<p>As a new member interested in obtaining the best shot at grants, scholarships, admissions and financial positioning for my children, I am confused by the various comments regarding some of the "college consultants" promoting their services. The reviews I have noticed seem rather bitter - with most of them from individuals with firm opinions, yet never having directly dealt with the college consultant firms. Has anyone on this forum had any real experience with any college consultants? If so, I'd be interested in hearing from you - positive or negative. </p>
<p>Although I am a professional, I understand the value of having a specialist's guidance through the detailed process of college funding assistance and optimization of college admissions... Any thoughts?</p>
<p>If you have more money than time, an advisor may be helpful, otherwise probably not.
Most of the money awarded to students, whether need or merit based comes from the colleges, and while a consultant “might” be familiar with schools that give good merit/need based aid, it won’t be any info you can’t find out yourself.</p>
<p>I think it depends on how much you trust your own judgement & instincts.</p>
<p>I’ve seen quite a few CC posts about experiences with professional college consultants. Your best bet may be to ask in the threads for the parents of 2012, 2011, and 2010 high schoolers… those who’ve recently gone thru the college acceptance process with their kids, some using college consultants.</p>
<p>There is a good thread on this subject I will try to locate…
I have heard that if they “find” scholarship money twice their own fee, we should be happy. Not so sure I agree with that. I want my kids at schools that are a good fit as well…</p>
<p>It’s not so much my judgment/instincts I trust, but those of the hundreds (thousands?) of posts I’ve read on CC over the years. I swear I don’t understand why anybody would pay for something that’s available for free.</p>
<p>Mylb, I was including “judgement & instincts” of the experts on Cc as well. If I had just stumbled on this site, I would maybe reserve judgement, but the knowledge runs deep. :)</p>
<p>I stumbled across College Confidential before we started getting mail from professional college counselors. First thing I noticed was that everything I saw in the ads about getting grants and scholarships was something I’d already learned on the CC Financial Aid forum, or was going to be blatantly wrong for our family. Claims that we didn’t need to pay attention to list price, that there was tons of need-based aid even for our family–well, no, there isn’t. I’d run a FAFSA forecaster to see what our EFC was, had gone through the initial shock and awe (“surely that’s for all four years?”).</p>
<p>It’s possible that these consultants would be able to identify schools with a low sticker price and/or merit aid that would be in range for a specific kid, all fitting a specific budget. But that’s not the low-hanging profitable fruit of college consulting. If you can find a consultant that does this and won’t be really expensive, that’s great. Otherwise, CC fills that niche. </p>
<p>The secret to good college admissions advising is to come up with a good list of schools that fits your kid, and where your kid might actually be admitted. A good private consultant can really help with this. They’ll come up with suggestions that play to your child’s strengths, even if they’re not necessarily schools you’ve heard of before. That’s how the consultants can say that they’ve got great track records at getting their clients into their first or second choice schools…because they’ve reset expectations. They’re not getting everyone into Harvard or Notre Dame through specialized knowledge and connections. </p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed spending time on CC figuring out how to help my kids come up with their own lists. A specialist couldn’t have done a better job. It’s not to everyone’s taste, though, which is where the specialist could come in handy.</p>
<p>The final strength of a specialist is that they’re a neutral third party working with your kid. If it’s going to be a battle between you and your child to get things done on time, to rework an essay, or even to listen to advice on schools, then pay the professional.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to try the College Confidential method for a few weeks. Read (and be overwhelmed by ) the Parents and Financial Aid forums. Start asking questions. At the end of 2-4 weeks, if CC is driving you bonkers, then go look at a professional, no harm no foul (and you’ll have some good questions to ask the professional). Otherwise, hang around here for a spell.</p>
<p>^^ditto to SlitheyTove. It really depends on how much time and money you have. I had more time than money, so I skipped the paid professional and used CC and my own research skills. My son’s outcome was equal to or better than that of his friends who worked with private counselors – he was admitted to most of the schools to which he applied, including two Top 20 schools, and received very good FA/merit packages at all of the privates. He will be attending his first choice. However, helping him identify schools that might be a good fit and then organizing the process of visit-evaluate-apply was basically a part-time job for me for the past year. I had a steep learning curve as I knew little about the changes in college admissions since I was there 30 years ago, and we didn’t get started until halfway through his junior year. Even though it was a huge amount of work, I enjoyed doing it and will utilize my new knowledge when the younger child is ready to go.</p>
<p>If money isn’t an issue, a consultant may be a good investment. But don’t worry that your child will be less competitive if you prefer to invest your own time and save the money for tuition.</p>
<p>I am not sure how oursider (including CC) can assess your child. Parent is in the best seat to do so. Sometime (often, actually) parent would know child better than a kd herself and it requires to walk a tight rope discussing various aspects, start talking many years ahead, share (or make it look like sharing) instead of piling on. Nobody can do that but parent. In addition, there is so much info available on internet, no professional is going to do research for many hours every day over period of several years for you child. At the time that my kid was ready, I was surprized to learn about the fact that many had no idea about certain programs even though they existed in their own town. If the major criteria is to get Merit awards, do not apply to colleges that would not give much for your stats. If another criteria is to be close to home, then do not apply to far away. It is pretty straight forward…but I am not saying that it fast, it takes huge effort and attention to many details to collect all info. We had spreadsheet, it eliminated all stress, streamlined the process, made it enjoyable. There was no input from any outsider. It does not mean that you have to use our approach, it was ours, you will have yours.
Somebody here once mentioned that not everybody have such a clear cut goals and criteria, so we were lucky. I do not believe in luck too much, whatever appears clear cut at the end was not so clear at the beginning at all, we made it clear and it took several years to do so. Looking back, beginning was at some point of time during middle school years.</p>
<p>I am constantly surprised at how little people do with the college search process. Many folks, and this is probably a good thing, are happy to have their kids go to Local State U.</p>
<p>Just this week in our local paper, a young woman from each local high school was recognized for being the top science female student. The award goes to a junior. The young woman who was recognized at what is generally considered the best local high school is also currently ranked first in her class. Her little bio said that she would be skipping her senior year, attending the local CC, and then heading off to well-thought-of-but-not-tippy- top regional state U. To me, that is a bad idea.</p>
<p>So my point? If she were my kid, I would be looking at options for really good schools rather than the local CC. A counselor would be really useful in this situation.</p>
<p>The value probably depends very much upon the counselor. I know some phenomenal college counselors who are very experienced, knowledgeable and dedicated. Their clients do very well, with choices, fit, and money. I’m sure there are some counselors who are not providing as much value for their clients.</p>
<p>Not every parent has the time to help their child research the entire college admissions process. Not every child has the best school counselor to help them. This is a complicated time consuming process, and if I wanted my child to go to one of the top schools that was a good fit, I’d pay the money for it (if it wasn’t too costly for my income). But I had the time to help my children myself, it took plenty of effort and research. Son #1 is very happy and successful in college, perfect fit. Son #2 has it narrowed down to two great choices (wish he would decide already). Neither of which, I believe, would have gotten into these top schools without my research and assistance. Though they might think differently.</p>
<p>A lot of what the counselors do are things you can do for yourself. It takes some time to do, researching schools, looking for good matches where your child can get good merit aid, etc. Personally I find little value in paying someone $6000 to find me $10,000 but others feel differently. If you don’t have the time to look into the information, it’s probably worth hiring someone to help.</p>
<p>I enjoy my time on CC, and never felt even slightly tempted to look for outside counseling. I knew my kids strengths and weaknesses and the lists my kids put together reflected that. CC helped us put together lists of colleges and gave us strategies (which I passed on) for writing essays. Both kids had good choices including top colleges and safeties that offered merit aid.</p>
<p>I think mathmom brings up a very good point, if you understand your children, know their strenghts and weaknesses, the college selection process is much easier. Sure, our kids have the 'stats" to get into Harvard, but realistically, with a what 4% acceptance rate, not worth the effort—that and they don’t want to go to school on the east coast :D. We’ve spent time looking for good fits for our kids and as juniors now, have a list of 6 school or so each that they are very happy with—and we are happy with the merit offerings and how much we will have to pay. Win/Win for everyone.</p>
<p>“Just this week in our local paper, a young woman from each local high school was recognized for being the top science female student. The award goes to a junior. The young woman who was recognized at what is generally considered the best local high school is also currently ranked first in her class. Her little bio said that she would be skipping her senior year, attending the local CC, and then heading off to well-thought-of-but-not-tippy- top regional state U. To me, that is a bad idea.”
-Aside from CC, not bad idea at all. I do not understand CC part as top caliber student like this would be on either full tuition or full ride at local 4 year college.<br>
So, aside from CC part, you basically have described my D. There are some before her and afte her who did the same with the clear cut goal to minimize the cost of reaching MD position. They are all very well on their way, very top caliber kids from the best private prep. HS in area that includes few states.</p>
<p>Using a counselor depends on so many variables. Is your kid a good student and on top of things? Do you have a decent counselor at his HS? Do you have access to any free college admissions seminars? I was fortunate to have all these things, so there was no need to pay for it. A counselor probably makes more sense for the B student who may need help with motivation and organization, and who may have a little more challenge getting admitted to certain schools.</p>
<p>More than one parent here at CC has written that working with a professional helped maintain a healthy parent-child relationship through what would have been a very stressful process. You know yourself and your child. If calling in help that you can afford to pay for will make for better family relationships, it may be worth it to you.</p>
<p>Beyond the debate, if you do hire one, try to get one that takes you completely through college. Reasons include the FAFSA must be filed every year, loan amounts change year-to-year, and it can be helpful to learn the most popular apartment complex for juniors and seniors is actually a 24-hour-a-day party and has rats in the walls.</p>
<p>I have two friends who have used them and been happy, one at beginning of process and one to help with college selection as acceptances came in. I think the former helped with essays, etc. Not all kids will allow that kind of thing. If you decide to hire one I would suggest getting a referral if possible.</p>
) the Parents and Financial Aid forums. Start asking questions. At the end of 2-4 weeks, if CC is driving you bonkers, then go look at a professional, no harm no foul (and you’ll have some good questions to ask the professional). Otherwise, hang around here for a spell.</p>