools, how to tighten up narrative.

But this is for 2025 so I can’t if it’s successful yet.

WOndering how your kid did this cycle (without Crimson)?

[Anonymous]

No, no, no. and don't use Annapolis College Consulting,

[Anonymous]

Has anyone used Ivy League Roadmap, Andreas Stamatakis. It's a big bill but supposedly he only has 50 kids at any given time, so wondering if his services are better.

[Anonymous]

No. I feel like we paid $15K for pretty mediocre results with our oldest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. I feel like we paid $15K for pretty mediocre results with our oldest.

Does anyone have a good experience with any counselor?! It just seems like everyone sucks.

[Anonymous]

Regrets here as well. Waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Ours was worth it only in the sense that there were clear deadlines for application work and there was regular nagging. My kiddo was practically done with the process by Early October and had her main essay and most of the application done by September. Everywhere that Early Action was possible, we applied early action, something the counselor recommended that I would t have thought of.

On the negative side, they didn’t add anything useful to our college list, though they helped us eliminate one school. They low-balled her chances of admission to several places, saying these places were a reach. With the supplental essays, they really weren’t helpful. We rewrote them. We had visited the schools, some more than once, and knew what they were looking for. The essay helpers really didn’t have a clue about the schools.

[Anonymous]

Glad you bumped this old thread up, OP. I'm also ooking for a great essay coach who can help with two Common App essays and 7-10 supplementals for a fixed cost.

Our son has an uncommon writing voice and sense of humor, but he covers it up trying to sound like what he thinks the reader wants. He has some interesting quirks and niche interests to what otherwise looks like a 4.0/1500/SGAleader/4yr varsity athlete profile. I'm hoping he'll lean into the quirks because the rest of it speaks for itself and doesn't distinguish him.

Who would be a good coach for not more than $2K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone used Ivy League Roadmap, Andreas Stamatakis. It's a big bill but supposedly he only has 50 kids at any given time, so wondering if his services are better.

Horrific. Avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. I feel like we paid $15K for pretty mediocre results with our oldest.

the results are not down to the CC they are down to your kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Richard Montauk $300/ hour.
We spent a few hours talking with him and he spent a few hours talking with our kids. 50% of it was golden. He understands the sports side though, which wasn't relevant to us, and could probably give you some valuable insights on that side of things.

No!

[Anonymous]

I think there’s a core mismatch between what counselors can provide, which is general advice and help staying on deadline, and what parents want: specific long-odds outcomes that the counselors have no control over.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone used Steve Goodman?

[Anonymous]

We used one for a couple of essay polishes….my daughter did not want us to edit, but she would let the counselor help with that. It was worth it to us to know there was editing going on. We just did a couple sessions, couple hundred total. Meredyth Fallon was who we used for this, she was great.