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[quote=Anonymous]Families using private consultants are not always full-pay families, as some are just trying for admission to top schools with excellent financial aid.

Consulting services can also be purchased a la carte or full-package.  Prices vary widely, from 150/hr or 4k full, 4-year unlimited services out in the hinterlands to 25-50k for full services in big markets like NYC.

Most consultants prefer to under-promise and over-deliver, downplaying chances at reaches.

Whether the full, 4-year consulting deal would be helpufl is a bit of an individual opinion and depends a lot on the kid.  Some kids make choices throughout high school that, rightly, reflect who they are, and how to write that up in the app is all that's left - these are often kids that will have the best shots at elites regardless.  Other kids might simply float through the early years of high school and may come into their own, in terms of making the choices that elite schools happen to like to see, much later in high school.  (Frankly, I prefer to let them be, as long as they put effort into their classes and choose at least one EC that they are interested in, then let the chips fall, even though the slower-to-come-around kid may not end up at an elite school.  That's what grad school is for...)  While it happens, I think it's unrealistic to force an otherwise floating high schooler to "be" an elite college applicant throughout high school, at least where the top-10 are concerned, though top-30 is another matter entirely, as the recent scandal demonstrates.

About the essays, a good candidate for a top school may find guidance useful as to what a good admission essay looks like, as most kids are utterly unfamiliar with the genre.  Editing may be nothing more - and often substantially less - than a high school English teacher might suggest.  Rather than use a consultant, there's a PDF out there that does a nice job of talking through essay topic considerations, here:  https://www.hackthecollegeessay.com/uploads/1/0/9/5/109505679/hack_the_college_essay_2017.pdf[/quote]

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