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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are there any good ones that do hourly without a minimum? I’m pretty informed but have a few questions I’d like to run by someone who preferably worked in admissions before.[/quote]

We used Richard Montauk. He was by the hour. RichardMontauk.com.[/quote]

[b]DP.  When did you begin to engage him? Can you outline what he did?  Also, if you don't mind sharing, how much did he charge per hour and how many hours did you need from start to finish?[/b]  [/quote]

To be honest, we should have started earlier in the process but we, unfortunately, trusted our private high school counselor who didn't know what she was doing.  Having read many posts here , on College Confidential, and Reddit,  I now know all the mistakes we made but that's water under the bridge.  I think you will find if you call around for a counselor that most in the DMV area want to start early with you and have you pay a package rate.  The lowest I've heard (from someone really good) was $6K and some ask $20K.  In NYC it's $25K and up and they start coaching your kid to start thinking about what kind of school they want (and question the parents about what they can afford) sophomore year.  It does reduce stress.  I found Richard Montauk (I think he lives in Connecticut - not sure - we never met face to face and I turned it all over to DD once we engaged him) because he has written so many books in the field (go to amazon and see).  He charged us $300 an hour, which I thought was reasonable.  Most of Montauk's time spent with our DD was honing her essay.  I never read the first version nor the last. but by the time DD was finished, she thought she had done a good job.  He also coached her for interviews and guided her through some scholarship essays.  I think we used up 10 hours so $3,000.  However, his website says most relationships with his counselees last 18 months and wind up more like $4,000.  Ours was a rushed job because we started searching for a counselor too late.

I think his value was not just in maximizing his element of the application (essays, resume, recommendations, interviews - on which he wrote the definitive book), nor in making sure all those aspects were fully integrated, but in approaching the whole effort strategically.  In other words, I think (and I checked with DD before writing this and she agrees) to make a client's candidacy compelling - making the most of the client's credentials and helping to burnish them, craft a story, and tweak it to fit different programs.  He also had a firm grasp of which programs would be the best fit for a client's interest and needs.  In our DD's case it was Politics, Philosophy, and Law at Oxford.  And she got in! (the interviews are brutal by the way).

If she decides to apply to law school, we will hire him again.  he wrote "How Get Into Law School" a few years back. Good luck[/quote]

Thank you, Mrs. Montauk.[/quote]

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