Anonymous wrote:My DD is a senior. Top 10% at competitive private, 1530 (800 verbal). Good leadership within school but not outside of school. She is looking at northwestern, Chicago, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst.
It’s def likely that had she had “guidance” earlier to seek out ways to get national recognition, she could be looking at Yale and Brown.
I actually came here to say it’s too much pressure, but as I think about it, there are some National competitions she easily could have done - she didn’t want to so we didn’t push it, but I don’t think it would have been terrible if we had, actually. And that would have made her slightly more competitive for a tip top school.

LOL Yale and Brown are just as unlikely with and without a private consultant. And why would you need a consultant to seek national recognition? It's about the essays, narrative and how it is crafted, grades, test scores, letters of recommendation. You didn't get any guidance on these things, so now you can be sure that Northwestern and Chicago will also be crapshoots. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…

Why do people find it gross that parents hire a college consultant in freshman year when their child is 14/15, but are mostly OK with starting their kids in sports at the age of 5 and get them the best coaches in the hopes that their child can get a college scholarship.

The odds of a child getting into an ivy are less than the odds for a kid to play football in college or the NFL.

Why is prepping early on for the latter much more acceptable ?

You assume the PP doesn’t find the youth sports industrial complex distasteful as well.

My DD is a senior. Top 10% at competitive private, 1530 (800 verbal). Good leadership within school but not outside of school. She is looking at northwestern, Chicago, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst.
It’s def likely that had she had “guidance” earlier to seek out ways to get national recognition, she could be looking at Yale and Brown.
I actually came here to say it’s too much pressure, but as I think about it, there are some National competitions she easily could have done - she didn’t want to so we didn’t push it, but I don’t think it would have been terrible if we had, actually. And that would have made her slightly more competitive for a tip top school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…

Why do people find it gross that parents hire a college consultant in freshman year when their child is 14/15, but are mostly OK with starting their kids in sports at the age of 5 and get them the best coaches in the hopes that their child can get a college scholarship.

The odds of a child getting into an ivy are less than the odds for a kid to play football in college or the NFL.

Why is prepping early on for the latter much more acceptable ?

Because sports are more transparent. At the end of the day, the kid still has to love the game and perform. But this narrative crap? It’s all made up for the purpose of admissions. Lots of stuff the parents end up doing for the kid and no AO would know the difference. And that is what is gross. Just for name prestige in the end. I could afford it too… but I won’t do it, and DC is fully aligned. It’s their journey. Not mine.

We hired a consultant who worked directly with our DC. We have had very limited interaction with them. They kept our DC on track, helped mold their "narrative" and helped with editing essays. It's been a great experience and kept the stress level down in our home. As for the narrative, it is not necessarily making the kid something they aren't. It is taking their attributes and packaging them in a way that makes sense and appeals to an admissions officer. Our consultant also helped our DC with course selection for junior and senior years. Honestly, it is just great having someone who our DC likes and listens to. She is at a stage where she is claiming her independence, and this enables her to do that while still getting good guidance. If you can afford one and decide against it, good luck. Clearly you haven't been through the process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…

Why do people find it gross that parents hire a college consultant in freshman year when their child is 14/15, but are mostly OK with starting their kids in sports at the age of 5 and get them the best coaches in the hopes that their child can get a college scholarship.

The odds of a child getting into an ivy are less than the odds for a kid to play football in college or the NFL.

Why is prepping early on for the latter much more acceptable ?

Because sports are more transparent. At the end of the day, the kid still has to love the game and perform. But this narrative crap? It’s all made up for the purpose of admissions. Lots of stuff the parents end up doing for the kid and no AO would know the difference. And that is what is gross. Just for name prestige in the end. I could afford it too… but I won’t do it, and DC is fully aligned. It’s their journey. Not mine.

Honestly, you can listen to a bunch of Ivy League consulting podcasts and learn basically what they're doing. You can reverse engineer the process yourself and probably get really good results. In short, if you hire one, they'll help your kid build a hook. They'll veer them away from the "bloodbath" majors like pre-med, econ/business, or comp. sci. They'll have your kid build a niche interest in humanities like classics or anthropology. This is all for the purpose of making your kid look as "interesting" as possible to admissions officers.

If done well, it usually does work, and your kid can get into a T15. But the knowledge is so widespread now, that I don't think it's worth the $20k these firms are charging.

If your goal is T15 then you should be using one early in HS, because they can mould your kid's extracurriculars and summer plans to build a strong and deep resume. Many parents try and hire one the fall of senior year to help with the application, but by then it's too late. The best applicants have been building their candidacy for multiple years at that point.

We paid $500 for 9th/10th grade counseling and it was worth it. Yes, I felt like a helicopter/tiger mom but I wanted my kid to be a little more focused during hs and to have choices that he liked. It worked out well.

If you’re looking for the expensive ones, the ones that’ll be about $100,000 for all of high school, you might as well start in eighth or ninth grade

Because the effort/work really peaks in junior to senior year you’ll pay close to the same amount no matter how many years you do it, but you’ll get a lot more more out of the process from starting earlier because you will do all the “right” summer activities starting from eighth or ninth grade summer

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…

Why do people find it gross that parents hire a college consultant in freshman year when their child is 14/15, but are mostly OK with starting their kids in sports at the age of 5 and get them the best coaches in the hopes that their child can get a college scholarship.

The odds of a child getting into an ivy are less than the odds for a kid to play football in college or the NFL.

Why is prepping early on for the latter much more acceptable ?

I think you typed wrong? The odds of playing in the NFL are far lower than getting into an Ivy.

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…

Why do people find it gross that parents hire a college consultant in freshman year when their child is 14/15, but are mostly OK with starting their kids in sports at the age of 5 and get them the best coaches in the hopes that their child can get a college scholarship.

The odds of a child getting into an ivy are less than the odds for a kid to play football in college or the NFL.

Why is prepping early on for the latter much more acceptable ?

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…

If you find it gross, then don't hire one. My kid has aspirations, so I want to make it as likely as possible. It is very competitive, and know that if you have a particular popular school in mind, so do many others in your high school, some of which have hired these private consultants. I want to give my kid as much an edge as possible to achieve her dreams, ad we can easily afford it FWIW.

We did it only because the “all inclusive” one rate package was a cost savings compared to hourly.

The price starting before 10th was the same even if started a year later. The counselor was clear you won’t receive as much attention as the older kids, but it was nice to have someone to ask questions.

I don’t think it’s common but who knows? I think if I had tried to shape “a narrative” earlier for my child it would have ended up as less interesting than the narrative that emerged naturally as his interests shifted in late high school. Kids change and grow a lot late in junior year.

I’d worry that starting so early puts even more emphasis on college as some sort of pinnacle achievement or finish line, when it is just another four years to work hard, learn, and grow.

The whole thing is gross. Truly ridiculous. What are people afraid of? That they can’t boast that their kid got into Stanford instead of UMD? I appreciate the no shaming request but honest to god, the talk of narratives and rare ECs that AOs like makes me nuts. There are thousands of colleges out there, not 20. If your kid isn’t exceptional by sophomore year, do they really belong at the top 20? Does it really matter in their life trajectory? I am hearing all of this angst from my DCs friends and their parents and I just don’t get it…