None can guarantee you anything... as far as I know.

Figure out what you want from this counselor (not outcome oriented) and interview several at different price points to see who offers this.

Make sure your kid meets them and vibes with them.

Yes, you can do a lot of the research yourself - yes it takes tons of time - yes, i would still do the research even if you hire someone. It's too important a process to completely outsource to someone who will never be as vested as you are.

If you don't hire someone and the result isn't what you wanted, would your regret not hiring someone?

Anonymous wrote:We paid around $8000 for two year package, was worth it to us.

We paid around 6K for the same. It was mostly about managing the process.

My understanding is that the really high priced ones are more about getting a certain result.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For hourly:

How much would you pay hourly for someone to help create an application narrative for your kid, suggest new junior year activities and summer activities, suggest awards/honors to apply to, and generally offer a 7 month roadmap before applying?

That's tricky for a counselor to do on a first meeting. It might take several sessions before they know your kid well enough to make


suggestions.

+1. Our hourly talked with us and child for about two hours before we hired him. Then it was $320 an hour for a total front/to-end of about. $3000 and well worth it. The field is too complicated now to learn it all yourself in the time your have

Ours was about $450/hour 6 hours total not including the evaluation.

A list of 20 schools (8 reach/7 target/5 safety) and strategies for applying to those schools.
Creative ways of looking at the list of activities to string together very disparate interests and activities into a coherent theme. Different ways to fill the holes and enhance those themes (seeing which activities our kid wanted to do to fill out the gaps and which themes we pursued really helped him zero in on things. E.g. is your kid inclined to fill up the gaps with writing competitions, scientific research, volunteer activity, etc.
At $450/hour, we ended up doing a lot of the heavy lifting and going to him for fine tuning. I think he preferred it that way.

There were no magic bullets but it was experienced advice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For hourly:

How much would you pay hourly for someone to help create an application narrative for your kid, suggest new junior year activities and summer activities, suggest awards/honors to apply to, and generally offer a 7 month roadmap before applying?

That's tricky for a counselor to do on a first meeting. It might take several sessions before they know your kid well enough to make


suggestions.

+1. Our hourly talked with us and child for about two hours before we hired him. Then it was $320 an hour for a total front/to-end of about. $3000 and well worth it. The field is too complicated now to learn it all yourself in the time your have

What type of suggestions?
So like 9 hours? How many meetings?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For hourly:

How much would you pay hourly for someone to help create an application narrative for your kid, suggest new junior year activities and summer activities, suggest awards/honors to apply to, and generally offer a 7 month roadmap before applying?

That's tricky for a counselor to do on a first meeting. It might take several sessions before they know your kid well enough to make


suggestions.

+1. Our hourly talked with us and child for about two hours before we hired him. Then it was $320 an hour for a total front/to-end of about. $3000 and well worth it. The field is too complicated now to learn it all yourself in the time your have

Anonymous wrote:For hourly:

How much would you pay hourly for someone to help create an application narrative for your kid, suggest new junior year activities and summer activities, suggest awards/honors to apply to, and generally offer a 7 month roadmap before applying?

That's tricky for a counselor to do on a first meeting. It might take several sessions before they know your kid well enough to make suggestions.

[quote=Anonymous]For hourly:

How much would you pay hourly for someone to help create an application narrative for your kid, suggest new junior year activities and summer activities, suggest awards/honors to apply to, and generally offer a 7 month roadmap before applying?

[/quote]

You can do that yourself free. I did for my kids - two at HYPs. How would a perfect stranger know what would work best for your DC? We paid near 5K to have one college consultant (someone who the top privates on the east coast often use) do that for our first born. We gave her two months to go over tons of material, writing samples, etc. Spent hours getting that prepared. The day of, she gave flippant, superficial advice that disregarded things my son valued/was passionate about .. told him to do things that were so trite and pablum. Not all IECs are like that. Still very annoyed.

For hourly:

How much would you pay hourly for someone to help create an application narrative for your kid, suggest new junior year activities and summer activities, suggest awards/honors to apply to, and generally offer a 7 month roadmap before applying?

We paid around $8000 for two year package, was worth it to us.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t. Do. It. Not worth the $$. Hourly or do the research yourself. You know your kid the best.

+1. Ours was hourly

Don’t. Do. It. Not worth the $$. Hourly or do the research yourself. You know your kid the best.

It's been a very stressful year in education with all the government changes in policies. There is a reason prices are going up, plus all the inflation lately. The anxiety of families is through the roof and needs constant attention.

Do your homework and get personal referrals. There are both genuinely great college counselors and shysters. (I think at $50K you’re getting more of the latter.)

Like a years tuition? No not worth it whatever it is.

I've seen prices from $3-4K to a jump to $10K to $50K+++. What accounts for the differences? Are higher priced packages truly worth it?