This really doesn't have anything to do with your present situation but this educational consultant's experiences with wealthy applicants to college is interesting.

http://nypost.com/2013/08/25/tutor-reveals-ivy-admissions-madness-of-rich-penthouse-parents/

I am PP 13:25 - I would also add, that having met with the consultant and knowing what sorts of things we were looking for, it was much easier to stay out of the "frenzy" we observed among many of the other parents who were applying that year. We approached with a calmer outlook and it all worked out great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Educational consultants have different packages for their services (whole, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, howdedo)?

Sorry, I can't continue...I am laughing so hard.

Yes. It's call "how much can I wring out of this family?" You know how some people actually believe that sticker price is what they should pay for a car? Same thing. You take what you can get.

It's so true. I've never met one who is competent. When you ask them about a school and get a blank look, or have been pawned off on a "newbie", you know you have been had.

Why have you met so many educational consultants? Especially considering your disdain for them?

We were referred to an excellent consultant, who gave us very relevant and helpful information in our consultation. We weren't looking for an inside hook - just trying to understand what sort of school we should be considering given our child's needs. Our child's preschool teacher had recommended in repeated conferences that we might want to consider private over public for our child. She was not sending the same message to other families and it had never been on our radar to consider private. After we had our child tested, we met with a consultant who helped us know what to look for in both public and private options for our child and gave us advice on a range of schools - with school specific plusses and minuses given the needs of our our child.

She was highly competent, very knowledgeable and right on target for good matches. It wasn't a fortune or a bamboozle - it was so helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Educational consultants have different packages for their services (whole, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, howdedo)?

Sorry, I can't continue...I am laughing so hard.

Nasty and not funny.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Educational consultants have different packages for their services (whole, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, howdedo)?

Sorry, I can't continue...I am laughing so hard.

Yes. It's call "how much can I wring out of this family?" You know how some people actually believe that sticker price is what they should pay for a car? Same thing. You take what you can get.

It's so true. I've never met one who is competent. When you ask them about a school and get a blank look, or have been pawned off on a "newbie", you know you have been had.

Anonymous wrote:PP back. Look, I think there are some parents who remain in denial their whole lives; others need to hear from a few more quarters to accept where their kid is at that moment. Maybe an ed consultant is the one who can help some resistant parents come to terms.

Regarding some other posts, I think that publics often better handle a range of learners. It is not always perfect, but privates/independents, unless that is their mission, often are not suited for that work.

This can be true - but it can also be true that a child needs a smaller class size or a different type of environment than can be met in the local public district - so those families sometimes go private and finding the right mix is helpful. For example, and educational consultant may have a better sense of which schools will be flexible with certain behaviors or would be willing to accommodate in various ways . Some of these details are not so obvious on a tour and families may need guidance on what questions to a school will get them the answers they really need.

PP back. Look, I think there are some parents who remain in denial their whole lives; others need to hear from a few more quarters to accept where their kid is at that moment. Maybe an ed consultant is the one who can help some resistant parents come to terms.

Regarding some other posts, I think that publics often better handle a range of learners. It is not always perfect, but privates/independents, unless that is their mission, often are not suited for that work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:little harsh here on OP. Both DH and I were working very hard when DC1 was applying for schools. We considered using an ed consultant, then realized DC had no extenuating circumstances (e.g., wildly divergent test scores, crippling social anxiety, etc), so we just handled on our own. I think ed consultants probably help families where parents may not be realistic about their DCs' potential at that time or greatly underestimate how steep admissions odds are at some schools.

If OP believed that an ed consultant could pull a string, then that is probably misguided.

Help them how? By talking some sense into them? Therapists are cheaper.

I am the PP who wrote the comment you bolded. Look, we have two super bright, hardworking DCS, who are doing quite well at a Big 3. We have close friends with a first DC who is also super bright, yet has some very severe challenges. It finally took an ed consultant for them to wrap their minds around that a Big 3 was probably not in the cards for this round. In politics, folks say people need to hear it at least hree times before it sinks in. Some parents need to hear it from an ed consultant when they have refused to listen when their kids' preschool teachers or school head explains the prospects for their kid. Some parents believe the failing is the school, not that their child may thrive in a different setting. If you have been at the top of the school and career heap, may be hard to get that your child is on a different path, if just for awhile.

Of course. How dare a school ever imply that MY Snowflake is not performing up to par? I know. I'll pay someone else even more money, until I hear what I want to hear!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wtf is an educational consultant? I think I've heard it all now.

Well then, you're pretty dumb.

Pp is not dumb. Not all towns/cities cater to overly anxious parents

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:little harsh here on OP. Both DH and I were working very hard when DC1 was applying for schools. We considered using an ed consultant, then realized DC had no extenuating circumstances (e.g., wildly divergent test scores, crippling social anxiety, etc), so we just handled on our own. I think ed consultants probably help families where parents may not be realistic about their DCs' potential at that time or greatly underestimate how steep admissions odds are at some schools.

If OP believed that an ed consultant could pull a string, then that is probably misguided.

Help them how? By talking some sense into them? Therapists are cheaper.

I am the PP who wrote the comment you bolded. Look, we have two super bright, hardworking DCS, who are doing quite well at a Big 3. We have close friends with a first DC who is also super bright, yet has some very severe challenges. It finally took an ed consultant for them to wrap their minds around that a Big 3 was probably not in the cards for this round. In politics, folks say people need to hear it at least hree times before it sinks in. Some parents need to hear it from an ed consultant when they have refused to listen when their kids' preschool teachers or school head explains the prospects for their kid. Some parents believe the failing is the school, not that their child may thrive in a different setting. If you have been at the top of the school and career heap, may be hard to get that your child is on a different path, if just for awhile.

Anonymous wrote:Educational consultants have different packages for their services (whole, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, howdedo)?

Sorry, I can't continue...I am laughing so hard.

No - it's an hourly consultation vs a set fee for helping a family through the entire search and application process.

Again - for those of you who have never needed some professional advice on how to meet your child's educational needs - consider yourselves lucky.

Given you are in private world (as I am) - you are probably used to being able to get great feedback from the school on your child and their needs. But if someone was coming from public, where a young child was not having success and the public school staff was unable or unwilling to provide useful advice - an educational consultant can be very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Educational consultants have different packages for their services (whole, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, howdedo)?

Sorry, I can't continue...I am laughing so hard.

Yes. It's call "how much can I wring out of this family?" You know how some people actually believe that sticker price is what they should pay for a car? Same thing. You take what you can get.

This is the OP. Thank you to the people who have responded kindly and with helpful information. I thought about writing more to clarify why we chose to hire a consultant, but I suspect that would just provide additional fodder for those with less kind intentions.

Educational consultants have different packages for their services (whole, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, howdedo)?

Sorry, I can't continue...I am laughing so hard.

I also think in general that if you are jumping from public to private for a specific reason and have not been in the whole "private school world" that an educational consultant can help you figure out what you might be looking for. It's not always so clear for families that never envisioned themselves using private schools. Some will do fine on their own, but sometimes the educational consultant can help you digest the information you have about your child and see where they might fit. And you don't always need to sign up for the "full package" to get that sort of feedback.