Anonymous wrote:A member of the Facebook group, Sara and the whole community are amazing. Especially, if your child attends a large public school where the guidance is a little rough. I can’t recommend it enough. I’d start as early as possible like junior year. Also she has a lot of free resources and hosts free monthly Q&As on Facebook and Instagram. The investment was well worth it especially given that how much people are paying for private counselors. And from what I understand, she no longer takes private clients.

100%
Well worth it, we learned a ton from Sara and her very positive community of parents. Low cost

A member of the Facebook group, Sara and the whole community are amazing. Especially, if your child attends a large public school where the guidance is a little rough. I can’t recommend it enough. I’d start as early as possible like junior year. Also she has a lot of free resources and hosts free monthly Q&As on Facebook and Instagram. The investment was well worth it especially given that how much people are paying for private counselors. And from what I understand, she no longer takes private clients.

Anonymous wrote:I am a member of the Facebook group- costs $79 a month and I have read her book soundbite. I have found her advice to be very solid and her responses to questions on the FB group and on the Zoom calls very useful. The one thing I don’t like is that in order to even pay for her to review/edit your child’s essay you have to post on the FB group your child’s soundbite - which is basically what makes them standout or what are their unique characteristics - along with a blurb on 3 potential essay topics. Even though it’s a private FB group, it does have thousands of members who all have kids applying for the FY 24 class, and I don’t want my child’s personal essay topics or personal info out there. I would actually love to pay for her services but I can’t get past that requirement. I find her to be very genuine and she and her staff do really seem to bring out the best in each applicant by really forcing the kid to do alot of introspection to find what is special and unique about them. I have found tremendous value in the resources she has posted to the FB site and the cost is very reasonable.

Can you use a FB account without your personal info? Seems like a potential workaround.

What kind of results does she tout? How did she become so popular?

Anonymous wrote:I interviewed her and felt she was full of herself. I am the greatest etc. No thanks. Move On.

Thirty seconds on her website could have told you that. It screams I’M SO AHHHHMAZING! The energy is intense.

Anonymous wrote:I interviewed her and felt she was full of herself. I am the greatest etc. No thanks. Move On.

Anyone who calls themselves “”America’s College Counselor “ has an ago problem - or a judgment problem

I am a member of the Facebook group- costs $79 a month and I have read her book soundbite. I have found her advice to be very solid and her responses to questions on the FB group and on the Zoom calls very useful. The one thing I don’t like is that in order to even pay for her to review/edit your child’s essay you have to post on the FB group your child’s soundbite - which is basically what makes them standout or what are their unique characteristics - along with a blurb on 3 potential essay topics. Even though it’s a private FB group, it does have thousands of members who all have kids applying for the FY 24 class, and I don’t want my child’s personal essay topics or personal info out there. I would actually love to pay for her services but I can’t get past that requirement. I find her to be very genuine and she and her staff do really seem to bring out the best in each applicant by really forcing the kid to do alot of introspection to find what is special and unique about them. I have found tremendous value in the resources she has posted to the FB site and the cost is very reasonable.

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Maybe at your law school, but many of them do read them thoroughly to get a sense of what the applicant's story is and what they bring to the table. They wouldn't require it unless it was important. If they just wanted grades and test scores, then an essay wouldn't be needed.

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Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Do you have plans to eliminate the essay? Replace it with something?

I have absolutely no memory of my law school admissions essay but the dean of admissions of a top 10 law school said my DH’s was the best he’d ever read. Maybe the weight given to it varies by school. (This was also not recent).

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Anonymous wrote:Did any of you get your kid's essay edited by Sara Harberson? What were your thoughts? Thank you

Funny. I work in the college admissions field. I’ve never heard of her but SHE says she’s called “America’s College Counselor”. I don’t think so.

If you haven’t heard of her, then you are not really paying attention to the college admissions space. She is a pretty visible figure with a book and public appearances. And social media.

We didn’t have essays edited, but did join her private Facebook group. Members always seemed thrilled with her edits. I believe 3-4 essays from students she worked with recently were selected by the NY Times in their “best college essays” piece.

Sorry, I'm another poster who HAS been paying attention and has never heard of her. Just read a compendium of successful essays, and you'll see that your kid needd a Proust's madeleine moment: an event (major or minor) that will trigger a thoughtful introspection and delineate who that student is and how well they can think. The best essays are personal and mature.

Are you the Sara in question, perhaps? You're doing a bad job of advertising.

Nope—just a parent that joined her Facebook group. My kid is going to an Ivy, so I guess their essays were adequate (although, not edited by Sara).

Well good for you, that is the ultimate achievement. Why do people feel the need to brag about this.

I have three kids at Ivies. I guess I walk on water. Not. Just luck.

I interviewed her and felt she was full of herself. I am the greatest etc. No thanks. Move On.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Agree. With so many people now gaming the system, essays have become worthless.

It is actually discriminatory to assign value to the essay. It gives outsize advantage to those who can afford "editors." The same way that SAT's give outsize advantage to those who can afford tutors and test prep. Its the same thing - Dream Hoarding.

Same for GPA and Rigor

So how should we handle applications then? Randomized lottery of all applicants?

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Do you have plans to eliminate the essay? Replace it with something?

Have faith in your kids, otherwise, at what point will they believe they are good enough to succeed on their own? Make them write the damn essay and figure it out themselves - your kids will one day thank you for making them do something that makes them truly stand out.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Agree. With so many people now gaming the system, essays have become worthless.

It is actually discriminatory to assign value to the essay. It gives outsize advantage to those who can afford "editors." The same way that SAT's give outsize advantage to those who can afford tutors and test prep. Its the same thing - Dream Hoarding.

Same for GPA and Rigor