People who spend huge amounts of $ on private college consultants are wasting their money

[Anonymous]

Had kids at two big3 and boarding. college counseling was uneven. It very much depends on who you were assigned. That is why you see big drops when you have leadership turnover in college counseling offices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC may have gotten into his dream school without the consultant, but I do believe some of the advice we got from her was valuable and helped us tip the scale in his favor.

Some of the advice she gave us:

Each year we looked at course selections and advised on best course load to demonstrate rigor. Coming from her vs. us (his parents) made an impact and he was much more open to listening to her advice vs. having us try to guide him.

She helped us navigate getting accommodations for the ACT (we already had them for college board). With ACT, you have to actually register for the test before you request accommodations. We registered even though we knew he wouldn't take the test on that day (he wouldn't be ready) and requested accommodations. Then we rescheduled the date once we got the accommodations. This way, he knew how he should prep for the test based on the accommodations he was given. It was a one and done and he scored quite high.

She got us hooked up with an excellent tutor for test prep that was in our price range (only $150 per hour) and came to the house.

She provided him with checklists and deadlines of things to complete, i.e. send ACT scores to schools, have draft of supplemental essay done by this date, complete this section of common app by this date, etc. It provided structure to the process and we were able to be more hands off.

She helped him brainstorm ideas for essays and guided him toward the best approach, subjects to pursue. She proofread essays for punctuation/typos. She did not adjust content, other than to suggest taking out or adding concepts...but no actually editing.

She helped narrow down a list of colleges.

He made out quite well...got into a top 20 which was his first choice. He didn't want any ivies.

Except for the last two items (narrowing down essay topics and selecting a list of colleges), everything else you describe sounds like a disservice to your kid's development in the long run. Applying to colleges is one of the more complicated things a 17 year old does in their life, but tracking deadlines etc is a healthy way to build responsibility and an important part of preparing for the degree of independence one needs to be a college student. Same with choosing courses and studying for tests (though test prep has been around forever, so I guess that's just the way things are these days).

Tracking deadlines is something he does on a regular basis in school where he has a pretty heavy load of homework in all 7 of his courses. I don't want the exercise of applying to colleges (a one time exercise which you don't want to screw up) to be an experiment as to whether he can handle it on his own. Besides, one of his disabilities is executive functioning, so he really benefitted from the handholding. Actually it was for our benefit as well so that we would know all the boxes were checked. I have a friend whose kid was extremely talented, smart as a whip, national merit scholar, etc. etc. He did not let his parents be involved with the application process...did it all himself and he really got screwed. He did not even get into his target schools, let alone his reaches. We don't really know what happened, but we suspect his essays were really off, because his stats were excellent. He also may have messed something up on his application...which nobody ever laid eyes on. Having this consultant just gave us another set of eyes and ensured we didn't miss anything crucial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC may have gotten into his dream school without the consultant, but I do believe some of the advice we got from her was valuable and helped us tip the scale in his favor.

Some of the advice she gave us:

Each year we looked at course selections and advised on best course load to demonstrate rigor. Coming from her vs. us (his parents) made an impact and he was much more open to listening to her advice vs. having us try to guide him.

She helped us navigate getting accommodations for the ACT (we already had them for college board). With ACT, you have to actually register for the test before you request accommodations. We registered even though we knew he wouldn't take the test on that day (he wouldn't be ready) and requested accommodations. Then we rescheduled the date once we got the accommodations. This way, he knew how he should prep for the test based on the accommodations he was given. It was a one and done and he scored quite high.

She got us hooked up with an excellent tutor for test prep that was in our price range (only $150 per hour) and came to the house.

She provided him with checklists and deadlines of things to complete, i.e. send ACT scores to schools, have draft of supplemental essay done by this date, complete this section of common app by this date, etc. It provided structure to the process and we were able to be more hands off.

She helped him brainstorm ideas for essays and guided him toward the best approach, subjects to pursue. She proofread essays for punctuation/typos. She did not adjust content, other than to suggest taking out or adding concepts...but no actually editing.

She helped narrow down a list of colleges.

He made out quite well...got into a top 20 which was his first choice. He didn't want any ivies.

Gee, you should have asked me what courses your kid should have taken to demonstrate rigor. I bet I'd charge you a lot less than your consultant did!

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of good free tools to use instead of a paid consultant. We found some really helpful for DD on her application process.
- Youtube videos on filling out applications
-Youtube videos on "how I got into Yale", etc.
-Youtube videos on writing college application essay
-Always have essays reviewed/edited by someone else- parent, teacher or professional

To all of the posters that say it's cheating by having the applicants' essays edited by others- you are foolish. A good writer almost always has their work reviewed by someone else. I do so with most of my professional work and highly encourage my team to always have someone review important correspondence before publishing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a great experience with our college consultant - so OP I disagree that it was a waste of money.

We did, too. It was not a huge amount of money, and it was aimed at matching our kid rather than getting him in where he didn't belong.

I also thought it was a great way to protect my kid from my anxiety.

A child going to college should be able to handle the anxiety of applying to college.

And you cant read. He could handle his anxiety. I didnt think he should have to handle MY anxiety. And I stand by that.

Don’t sweat the keyboard judges here. They just need someone to attack. I thought it was honest and funny.

Thanks! I was trying to be funny. but it was also sincere...

All of my parenting efforts are well-intended, but not all of them are helpful.

[Anonymous]

OP -

I can't tell you a damned thing about those expensive consultants who get kids into ivy league schools.

I can tell you about our experience. I paid a reasonable sum to have a person functioning as a competent guidance counselor because our school did not provide competence there.

The consultant helped our child articulate what he wanted from college, and helped us tell engineering schools apart (it is actually more complicated than I would have thought
and rank between 10 and 50 really doesn't matter). My kid was able to make judgments about where to apply and then where to go that was based on real characteristics about the educational environment, and not whether or not there was a beautiful gym, a chick-fil-A on campus, or any other stupid things.

My son wrote his own essay. They did talk about it, and he got some feedback, but all good writers get feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC may have gotten into his dream school without the consultant, but I do believe some of the advice we got from her was valuable and helped us tip the scale in his favor.

Some of the advice she gave us:

Each year we looked at course selections and advised on best course load to demonstrate rigor. Coming from her vs. us (his parents) made an impact and he was much more open to listening to her advice vs. having us try to guide him.

She helped us navigate getting accommodations for the ACT (we already had them for college board). With ACT, you have to actually register for the test before you request accommodations. We registered even though we knew he wouldn't take the test on that day (he wouldn't be ready) and requested accommodations. Then we rescheduled the date once we got the accommodations. This way, he knew how he should prep for the test based on the accommodations he was given. It was a one and done and he scored quite high.

She got us hooked up with an excellent tutor for test prep that was in our price range (only $150 per hour) and came to the house.

She provided him with checklists and deadlines of things to complete, i.e. send ACT scores to schools, have draft of supplemental essay done by this date, complete this section of common app by this date, etc. It provided structure to the process and we were able to be more hands off.

She helped him brainstorm ideas for essays and guided him toward the best approach, subjects to pursue. She proofread essays for punctuation/typos. She did not adjust content, other than to suggest taking out or adding concepts...but no actually editing.

She helped narrow down a list of colleges.

He made out quite well...got into a top 20 which was his first choice. He didn't want any ivies.

Gee, you should have asked me what courses your kid should have taken to demonstrate rigor. I bet I'd charge you a lot less than your consultant did!

LOL, yeah, I know. I realize I could have told my DS the same thing about what courses to take, but when he hears it from an authority vs. the mom who is also nagging him about other stuff, some how the credibility of the authority seems to make a stronger impression. And that, combined with all the other items I listed, makes the fees worth it. But we also have the income to support this sort of service. I would not recommend it for anyone on a tight budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For top 10 schools almost everyone is in the range but few get in. That’s why we have so many angry posters on this forum. Being in the range is not enough for most kids at a top 10.

In my 25 years in education, I've never seen a genuinely impressive kid get rejected from all of the top 15 (Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Hopkins, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Vandy), let alone the top 30 (Georgetown, UCLA, USC, UVa, Michigan). The pissed off parents have kids who are just not that impressive; they're largely just bullsh*t artists with striver bullsh*t artist parents who think their sort of lazy snowflake is entitled to 1 of ~ 30,000 top 15 freshman seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP -

I can't tell you a damned thing about those expensive consultants who get kids into ivy league schools.

I can tell you about our experience. I paid a reasonable sum to have a person functioning as a competent guidance counselor because our school did not provide competence there.

The consultant helped our child articulate what he wanted from college, and helped us tell engineering schools apart (it is actually more complicated than I would have thought
and rank between 10 and 50 really doesn't matter). My kid was able to make judgments about where to apply and then where to go that was based on real characteristics about the educational environment, and not whether or not there was a beautiful gym, a chick-fil-A on campus, or any other stupid things.

My son wrote his own essay. They did talk about it, and he got some feedback, but all good writers get feedback.

Your kid wants to party and get laid in college. There I helped articulate that for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For top 10 schools almost everyone is in the range but few get in. That’s why we have so many angry posters on this forum. Being in the range is not enough for most kids at a top 10.

In my 25 years in education, I've never seen a genuinely impressive kid get rejected from all of the top 15 (Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Hopkins, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Vandy), let alone the top 30 (Georgetown, UCLA, USC, UVa, Michigan). The pissed off parents have kids who are just not that impressive; they're largely just bullsh*t artists with striver bullsh*t artist parents who think their sort of lazy snowflake is entitled to 1 of ~ 30,000 top 15 freshman seats.

Few apply to >15 schools unless they are hunting for merit, though that would be a different group of schools altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid wants to party and get laid in college. There I helped articulate that for you.

Thanks for making DCUM one of the rudest forums on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For top 10 schools almost everyone is in the range but few get in. That’s why we have so many angry posters on this forum. Being in the range is not enough for most kids at a top 10.

In my 25 years in education, I've never seen a genuinely impressive kid get rejected from all of the top 15 (Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Hopkins, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Vandy), let alone the top 30 (Georgetown, UCLA, USC, UVa, Michigan). The pissed off parents have kids who are just not that impressive; they're largely just bullsh*t artists with striver bullsh*t artist parents who think their sort of lazy snowflake is entitled to 1 of ~ 30,000 top 15 freshman seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For top 10 schools almost everyone is in the range but few get in. That’s why we have so many angry posters on this forum. Being in the range is not enough for most kids at a top 10.

In my 25 years in education, I've never seen a genuinely impressive kid get rejected from all of the top 15 (Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Hopkins, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Vandy), let alone the top 30 (Georgetown, UCLA, USC, UVa, Michigan). The pissed off parents have kids who are just not that impressive; they're largely just bullsh*t artists with striver bullsh*t artist parents who think their sort of lazy snowflake is entitled to 1 of ~ 30,000 top 15 freshman seats.

That makes sense because my genuinely impressive kid got into a top 20...maybe he could have gotten into an ivy, but he wasn't interested. Would have been nice for bragging rights, but he is not a bragger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For top 10 schools almost everyone is in the range but few get in. That’s why we have so many angry posters on this forum. Being in the range is not enough for most kids at a top 10.

In my 25 years in education, I've never seen a genuinely impressive kid get rejected from all of the top 15 (Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Hopkins, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Vandy), let alone the top 30 (Georgetown, UCLA, USC, UVa, Michigan). The pissed off parents have kids who are just not that impressive; they're largely just bullsh*t artists with striver bullsh*t artist parents who think their sort of lazy snowflake is entitled to 1 of ~ 30,000 top 15 freshman seats.

You’re not very impressive. Just an angry douche.

[Anonymous]

Holy shit people-stop the helicoptering! Follow your kids lead. Drops deadlines or applies to school that doesn’t provide YOU with bragging rights, so what. Talk with them about expectations and finances, but that should be early and often.

Signed,
Parent to keep to kid who handled their own college process and got into their dream school.