So much upside to have consultant if you can afford it.

1. Having an expert at your disposal to bounce ideas and ask questions throughout the entire process.

2. Help with course selection decisions to make your kid competitive while keeping a sane workload. For us, this was key as we ended up doing less APs than we might have done without her advice.

3. Staying ahead of the curve with tasks to keep her from being overwhelmed with deadlines.

4. Advice on internships and other extra curricular activities in terms of narrowing it down to things that are authentic and meaningful.

5. Insights on colleges that would truly be a good fit for DD.

6. Zeroing in on what material would make the strongest essays to highlight what makes DD unique.

7. Advice on test prep, Rather than prep for all sections on her 2nd attempt, she focused on sections she needed to improve, and it paid off with an amazing super score despite getting lower scores on the sections where she didn't prep. This strategy worked because all her schools super score.

This is the second time we use a consultant. DD is a junior, so can't share outcome yet with her, but for our older child, the outcome was admission to first choice top 20.

We hired an outside consultant for the kid that really needed to be kept on track with the process. Even with the counselor we did more nagging than I would have liked to and more last minute editing than we wanted to. But without it, they might not have ended up where they did. The counselor helped them brainstorm a unique essay in their voice and steered them away from a cliche topic, helped them consider some additional schools that were good suggestions, and helped advise when undecided was a stronger option than a major they weren’t sure about that would have been highly competitive. Even if I had the time to research, my kid would not have listened to me. Knowing myself and my kid and everyone’s strength and weaknesses it was worth the money.

My other kid is very organized, willing to ask for help with counselor or advice from parents and at a private school with college counseling built into the schedule. I wasn’t really planning to hire anyone except they were on their own to brainstorm and draft essays. Since conventional wisdom is to have the first draft done before school starts, I knew having an essay consultant was the only way it would happen on that timeline. In the end, I think this helped my kid stand out where their grades, course rigor, ECs, and recommendations already had them in the mix for consideration. They ended up at a university ranked about T25.

Anonymous wrote:Unhooked public school child that got into 3 ivies and other top schools without one. We listened to Inside the Yale Admissions podcasts and read a lot online. Already had the stats, EC’s, strong recs and knew where they wanted to apply. Learned ourselves needed to package it all and use essays to show strong character and personality. What needed to be done to be competitive had already happened and the tools to packaging are readily available so for us it wasn’t a good spend.

How did you pick what colleges for best fit or desired program/major? Ask around or rankings or visit most of them? Or just went for prestige?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they are worth it but I'n tired if giving names and accused by the ignorant of beong a shill. set up an emaill and i will respond

Yes, I'm tired of being called a shill for the guy we thought worked winders for DS. Just not worth it here. I help out on College Confidential and Reddit. Too many nuts here

+1

For the top schools yes.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they are worth it but I'n tired if giving names and accused by the ignorant of beong a shill. set up an emaill and i will respond

Yes, I'm tired of being called a shill for the guy we thought worked winders for DS. Just not worth it here. I help out on College Confidential and Reddit. Too many nuts here

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the money for it, but chose not to hire one for my oldest who is twice exceptional (high IQ, autistic, uneven high school profile). It's because at the end of the day, I realized I knew him better than anyone, and if I did my research, I would be in the best position to make a list of appropriate colleges, cajole him into writing the best essays, edit them for him knowing his strengths and weaknesses, and remind him of all the deadlines. Which is what I did, and he ended up at a wonderful university that is perfect for him.

My second child has a very stereotypical Asian over-achiever profile. I haven't decided yet, and indeed it may be too late already for a wraparound package, but perhaps consulting on certain strategies might be useful to make her stand out. Not sure, though. I don't like wasting money! Maybe I can still be the consultant she needs.

My point is: first, don't feel guilty about hiring one, and second, maybe YOU are actually the best consultant for your child!

You might be the best, but if you at all but heads with your kid (come on they are teens, most of us have that happen), hiring the consultant helps ensure your kid listens to the ideas/suggestions.

For ex: my kid initially didnt' want to apply to CWRU. No way would they want to go there, not interested, don't want to go to Cleveland. CC and myself both suggested it as it was a very likely target and figured it can't hurt to visit and see. Didn't want to visit, but come Sept/early Oct, they did more research, realized there was no supplementals, so they did a few online "tours/info sessions to show interest" and hit submit in Late October. CWRU turned out to be their 2nd Target and they considered it with their first (and safety) because all the reaches were WL or rejections or Study abroad First year. So while I didn't push it, the CC helped by continuing to bring it up as a very good choice for a target and that they give great merit---and the CC was accurate. My kid got in with the top Merit award. Now they decided not to go, but if finances were any issue/concern my kid would be at CWRU with a $42K/year merit award (this was a 3 years ago) not their top choice at 90K.

If my kid hadn't applied there, they would have really had 2 schools to choose from (1 target, 1 safety) and several much lower ranked safeties.

don't think you need a CC to tell you to apply early to Case or Pitt for merit. This place told me that!!

We no longer reside in DCUM area. So it wasn't on my radar being 3K miles away.
So our CC helped us find amazing schools for my kid's major and needs that were not in our state (as nothing in our state met that criteria).

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, thanks everyone, and I’ll check out the podcasts.

Definitely not planning to spend any money on test prep, as kid doesn’t need it and tests extremely well off the bat. He has very, very strong academics but spends so much time on them that his extra curriculars are nothing special. He’s also introverted.

What I find most overwhelming and a counselor might help with, is narrowing which colleges would be a good fit. TBH I want him to grow and have fun at college - he’s so academic focused, in such a competitive environment and tough classes in high school that it would be good to find more to life in college. So I need help working out the trade off between getting a well respected degree and being burned out.

Don’t really need help with deadlines or getting organized, he’s good at those too. Can you go “a la carte” with college counselors? Maybe that’s what I need rather than a package!

You can do a la carte with a lot of CC.

I'd start a post here (if you haven't already), describing his interests, his personality, what type of friend he is, his favorite classes, how he learns best, what he'd do if left alone for 8-12 hours, favorite types of places (urban vs. rural etc), any size preferences, dream major(s) and ultimate career goals (if known).
Ask for suggestions based primarily on "fit" and not ranking. People might give you good schools to start with.

This is OP, thanks everyone, and I’ll check out the podcasts.

Definitely not planning to spend any money on test prep, as kid doesn’t need it and tests extremely well off the bat. He has very, very strong academics but spends so much time on them that his extra curriculars are nothing special. He’s also introverted.

What I find most overwhelming and a counselor might help with, is narrowing which colleges would be a good fit. TBH I want him to grow and have fun at college - he’s so academic focused, in such a competitive environment and tough classes in high school that it would be good to find more to life in college. So I need help working out the trade off between getting a well respected degree and being burned out.

Don’t really need help with deadlines or getting organized, he’s good at those too. Can you go “a la carte” with college counselors? Maybe that’s what I need rather than a package!

Anonymous wrote:Not the OP but wondering what podcasts folks found particularly helpful?

I answered this above.

Podcasts: Ingenius Prep; Yale; The Game; YCBK; Admittedly; The College Admissions Process.
Webinars: Crimson Education; CEG

If you can afford it no big deal and have a good one, it’s worth it for various reasons- mainly help with the essays and tactical decisions along the way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the money for it, but chose not to hire one for my oldest who is twice exceptional (high IQ, autistic, uneven high school profile). It's because at the end of the day, I realized I knew him better than anyone, and if I did my research, I would be in the best position to make a list of appropriate colleges, cajole him into writing the best essays, edit them for him knowing his strengths and weaknesses, and remind him of all the deadlines. Which is what I did, and he ended up at a wonderful university that is perfect for him.

My second child has a very stereotypical Asian over-achiever profile. I haven't decided yet, and indeed it may be too late already for a wraparound package, but perhaps consulting on certain strategies might be useful to make her stand out. Not sure, though. I don't like wasting money! Maybe I can still be the consultant she needs.

My point is: first, don't feel guilty about hiring one, and second, maybe YOU are actually the best consultant for your child!

You might be the best, but if you at all but heads with your kid (come on they are teens, most of us have that happen), hiring the consultant helps ensure your kid listens to the ideas/suggestions.

For ex: my kid initially didnt' want to apply to CWRU. No way would they want to go there, not interested, don't want to go to Cleveland. CC and myself both suggested it as it was a very likely target and figured it can't hurt to visit and see. Didn't want to visit, but come Sept/early Oct, they did more research, realized there was no supplementals, so they did a few online "tours/info sessions to show interest" and hit submit in Late October. CWRU turned out to be their 2nd Target and they considered it with their first (and safety) because all the reaches were WL or rejections or Study abroad First year. So while I didn't push it, the CC helped by continuing to bring it up as a very good choice for a target and that they give great merit---and the CC was accurate. My kid got in with the top Merit award. Now they decided not to go, but if finances were any issue/concern my kid would be at CWRU with a $42K/year merit award (this was a 3 years ago) not their top choice at 90K.

If my kid hadn't applied there, they would have really had 2 schools to choose from (1 target, 1 safety) and several much lower ranked safeties.

don't think you need a CC to tell you to apply early to Case or Pitt for merit. This place told me that!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m quite overwhelmed by this process, but feel that $5-10k might be better spent in my kids college fund than for a consultant. On the other hand, we need some advice…

Thoughts?

High stat kids that need to stand out against top stat kids could use a consultant if you are aiming for schools with a 10% admit rate. Otherwise, probably not needed.

Any truly competitive T20 application could use counseling help. By the time you figure out how to stress the main 3 points essential for a compelling Northwestern application, it might be too late. Best to get professional help early so you know how to accentuate the key ethos of a school.

I’d advise getting help from counselors who have actually served as AO if aiming for T20.

We hired someone for my oldest, who got into a couple top 20s, and he didn't give that kind of ultraspecific tip at all. Do counselors really do that?

I think you can pick up most of this stuff in other places - here, Reddit, and podcasts (Ingenius Prep; Yale; The Game; YCBK; Crimson Education webinars; Admittedly; CEG webinars).

There's also a weird guy who does "The College Admissions Process Podcast" and he interviews the head AO at many top schools. If you listen to those interviews, you will get a ton of info on the type of student they are looking for (Duke; Wake Forest; Northwestern; Amherst; Midd, and Cornell were all particularly good and relevant for us). I find this all fascinating - so it's really not "work" for me to dig into this but your experience may differ.

It's my 2nd rodeo now and I see all the things we missed when we did have an (inept) private counselor the 1st time around because I've spent weeks of my life researching and memorializing what I've discovered (everything did work out well for DC1 but now I see why some of those RD apps were destined to be rejections).

Schools have different things that they look for in applicants and different focuses for an "ideal" student. It's not as simple as focusing on an open curriculum at Brown - it's deeper than that. In my opinion, so much needs to be changed and tailored for RD apps to make sure the "Why Major essay" at Brown works at Penn (it won't work without a different type of focus). Do kids get in without all of this extra work - absolutely! But sometimes they have something else going for them too, or they are not in a crowded field or xyz. You never know.

Many of us can help our kids do the research necessary so that they tailor essays to align with the mission and values of the college; research the institution’s culture/vibe, programs, and initiatives that matter to them; and then, most importantly, incorporate these insights into a cohesive story or narrative - so it looks like the school is a natural fit to everyone and anyone who reads the app. There are some older posts on here with some excellent information. I did do some searching through the archives here.

I think the experienced private counselors who have massively staffed offices filled with dozens of former AOs and a flow of applicants probably have more info readily available among them than we do. Note we didn't use one of them - but in hindsight, I may have wished we did. I did pay for "Application Reviews" from a national firm. I found the quality of the feedback and the detail to be exceptional.

Anonymous wrote:I have the money for it, but chose not to hire one for my oldest who is twice exceptional (high IQ, autistic, uneven high school profile). It's because at the end of the day, I realized I knew him better than anyone, and if I did my research, I would be in the best position to make a list of appropriate colleges, cajole him into writing the best essays, edit them for him knowing his strengths and weaknesses, and remind him of all the deadlines. Which is what I did, and he ended up at a wonderful university that is perfect for him.

My second child has a very stereotypical Asian over-achiever profile. I haven't decided yet, and indeed it may be too late already for a wraparound package, but perhaps consulting on certain strategies might be useful to make her stand out. Not sure, though. I don't like wasting money! Maybe I can still be the consultant she needs.

My point is: first, don't feel guilty about hiring one, and second, maybe YOU are actually the best consultant for your child!

You might be the best, but if you at all but heads with your kid (come on they are teens, most of us have that happen), hiring the consultant helps ensure your kid listens to the ideas/suggestions.

For ex: my kid initially didnt' want to apply to CWRU. No way would they want to go there, not interested, don't want to go to Cleveland. CC and myself both suggested it as it was a very likely target and figured it can't hurt to visit and see. Didn't want to visit, but come Sept/early Oct, they did more research, realized there was no supplementals, so they did a few online "tours/info sessions to show interest" and hit submit in Late October. CWRU turned out to be their 2nd Target and they considered it with their first (and safety) because all the reaches were WL or rejections or Study abroad First year. So while I didn't push it, the CC helped by continuing to bring it up as a very good choice for a target and that they give great merit---and the CC was accurate. My kid got in with the top Merit award. Now they decided not to go, but if finances were any issue/concern my kid would be at CWRU with a $42K/year merit award (this was a 3 years ago) not their top choice at 90K.

If my kid hadn't applied there, they would have really had 2 schools to choose from (1 target, 1 safety) and several much lower ranked safeties.

Yes, they are worth it but I'n tired if giving names and accused by the ignorant of beong a shill. set up an emaill and i will respond