Anonymous wrote:Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

Stay at home mom and/or retired

Anonymous wrote:Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

I had 2 weeks of over winter break and that’s when my kid did the bulk of his. Really good outcomes.

Given the cost of consultants and the relatively few students a single person can help, it’s more likely that students don’t use consultants than do. Also, there is a very wide range of “consultants” - all the way from an online service of videos to an essay coach to full blown help with college selection, testing, essays, and ECs.

I'm amused that no one on this thread has used a counselor and all their unhooked kids are at Ivies. OK. Well I'll go ahead and be the first to admit we used one. Independent, former Ivy AO. Having her set timelines was great, she seemed super knowledgeable about institutional prios at various schools, and she was very helpful with supplemental essays and common app activities. I did not love her feedback on the main essay, some of which we ignored. Anyway, DC got into a T15 ED so we didn't really get full results, and have no way of knowing whether he undershot - I didn't think DC had a real chance at any Ivy besides Cornell but admittedly, we'll never know. All in all would I say it was worth the cost ($8k)? Not quite but it was worth something,

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Anonymous wrote:Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

I am a partner at a law firm and I am listening to podcasts on my car commute, reading here on my work breaks, and learning a lot from going to college tours and info sessions. BUT, I did hire a college counselor for my kid, who is a rising senior. I can't recommend my counselor as we have not seen the results yet, but so far I have been very pleased to have a sounding board as there are many, many small and big decisions to be made (e.g. TO or no, how to order the activities list, whether to use the additional info section, 3rd recommendation or no, is X school a safety or a target, etc.) and it is way easier for me to tell kid to ask the college counselor if I don't know the answer. Well worth the money in my view.

You don't need a counselor for that. You'll see once after you go through this process.
And read here. And listen to the podcasts. And read r/A2C and r/chanceme and r/collegeresults.
All the answers are out there.
But it will help you sleep at night, so there's that.

Anonymous wrote:Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

Yes, I took a sabbatical.

Anonymous wrote:Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

I am a partner at a law firm and I am listening to podcasts on my car commute, reading here on my work breaks, and learning a lot from going to college tours and info sessions. BUT, I did hire a college counselor for my kid, who is a rising senior. I can't recommend my counselor as we have not seen the results yet, but so far I have been very pleased to have a sounding board as there are many, many small and big decisions to be made (e.g. TO or no, how to order the activities list, whether to use the additional info section, 3rd recommendation or no, is X school a safety or a target, etc.) and it is way easier for me to tell kid to ask the college counselor if I don't know the answer. Well worth the money in my view.

Anonymous wrote:Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

Hint: privilege

Do people take a leave of absence to help their kids with college apps? I can barely juggle work and home as it is. I don’t have time to do research, listen to podcasts, and edit essays. DH has absolutely no interest. Where do people find the time to become their kid’s unpaid college consultant?

Anonymous wrote:If your kid can get some sort of weird national level award, indicating a unique talent ability, it will make a difference.

Think ice-skating, fencing, polo, horses, sailing, archery. Something they don’t see a lot. Obviously you have to start this fairly early, but my advice is to keep on the unusual path at an early age and try not to jump on the soccer/ lacrosse bandwagon.

Yes 100%

If your kid can get some sort of weird national level award, indicating a unique talent ability, it will make a difference.

Think ice-skating, fencing, polo, horses, sailing, archery. Something they don’t see a lot. Obviously you have to start this fairly early, but my advice is to keep on the unusual path at an early age and try not to jump on the soccer/ lacrosse bandwagon.

Anonymous wrote:I know this question has probably been asked many times before, but I wanted to reach out specifically to parents whose kids were admitted to a top 25 schools, either in the most recent admissions cycle or in the past few years.

Which college consultant (if any) did you use, and how was your experience?

Please, no snark , just hoping for genuine, firsthand recommendations or feedback from those who have real information to share.

Thanks in advance!

Two different top10s
No hooks
No admission consultant, just the private school counseling dean at non-feeder but top regional school with about 3% that get in unhooked to T10 and another 3-5% who get in with hooks.
Top rigor is the most important, in all areas, in the context of what the school offers
Top recs(we learned after the fact): at least one for each mentioned most impressive student in X many years.
They are top kids who were always 99%-99.9%ile on tests from the WPSI they took to get into the private.
ECs were above average but not extraordinary with state/regional individual honors

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Anonymous wrote:My kid is rising senior at T25. We did use one (national company) probably for FOMO mentality. In retrospect it wasn't that helpful. I'm sure they have some benefits like keeping your kid on a schedule and making them really think about what kind of college they want but nothing really that you couldn't do yourselves if your diligent and organized. These companies often prey on your fear and make you feel like your kid is going to lose out if you don't use them. Why else would so many college consultants have "Ivy" in their name? Also, my sense is that they tend to undersell your kid so that you're not upset when your kid does not get into their dream school. I can see international applicants using them as they may not be so familiar with US colleges and admissions but save your money if you're domestic.

I always wonder about that. They need good word of mouth. Hard to be rational in this process, so I’d also have to think they undersell to avoid upset parents.

Yep, and if your kid does get in, you will be so "grateful" to them and recommend your family and friends

No. If your kid did get in, they still will only recommend with abundance of caution, to avoid any disappointment among their family and friends down the road.
We got recommendations from families whose kids went to HYP and Ivies, they did recommend their consultant, but they will always put lots of fineprints on it.
Image the rage if their friends' larlos didn't get in ivies after using the same consultant. Friends no more!

It doesn't matter if your friend uses them because the same consultant will undersell their kid. That way its a bit of a win win for the consultant. If you get in, its thanks to us. If not, well we did warn you.

Who on earth refers to other human beings as "dumb dumbs" because they aren't attorneys or bankers? This kind of DCUM person is so bizarre. You realize you are repugnant and embarrassing yourself, right? Or has that become an asset in MAGA world? Lots of Marjorie Taylor Greene energy on these boards.

These are the same posters who seem outraged that a black, brown, or international kid "took" their kid's spot at a selective school. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and I'm sure admissions picks up on the entitled cruelty of apps from these sorts of families and rightly doesn't want that energy on their campus.

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Anonymous wrote:I think it's mostly your kids. If they have it, they have it.

A lot of posts here reporting it's a waste, but I think mostly it's just mediocre kids. It's like you need ingredients to cook a dish. If you don't have the ingredients, then the chef can't make a dish out of it.

Just some food for thoughts.

Highly disagree. Most people applying are qualified and could come in. I don’t believe in coaches, but it’s really about being able to sell yourself, not some special innate trait.

Ingredients include selling points.

the problem is so many people don't know how to sell themselves. they do all the same activities as everyone else, but somehow expect to stand out and get into T10?
This is helpful to think about it...
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1l2fzob/take_the_road_less_traveled/
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/n82re4/three_different_types_of_applicants_aos_are/

We are not talking about the dumb dumbs. DCUM parents are savy, finance and attorney moms. They have been selling themselves the whole life. When they ran into problems, it's not because they don't know how to sell.

Not all the CS/engineering/premed or bust moms.