<p>Then there was the kid on another thread who asked about the common app essay word limit and said a educational consultant told him his 750 word essay would be fine. The common app essay guideline is 250-500 words. Hope he did not pay too much for that advice.</p>
<p>I have heard of families hiring consultants. I can think of a couple of instances where it is helpful: It can help a kid who is unrealistic in their choices, and it can be useful if kids listen to a neutral third party.</p>
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<p>I have to admit, I've wondered about these two commonly heard but conflicting opinions on this subject. I have a friend who is an educational placement specialist who insists that the very best of the consultants still do maintain relationships with admissions offices. I don't like to think that this is true, but nothing would shock me. </p>
<p>In my area, many parents do hire consultants for some phase of the college admissions search or application process. I would have done this myself if I had thought it was necessary. However, I agree with those who have said that it is more than possible to do this on your own, as we did. CC can be an invaluable resource, and the posters here even pointed us in the right direction as far as other resources, books, and guides. There is probably no topic that you can't research right here, especially if you learn the ins and outs of doing searches within the last year and even before. In the end, I really felt as if there was nothing else a paid consultant could have recommended to us that we hadn't already covered. </p>
<p>It does takes time though, and many, many people just don't have the time and or the wherewithal to tackle it. In addition, sometimes it's the old story that the kid is just resistant to the parent's suggestions and the third party is an investment in peace and harmony in the household! In these cases, there's nothing wrong with getting advice from those experienced in the ins and outs of the process.</p>
<p>When my daughter and I were attending the admitted students reception for a highly-selective college, one of the other dads told me he had spent ~$30K on a college consultant for his daughter. He considered it money well spent because they were there at the reception --> the consultant had delivered the goods. But I was thinking to myself: "Yeah, but we're here at the same reception and I didn't spend a dime on fancy consultants. I learned everything I needed to know from reading CC - for free."</p>
<p>I'm concerned about the return on investment. If you were at the race track and there was a consultant who could pick the winning horse for you, you'd hire him. College selection however is a race where seven out of the eight horses are going to pay off in the desired currency. Working with your child yourself you're highly unlikely to come up with a college that your child won't like or won't give him the opportunities he needs. Besides, if it were possible for a hired gun to get all of her clients into certain schools, wouldn't those be the schools you'd want to avoid.</p>
<p>they are definitely not a scam. But, as others have noted, some high schools have terrific counselors who could provide the info for free. But, other HS counselors are over worked and under paid, or have a CG-student ratio of 700:1. Obviously, even with the best of intentions, these over burdened GCs won't be able to provide much hand holding to college applicants, most of whom are focusing on state Unis. Moreover, researching colleges just ain't that easy, particularly from 3000 miles away. Sure, one can go to a website and view book and read all the wonderful things that the college marketing department wants you to know. But, will they really tell a prospective humanities major that their school really specializes on engineering and business, and our history offerings are more perfunctory? Of course not, but a good college counselor or knowledgeable GC can cut through the marketing hype in seconds. But, so can hanging around cc!</p>
<p>If anyone can show any sort of conclusive statistical evidence that consultants (and only consultants) have a positive effect on admissions decisions, I would like to see this information. </p>
<p>First, great students are going to be admitted independent of if they use a private counselor or not. Second, mediocre students will be hit-and-miss at selective schools and yet the return on investment will be minimal if they shell out the big $$$. THERE ARE NO GUARENTEES IN ADMISSION TO SELECTICE COLLEGES. </p>
<p>Further, the variance in financial/educational outcomes at these moderately selective schools is extremely minimal. So the kid gets into UVA and not Gerogetown. Boo-hoo. </p>
<p>If the student has been smart, then they have options at the end of the process and they have applied to schools which they love (including their safety). It's about being happy and about enjoying your fours years. Students are often VERY happy at great state schools (Maryland, Arizona, CU-Boulder, etc.) so in my opinion save the money and buy a better meal plan or go on a family vacation. </p>
<p>I truly believe that if the college consultants today were truly invested in what they claim to be, they would do it for as little as possible. 30K per student is a year's tuition at the ivy league.... next thing you know consultants will have their own endowments to manage....</p>
<p>To the OP_
You are already ahead of where we were at this point in the process: I didn't discover CC until after our S was admitted to his Dream School!</p>
<p>This is a terrific resource. Lurk on all sorts of boards. If you or your student is curious about a school, go to its forum here on CC. Ask the other parents to share their knowledge on this board.</p>
<p>Also, don't worry too much about your reluctance/inability to pay for expensive consultants. S attended a HS w/a very diverse population. GCs had their hands full with issues related to the neediest among them and had little left for college help...and their horizons did not extend out of state.</p>
<p>I made it my business to educate myself as best I could by reading, doing internet research, and picking the brains of parents with older kids. I bought some pretty useless books, too! I did my share of nagging to keep the student, himself, on schedule with regard to college and scholarship application deadlines. </p>
<p>I actually found the process quite interesting.</p>
<p>You CAN do the work. And you'll have the advantage of really knowing the student whom you are trying to help.</p>
<p>--Mafool</p>
<p>But what guarantee is there that these consultants know anymore than you or a hs GC do? I remember, back in the 80's, paying a "consultant" a small fee to help me develop a winning resume. It was a total waste of time and money.</p>
<p>A consultant might be worth the $$$ if he/she personally knows the Dean of Admissions at the college that your s or d wants to attend or that congressman/senator who can nominate your child for a military academy. In other words, a consultant who functions more as a paid lobbyist for your child might be worth the $$$.</p>
<p>I guess the bottom line is, do what is best for your family, wallet and conscious...and take responsibility for your personal decision.</p>
<p>D's large public HS had 5 GCs last year (about 450:1), and of those only one had solid experience in college counseling. The others seemed most adept at discipline and interfacing with social services and police. However, students were assigned to counselors alphabetically, by last name. With a little maneuvering, my D had the appropriate counselor for her junior/senior years, and that likely helped some with college admissions, though we did all the research and choices. This year, the one competent college counselor quit (after 20+ years) and took up private educational consulting. Who can blame her? She gets to do what she's good at, is compensated well, and doesn't have to deal with an overburdened bureaucracy.</p>
<p>If there is some reason why the parents may not be able to assist their child with the admissions process -- think one parent desperately ill during fall of senior year -- a college counselor might be the answer.</p>
<p>Both of my kids graduated from a small private Christian school (450 students, K-12) where there was a part-time guidance counselor who basically gave out general information and wrote recommendations. The high school isn't well-known (outside of the Christian college circle).</p>
<p>I acknowledge that it takes a great deal of time and energy to go through the college search process - to become informed, to read websites and brochures, to network with other parents, etc. Frankly, having gone through it twice, I think I enjoyed the whole experience more than my kids did (they truly appreciated my being their personal college counselor). I find myself in the position of freely and gladly sharing my experiences with other parents who are about to embark on the journey.</p>
<p>I think that a college consultant can serve a useful role as an information broker, but (as had been stated previously), s/he cannot work miracles by making a silk purse out of a sow's ear (I know it's a strange analogy). </p>
<p>Inherent in all this is the incorrect assumption that one's success in life is determined by one's college. Another assumption is that there must be an absolutely perfect match between student and school. That's unrealistic thinking.</p>
<p>As my DS once told me, "Mom, as long as the school has the major things that are important to me, I can adapt to the rest. Food is food, dorms are dorms, weather is weather - I'm going to be here for only 4 years - I'm not MARRYING the place!"</p>
<p>Anyway, with reference to hiring or not hiring a college counselor, let each family decide for themselves and let the rest of us not pass judgement.</p>
<p>Bottom line, IMO:</p>
<p>It's important that someone performs the Due Diligence.</p>
<p>It can be a counselor. It can be a parent. It can be a student.</p>
<p>Some of us live in areas that have never seen a college counselor. (Yes, that's my hand that's raised in the back row.) Some of us couldn't afford one, in any event. The good news is that, with careful research and record keeping, we can do the work ourselves.</p>
<p>woi:</p>
<p>the article clearly states that the average fee is $2,600, which is about what several cost in SoCal; but, that fee can be paid over 3-4 years. Any consultant that claims to have an "in" at xyz school is unprofessional and unethical. But, I would not hesitate to contact the owners of this site for paid advice.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the input. Consultants around here appear to be charging way way more than $2,000 or so....then again, this is also apparently an area where students have their nannies prepare note cards for them to study for tests. (My son just informed me that his friend's nanny made him 500 note cards for an upcoming bio exam...I couldn't believe it either!)</p>
<p>I can't say that I ever have heard of a family hiring a college consultant in our school district. Then again, the discussion of college rarely came up in general conversation.</p>
<p>Our son did all his own search and research work. He had a big financial incentive to do it right and it turned out to be a great advantage in the end. As opposed to a GC or "consultant" providing a list of colleges to consider, he really go a good feel of each college he was seriously researching via the internet and developed a rapport with a few adcoms through tele calls and email questions.</p>
<p>At the end of the application process he was accepted to every college he applied to, he was offered free applications to 4 of the colleges he applied to, was offered $370,000 in merit scholarships and is very happe with the college he is attending.</p>
<p>I doubt a paid consultant could have done better.</p>
<p>Onesharon, I was thinking that the 2500 price that BlueBayou was quoting would be about the correct price, if you didn't have any other GCs to consult. But if you're a for-hire counselor in a neighborhood where nannies make flash cards, 30k may be a fair price: $2000 for counseling and $28,000 in combat pay.</p>
<p>Lol Mardad.</p>
<p>Yep...I'm wishing I could move right about now....</p>
<p>We used a low priced college consultant - $1500. This was because the school's excellent college counselor became ill during DD's junior year, and she had basically done no college planning.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that the consultant was a tremendous amount of help, but it was nice to have a buffer during essay writing - less nagging. Her research was helpful, although we double-checked most of it. If the counselor had not recovered, we would have leaned on the consultant even more. She did NOT contact colleges for admissions, although she did do some go to bat with FA offices - I'd never heard of that - after admission.</p>
<p>Interestingly college consulting was only about 1/3 of her business - her main job was counseling parents looking for boarding schools and semi-treatment programs for "troubled" teens. She enjoyed the college consulting because compared to that it was hassle free!</p>
<p>It's news to me that educated, well-to-do parents need so much help in researching colleges with their kid and the like. Last year I did all the college research and application by myself as well as the fafsa, css... I hope I wasn't an anomaly. I believe the process need not be so daunting and difficult...</p>