Reply to Are Private Counselors a Bad Idea?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Speaking as a college admissions consultant, the reason why we get a bad rap is because in the 2010s, the only credentialing programs for independents were the same ones that credentialed high school college counselors. So the perception that we were redundant and only for families who needed extra help the high school counselor couldn't provide was largely true.

Since then, however, the field has matured and evolved a lot. In many ways that school counselors aren't aware of. In my practice, we use admissions rubrics from highly selective college admissions offices that we've combined with proprietary data we gathered from colleges, the CollegeBoard, our partnerships with local high school counselors, and our own clientele dating back 16 years. It allows us to run gap analyses on students so services are targeted and pragmatic, and additive rather than redundant, wasteful, or off-target.

The admissions rubrics we used were gathered from active involvement in NACAC over more than a decade—and won't be found by parents searching online. Furthermore, the most valuable insights we gained about below-average SAT/ACT patterns that can still win admission at various colleges were drawn from the period before test-optional policies became widespread. The pre-test optional score thresholds still hold true in today's test-optional environment and aid in the decision to report SAT/ACT scores or withhold them. But someone trying to draw the same conclusions today would have an extremely difficult time sorting through current data given the diversity of testing policies across colleges.

Beware the bigger firms that are driven by sales. If you look on Yelp and Google Business Reviews, you can find college consultants who consult to the size of the gap that's actually necessary and helpful. You may have to search for consultants in other cities, as everyone works virtually now. But we're out there.[/quote]

The outside counselors work for their clients, so they tell them what they want to hear, rather than giving them the honest feedback and realistic  advice that the school counselor is more likely to give. Telling kids to load up on as many AP courses as possible is not very useful and possibly harmful to some kids who cannot handle that course load. But, a lot of families feel that if they are spending a lot of money on something then it must be giving them an advantage. The school counselors can often tell which outside counselor has been hired as soon as they read the student’s draft of their essay. Not impressed at all by this business. [/quote]

That’s a valid point and a pertinent issue among many consultants across all industries, not just college admissions consultants. My mom encountered the same problem with a probate lawyer who specialized in probate litigation. Because he was a fighter who was paid to fight, he was more than happy to run up huge bills pursuing a losing case. Unknown to us, our case was doomed by the malpractice of the attorney who had originally drafted my grandparents’ trust and amendment incorrectly. It all ended with malpractice lawsuits against both the original drafting attorney and the litigating attorney (he had a duty to tell her, and he didn’t). Both settled massively in my mom’s favor. Not everyone's a fan of college admissions consultants—or lawyers. I get it. But there's a lot of diversity and range when it comes to quality within each industry.

Some years ago, I began requiring clients of [url=https://www.collegezoom.com]College Zoom – Admissions Consulting[/url] to do a paid gap analysis on an admissions rubric before committing to services with us. It’s been great. It allows us to distinguish which families’ needs will be satisfied by a single meeting to course-correct versus which ones warrant longer-term services—and to what extent. Families we aren't able to help are caught by the free discovery call that happens first so they don't go on.

So my advice to anyone hiring a college consultant is to see if they offer an honest paid assessment in advance. It can be very much worth the cost.

Regarding AP course loads, the benefit of a well-mapped rubric is that it can identify the minimum number of AP or honors classes a student at a particular high school should take to be competitive for each college. In fact, going beyond that AP/honors threshold results in diminishing returns. Consultants who send kids on wild goose chases that lead to burnout often don’t know what those thresholds are. Asking about that can be a great vetting question for anyone shopping around for a college admissions consultant.

In terms of essay help, the best support doesn’t leave the consultant’s fingerprint on it. To maintain the student’s creativity and natural voice, the right story has to be selected, as that will be the easiest one for the student to write authentically. Most of the writing coaching should focus on scaffolding the right narrative outline—so the best angle is charted through the story—and sequencing ideas to deliver maximum potency and clarity for the reader. I always tell the kids that whoever reads your essay on the other side of the admissions table is going to imagine “you” as someone who looks entirely different. Your room won’t be your room; your parents (if they appear in the essay) won’t be your parents. The story should be so engaging and free of gimmicks that the reader focuses on the experience unfolding rather than any hints of a particular consultant’s assistance.[/quote]

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