<p>I totally agree with your line of reasoning Jazzymom. The type of consultants that are have some issue with however are not the types you are talking about. They are the ones who primaily are in New York City, and retain students usually in the sophmore or junior year of high school. They charge around $35,000 and many of their services revolve around helping the appicant stand out from the crowd. On one service they recommended and even advertised on their website that the parents move to another community so that the child who was Asian would be coming from a school where there were few Asian applicants. That student was able to go from being in the top 20% of their class to the valevictorian since the high school was not as competitive. That student was encouraged to enter the America's Junior Miss Pageant to help her look more than academic. Another applicant according to the consultants own website was asked what their interests were. When the student indicated they liked to write poetry, the consultant suggested to that student that they publish their poetry in a local hospital newsletter and then went about trying to help that student get their poetry published in periodicals and enter poetry contests. The consultant was able to take someone with rather small accomplishments in poetry and within a year give the impression that the applicant had been passionate about poetry for years. These consultants try to give a spin on the activities as a way of trying to help the applicant stand out.
A consultant might suggest for example that a student who is a client spend the summer in an improverished country and help build houses there. The consultant finds the opportunity for the student and arranges for the family to pay thousands of dollars for their child to attend the program. Then the consultant suggests that the student found a club at their school to raise money for these impoverished students, and do some local fundraising, and write their essay about it. The consultant is merely taking a student who is probably no different than any other student with the same SAT scores and grades and trying to help them stand out. The entire purpose being for that applicanst to appear committed and passionate.
To me, these are not interesting applicants. These are applicants whose famllies had the funds to repackage their child. What is more fascinating is the applicant who on their own initiative studied years ago about the impoversihed country and for years continued a trend on their own to make an impact. An applicant who was self driven and whose motivation came from within.
I have nothing against those who hire consultants for a few thousand dollars if they can afford it to help them with the college match and the application process. I am not talking about those. I am talking about the consultants who for almost the price of college admisisons, take an ordinary applicant to the elite schools (ordinary in that they have competitive SAT scores and grades but extra curriculars that are typical of the other applicantss, and repackage them in a way to make them appear to be extraordinary. ie. to create the impression that they have unusual talents, passions, interests when they were the consultants ideas and the consultants suggested and arranged them.</p>
<p>CB:</p>
<p>That's an important distinction. I had not heard or read about that kind of inflated packaging of a student for application purposes. I'm sure some weathy CA parents have done so, but it hasn't hit the press out here. The hiring of lower cost consultants, though, is definitely becoming more common in our community.</p>
<p>CB:
Wow. The next question is, why would anyone even want their kids in a school with those kids? Makes me want to RUN to my nearest State U. Yuk!</p>
<p>True, but it is usually aggressive parents who drive these children to be repackaged by these high priced consultants. I imagine that the students begin to believe they are as exceptional as their application indicates them to be. They would not know the difference, because they would not understand what it really means to be committed and passionate about the things they write about in their applications.
Savy admission officers hopefully can tell the difference.</p>
<p>"Though some firms make guarantees about the success they will have getting students in to top colleges, the majority of consultants say they are primarily concerned with supplying their clients with enough information to make an educated decision. Most of these firms come at a steep cost, though, and consulting firms are sometimes criticized because of the fact that many students cannot afford such services."</p>
<p>"But many in the higher education community - Yale Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel among them - have reservations about the value of the services educational consultants provide at costs usually ranging between $2,000 and $6,000."</p>
<p>Road Less Traveled when I try to open the article just the heading and a blank page appeared. I tried to get it from the Yale Daily News but the same thing happened. It sounds interesting and I'd like to read it. Do you know of another way to access it? Thanks</p>
<p>If people want to spend $3,000 or even $30,000 on advice that is certainly their choice-</p>
<p>I think there should be some way to identify students who get assistance and students who dont however.
I was surprised to hear that some parents helped their children with essays for example. Which may be a bad example- but I wonder how much admission offices look at the parents background and student performance when reviewing the applications</p>
<p>I also worry that those who least likely can afford it, feel pressure to scrape up the money somehow. I read too often about people who pay money to attend financial seminars to help students with financial aid, and not only can't they guarantee that the student will get money- unless the consultant actually is in charge of that money, but it is free to fill out the FAFSA and there are other organizations that will help with the process as well</p>
<p>collegebound
click on the left column where it says to print the article
it lost formatting but I was able to read it that way</p>
<p>"Road Less Traveled when I try to open the article just the heading and a blank page appeared"</p>
<p>Save the bandwidth. RLT is ok :) Hmm, the link works fine for me. Hold down your Ctlr key and then try clicking on the link.</p>
<p>They should make you check a box if you had a private counselor's help preparing your application -- as they do on income taxes. That would pretty much put an end to the industry.</p>
<p>Thanks both for explaining how to get the article.</p>
<p>"Thanks both for explaining how to get the article."</p>
<p>No problem. You probably have a pop-up blocker program that wouldn't let you open the page. Holding the Ctrl key overrides the blocker.</p>