Question for Parents of Students Admitted to Top 25 Colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is rising senior at T25. We did use one (national company) probably for FOMO mentality. In retrospect it wasn't that helpful. I'm sure they have some benefits like keeping your kid on a schedule and making them really think about what kind of college they want but nothing really that you couldn't do yourselves if your diligent and organized. These companies often prey on your fear and make you feel like your kid is going to lose out if you don't use them. Why else would so many college consultants have "Ivy" in their name? Also, my sense is that they tend to undersell your kid so that you're not upset when your kid does not get into their dream school. I can see international applicants using them as they may not be so familiar with US colleges and admissions but save your money if you're domestic.

I always wonder about that. They need good word of mouth. Hard to be rational in this process, so I’d also have to think they undersell to avoid upset parents.

Yep, and if your kid does get in, you will be so "grateful" to them and recommend your family and friends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

I agree, but also if you have the ingredients it’s also a waste. If they have it, you can do it on your own.

This loops back to the first place why they looked for a consultant. Because the parents don't know how to cook a dish without ingredients, mistakenly thought the consultant can cook it without the ingredients. But they can't either. Thus the reporting back.

[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.

Literally used khan! It’s better prep than we could have paid for.

Khan seems to have phased this out, which sucks for younger kid. We’ll sign him up for a class but it won’t be better

[Anonymous]

This thread might help:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1252106.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is rising senior at T25. We did use one (national company) probably for FOMO mentality. In retrospect it wasn't that helpful. I'm sure they have some benefits like keeping your kid on a schedule and making them really think about what kind of college they want but nothing really that you couldn't do yourselves if your diligent and organized. These companies often prey on your fear and make you feel like your kid is going to lose out if you don't use them. Why else would so many college consultants have "Ivy" in their name? Also, my sense is that they tend to undersell your kid so that you're not upset when your kid does not get into their dream school. I can see international applicants using them as they may not be so familiar with US colleges and admissions but save your money if you're domestic.

I always wonder about that. They need good word of mouth. Hard to be rational in this process, so I’d also have to think they undersell to avoid upset parents.

Yep, and if your kid does get in, you will be so "grateful" to them and recommend your family and friends

No. If your kid did get in, they still will only recommend with abundance of caution, to avoid any disappointment among their family and friends down the road.
We got recommendations from families whose kids went to HYP and Ivies, they did recommend their consultant, but they will always put lots of fineprints on it.
Image the rage if their friends' larlos didn't get in ivies after using the same consultant. Friends no more!

[Anonymous]

I have two unhooked kids from public schools currently attending T20 universities. We did use test prep to help them get over the 1500/34 threshold, but other than that nothing.

Both kids are highly motivated so no issues there. And I informed myself about what it takes for unhooked students to get into top colleges. I shared what I learned when they were in 9th grade. I told them this is what it takes to get into these schools. They’re both bright and will have great options regardless. But if you want to go for it, you’ll need this. But it’s completely up to them if they want it.

And they did the rest themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

Highly disagree. Most people applying are qualified and could come in. I don’t believe in coaches, but it’s really about being able to sell yourself, not some special innate trait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

Highly disagree. Most people applying are qualified and could come in. I don’t believe in coaches, but it’s really about being able to sell yourself, not some special innate trait.

Yes, if you listen to the Yale and Dartmouth podcast, you see how important that admissions sales pitch is for them in committee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

Highly disagree. Most people applying are qualified and could come in. I don’t believe in coaches, but it’s really about being able to sell yourself, not some special innate trait.

Ingredients include selling points.

[Anonymous]

My housekeeper/nanny did it.

[Anonymous]

Son got in early to an Ivy without any outside help. That said, we did a ton of research on our own. As someone else suggested, "Who Gets in and Why" is really valuable, as is "Valedictorians at the Gate." The Yale admissions podcast also demystifies a lot of things. There are definitely things you need to learn in terms of creating a cohesive application/presentation issues, and these sources are great for that. But at the end of the day the app will be better if it is authentic and not finessed by people who don't know your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

Highly disagree. Most people applying are qualified and could come in. I don’t believe in coaches, but it’s really about being able to sell yourself, not some special innate trait.

Ingredients include selling points.

the problem is so many people don't know how to sell themselves. they do all the same activities as everyone else, but somehow expect to stand out and get into T10?
This is helpful to think about it...
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1l2fzob/take_the_road_less_traveled/
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/n82re4/three_different_types_of_applicants_aos_are/

[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!"

I believe everyone who has posted so far on this thread that they didn’t use a counselor is being honest.

+1 we didn't use one and had much better results than kids' friends who used private counselors.

I told my husband I really think these counselors strip the authenticity right out of the kid's applications and they sound like all the other ones that use private counselors.

With rare exceptions, this is it

[Anonymous]

We used Montauk briefly. I think his strengths do lie in the US side of college admissions, particularly the Ivies and MIT etc. He is very in tune with what is happening there and what is changing.

We were looking at Europe, where we are from and his knowledge of that was a little dated and in some instances just wrong.

This didn't matter as we didn't buy into a whole big package with him, we just took very specific advice about course choices, college choices, ECs and essays.

He was helpful and it made a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

Highly disagree. Most people applying are qualified and could come in. I don’t believe in coaches, but it’s really about being able to sell yourself, not some special innate trait.

Ingredients include selling points.

the problem is so many people don't know how to sell themselves. they do all the same activities as everyone else, but somehow expect to stand out and get into T10?
This is helpful to think about it...
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1l2fzob/take_the_road_less_traveled/
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/n82re4/three_different_types_of_applicants_aos_are/

We are not talking about the dumb dumbs. DCUM parents are savy, finance and attorney moms. They have been selling themselves the whole life. When they ran into problems, it's not because they don't know how to sell.