Does anybody have any good recommendations for a top tier college admissions/application consultant? I am looking for a fairly specific type of consultant: someone who can take a strong candidate and take them to that “next level” in terms of making their application as effective as possible.
Current situation: my younger brother is a rising high school senior. He is, on paper, a very strong candidate - 2400 SAT, 800s on all 3 relevant SAT IIs (forget which ones exactly). Aced the PSAT, so he is sure to get National Merit semifinalist/finalist. I’m not familiar with his exact AP courseload, but it is a full one, and he’ll have enough 5s to get the highest AP Scholar honors. So the usual academic laundry list is fully checked. He has good to very good extracurriculars - a mishmash of a few club presidencies and state-wide leadership positions, and he has interesting if not eye-popping summers (CTY, internship for a political campaign). He leans social science and business, but he is pretty much a generalist - he is far and away good at everything and is interested in everything. I outline this not to brag (though I do adore my brother), but to demonstrate his strengths and reveal our needs. In other words, he is strong all around but doesn’t have any spectacular hook (nothing exotic like curing cancer or starting your own charity, etc).
I’ve looked at the usual suspects of consulting services. Most packages seem overly broad in their services - he is motivated, organized, and disciplined enough to go through the entire college application process by himself. And having done the same thing 10 years ago, I can help. So we’re not looking for hand-holding (which is not to disparage those who need more active involvement from their consultant). What we really need are the following things:
Great selling point and "marketing" message. I get that this sounds kind of pitch-y and commodified, but at the end of the day, like it or not, a college application is a sales pitch of your best self. We'd like strong advice (advice I or friends wouldn't be able to provide ourselves) in crafting the best message, point of view, and branding for his application.
Great essay editing - brother is a great writer, so the mechanics aren't what we're worried about - more the big picture stuff and writing flair.
Helping select the best ED school. Brother already has his list of schools, and he has a shorter list of 3 or 4 schools he would be equally happy at that he would like to ED or single choice EA to. We need someone to help us find the best school strategically for the early app cycle.
well no one has cured cancer so no one has that hook, while many start ‘charities’ they are not always impactful. I don’t think those things are a good measure of what makes a good candidate. So if that’s what is the family view then maybe you do need a consultant, but I can’t see why otherwise. Why? Point 1 may be very off putting to colleges. Any good writer can edit someone. Writing flair should come from the candidate, not be packaged and sold as his work. Honestly it sounds like you are trying to ruin a good candidate, ugh. Sorry this didn’t answer your question. Hey it is an open discussion board.
I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t think, if we find the right help, that this is counterproductive. We’re not looking for someone to write his essay for him, or even massively edit it - we’re looking for someone who can help him “tap” his own creative forces and polish it. Think of an athlete working with a coach - the coach can’t make the athlete play at his best, but the coach can guide the athlete to unleash his best, and he can also advise him against foolish playing styles.
On the marketing/pitch side, we’re looking for someone to help us create a coherent and persuasive application identity. This is not going to be fabricated from thin air or imposed on the applicant - it’s obviously going to come from within the applicant, but someone to, again, give him suggestions on angles to take with his own raw material. Think of it like a cover letter for a job - when you get it reviewed by a professional coach, they don’t just edit the grammar, they also help you select the message from your raw credentials and skills.
I have no experience with college consultants, and I’m ambivalent about the idea of using one. I understand the importance of packaging oneself, but also see the possibility of coming off as artificial or contrived if taken too far.
Since you mention that your brother has done programs through Johns Hopkins CTY, are you aware that they have an admissions consulting service?
This is certainly not a plug - I have absolutely zero experience with this service, nor any particulars on the details (including cost). It just came to kind because you are looking for something like this and mentioned the CTY connection.
^ Thanks! That’s actually really neat and worth checking out. CTY actually strikes me as having more credibility than a lot of these consulting firms, as they’re probably smarter and less full of hot air.
there is no college admissions “magician” who will be able to give your “brother” better chances to any top college, no matter what they may say.
If he is a good writer, then his own essays should be able to tell his story well enough.
Tell your “brother” to apply to a LOT of colleges, and to especially to choose his safeties with care. Those are the best schools to apply to early. As long as he has shown REAL interest in going there.
Nothing is more demoralizing than to be rejected early by a top school.
And nothing feels better than to know early on that you WILL be going to college!
These days there are so many full pay qualified applicants to the top US colleges from all around the world that there is no way to insure a student of acceptance to any of them. Admission to any top college is nothing more than a crap shoot. 90+% of applicants will be rejected.
He should plan accordingly.
There are definitely people who can help you. I don’t know where you are located, but kids like your brother who live here in Seoul often work with consultants for the exact reason you mention. I’ve known kids who have had similar services in NYC as well. Best of luck!
@ justonedad I don’t know where you are from, but on the East Coast, where scores are very high, many many students with SAT’s above 2300 hire consultants. There are so many top “statistics” kids that parents want to help them stand out among their “competition”. (peers)
@lonedarkness78 I would speak to several counselors who work with top students and ask them how they differentiate one from another. Ask about their approach and find out EXACTLY what they what do for your brother. In other words, you don’t need somebody who handles the mechanics of the application; you’re not looking for someone to actually type his application and send his scores to the colleges. You are looking for strategic help on how to emphasize his strengths and accomplishments and how to select an ED school that fits him well. You’re looking for somebody who understands the process as much as this whole admission thing can be understood. (It is a bit random)
I enjoyed reading the ivy league blog during the process. They are located in NYC. No idea how they are to deal with but their blog was funny, snarky and informational all at the same time.
I have no idea what that means. You’re gonna have to explain it. I’m on the West Coast. We occasionally see high scores out here, too, but the consultants are usually hired for the students who don’t have that advantage.
Chiming in from NYC. It is hard to know how prevalent it is but anecdotally, I know of many kids at or near the top of their very competitive independent school (think Trinity, Dalton, Collegiate) and top public school (think Stuyvesant) classes with SAT scores of 2250 and above who have worked with independent college consultants. Some are hired when the kids are in 9th grade. Some are hired when the kids are in 11th grade. Some are hired just to help with the essays. Some of these kids are now at HYPS and some are at small LACs.
I can’t answer that question. I can just tell you that it is increasingly common here in Manhattan and presumably in the surrounding suburbs. Some of the consultants have blogs (The Ivy Coach, IvyWise, Expert Admissions, AcceptU) but many of them don’t advertise at all and are just word of mouth.
“If they are really that bright, why do they need to hire someone to tell them what to do?”
@JustOneDad, given how many kids are competitive applying to the top schools but don’t necessarily stand out clearly from the pack, I can see the potential value to having someone with experience help them fine tune their application and package themselves more effectively. Not to “tell them what to do” or to take away their voice, but to help bring out a clearer voice that expresses what they are about. Not all 17 year olds know how to do this effectively, and there are lots of very qualified kids who get passed up by some of their top choices because they don’t do the best job of presenting themselves. Obviously, if not handled well, this process could easily do more harm than good, but I can see the potential value.
I’m seeing consulting services pop up in Downstate NY too. Based on the marketing and the few people I know who’ve used them, they seem to be for competitive Type A’s with money to burn or those afraid of the college admission landscape who want an edge over the competition.
The counselors act pretty much like personal guidance counselors in the younger grades, advising kids as young as rising 9th graders what courses to take and suggesting ECs based on their interests and talents. Why have a guidance counselor you not only have to share with the competition, but who’s actively working to help your competition succeed, when you can have your own, personal counselor?
It has become so common that the head of college counseling at my kids’ school told us that the heads of admissions at various top colleges have talked to him about how they are seeing more and more obviously “packaged” kids and they are rejecting them in favor of kids with more authentic applications.
Apply to multiple colleges, all top colleges (at least five) of interest - Ivies or SLAC or whatever - and then mid and definite safeties.
Spend your money on vacation or donate it to the poor. If he is so messed up to have 2400 SAT and high GPA etc. but needs “application help”, it is highly doubtful he will succeed at an Ivy or other top school.
VERY FEW people use “high end college application consultants”. And most of them have enough hooks to get in anyway.
rhandco, I find your judgmental tone offensive. My brother is not “messed up.” Apparently, in your books, anybody with top qualifications who wants to minimize outlier risk is “messed up.” Recognizing you are qualified but understanding 1) you are fallible, and would benefit from an outside perspective and 2) college admissions can be exceedingly difficult and fickle is the definition of being smart and realistic. Plenty of my friends have younger siblings who had high qualifications but weren’t able to package themselves effectively and got more rejections than their resume merited. Having met many of them, I don’t think any were “messed up” and all could have benefitted from some coaching and application advice.
Parents, friends and siblings who have been through it, guidance counselors, role models and, of course, a bit of directed internet research are all sources of assistance for the college-bound student with a modicum of initiative and intelligence.