I got a job offer in DC in 2020 months after the admissions deadline and had to move my family from California to the DMV (in our home state that the Department of Motor Vehicles) without knowing anyone. A very well-regarded consultant in the SF Bay Area, Christine Southgate, highly recommended Clare. Clare laid out all the private options and she made it pretty clear that getting 3 kids into the same school would be hard, especially since they were not in natural transition grades. Clare knew all the admissions people personally and just helped us keep on top of things since we applied to lots of schools and I was terrified all 3 kids would get into 3 different schools and we would never have a vacation with all of us together, and the thought of having to get to 3 different communities at the same time made my head hurt. Clare was always available, and was good at reading the admissions people (“Ah, probably not going to happen” or “I think these are really good options for you” or “Not a good fit. Let’s think about these other schools.” Fortunately, the kids all had lots of previous activities that resonated with the values of our top choice school and they killed it in their interviews. We were in the next room when the interviews happened on Zoom and we looked at each other and asked “who are these kids, and when did they learn how to interview like grownups?” Long story short, all three kids got into our top choice. I give Clare a huge amount of credit, and she is worth whatever she charges. The kids are super happy and have made lots of friends, and the school has largely met expectations. The tuition bill is breathtaking (almost $50,000/child), even though I did very well in business before coming to DC and committed to spending the money for private school a long time ago, no matter how painful economically. Would they have done well in public school? I was the product of both private and public school and my wife solely public school, with a sister who is a public school teacher. We just saw (especially during Covid) that private school went the extra mile, gave the kids extra opportunities, and so we were happy with our decision. Others will choose differently. It depends on which risks and benefits you are trying to optimize, and which school and community you are lucky enough to resonate with. I feel like we made the right choice. I hope you are happy with yours.

Two stories: Our kids’ previous school was very progressive and very focused on the latest academic work on childhood education. When we spoke to the teachers at Landon, their super jockey teachers/coaches were completely and unexpectedly up to date on the latest literature and educational philosophies. We were very impressed, and liked them a lot. Likewise for St. Patricks, who accepted our daughter. We chose a coed school that took all of our kids but it was a close call. Another top school asked us where else we had gotten in. When I said I didn’t know yet, they said “If you get in somewhere else, give us a call”. In my business that is called following where others dare lead. Why would I ever call?

We looked at using Clare and another consultant (not naming her so people realize I'm not trying to pitch that consultant). Clare seemed a bit overwhelmed, and pricey, so we went with the other consultant and were quite satisfied.

In our case, we knew what schools we wanted to apply to but needed advice on how to answer the questions. For example, "Why did you choose X school?" and I can come up with 5 different and valid responses. It was a matter of focusing on which angle worked best to make teh application attractive, and we didn't have expertise on that.

Omg, if you actually knew Clare, you’d know how ridiculous theses 2 previous statements are.

Clare started this thread to get attention to her business. It’s so obvious and pretty pathetic.

So this whole post was started by Clare to drum up business, right?

Anonymous wrote:She charged us $350 er hour
She can’t get your child into a school but she knows the landscape and the culture of the schools
You don’t need her or anyone for the actual application even for HS
Her value is helping you understand the schools and the different cultures
You and your children should write the application on your own

We moved here from outside the area and knew nothing about DC schools. Clare was amazingly helpful to us in figuring out a short list of schools to visit during the short amount of time we could be in DC to look at schools and helped us narrow that down to an even shorter list of schools to apply to. Because we could be so focused on a small number of applications and our kids had a really great story on why these schools were a great fit, we would probably an attractive family from a yield management standpoint. Clare did not help us with the actual applications - which felt like the right thing for us. I would highly recommend her and am a big fan.

We met with Clare too. I like her, but she ultimately wasn’t helpful for us because we decided we didn’t need her. It wasn’t a money issue, in fact I don’t think we took advantage of everything we paid for, it just turned out we understood the independent school landscape more than we thought we did and I didn't feel the need to be coached through the application process.

If you have no idea what the area offers in terms of schooling and want someone to shepherd you through the application process, I recommend Clare.

She can do as much or a little as you want her to (and pay her to). How we she does not have any pull with admissions staff.