<p>I mean this in a good way. Say a candidate has strengths that may not be readily apparent to an admissions office, but a respected consultant knows that that candidate would be an excellent fit for the school -- will the consultant be able to get some admissions attention for that candidate that s/he might not have gotten on her/his own? Just wondering ...</p>
<p>Sooo not true. A kid at my school has an educational consultant, who had like 100 acceptance rate, and he got wl at two rejected at three, accepted none. Go figure</p>
<p>I personally know consultants who “sell” candidates in the bad way, but I don’t know anyone in the good way. So my answer is no.</p>
<p>What would ‘selling’ candidates in the bad way be?</p>
<p>i know of an educational consultant called admissions quest and i heard they are pretty good they charge like $2000 dollars though and like alot more for internationals i can be very “expensive”</p>
<p>Yeah, and I know of a college consultant who charges $38,000 for her services. She says that she is 100% at getting kids into their first choice colleges. Heck, why pay $38,000 a year to a BS hoping to get your child into a super college some day later when you can just write a check for this amount one time to this consultant, keep your kid at home and get your little boy or girl into a top coillege to boot?</p>
<p>Maybe we should dump all of this intense blogging about what are the best BS’s and start blogging about who are the best college consultants? </p>
<p>Heck, who needs a great BS if you have a great college consultant? </p>
<p>Shoot, why have BS’s at all?</p>
<p>^ hahahaha oh toombs you crack me up.</p>
<p>isn’t it the consultant’s JOB to sell their clients to the schools… i thought that was the whole point, to beef up your application :S</p>
<p>“will the consultant be able to get some admissions attention for that candidate that s/he might not have gotten on her/his own?”
i think that’s also the job of the consultant, to try to get another look from the adcom, to help your application stand out/improve…
eh, personally, i don’t think it’s worth 8000 or 38000 dollars, but if you have the means, why not?</p>
<p>Reminds me of the Millionaire Matchmaker - my kids pointed out that in the original season she said she had a 99% rate. But since almost none of her matches take on the show - the new season leaves that part out.</p>
<p>I’m sure these consultants post the results for their successes (few) and bury the failures. </p>
<p>And to think I interview and write up endless reports for free when I could be a consultant and charge five figures.</p>
<p>But alas - I was born with a soul. Darn!</p>
<p>From what I can tell, the consultants figure out what the colleges want, doll up their applicants to meet this demand and then shake down their stable of students for big bucks when they put out great effort to satisfy that demand.</p>
<p>Let’s not call these folks consultants. Let’s call them what they are: pimps.</p>
<p>Oh, c’mon . . . first you decide what the consultants do - without any of you having had personal experience with them - and then you brand them as “pimps.” Really? If you do a search, you’ll find several threads that actually discuss what consultants do (and don’t do) for their clients. Some even have input from the “pimps” themselves! From what I’ve learned, their primary role is to act as consultants for the student and his/her family - helping them find the schools that are the right fit and guiding them through the process. If you think that’s a frivolous and unnecessary expenditure, that’s only because you found CC first - and have figured out how to get much of the same advice for free!</p>
<p>I can’t afford a consultant and am willing to spend hours on the internet doing research - but for families that can afford it, and don’t have the time to do the legwork themselves, I can see where it might be worth it to have the help. Plus, going it alone for the first time, my kid didn’t get in. Had I paid for an hour’s time with a consultant last fall, I’ve no doubt the outcome would have been different. And without CC, I’d probably still be wondering what we did wrong.</p>
<p>Me - I was only responding to the poster who said some charge $38K. Hmmm. Scheming, scheming (ethics sliding . . . )</p>
<p>Just kidding.</p>
<p>Well, if it is possible to buy my kid’s way into the school of our choosing for $38K, I’d just as soon not know . . . since I can’t afford it anyway.</p>
<p>But if anyone can offer the same service for $38.00, please feel free to PM me!</p>
<p>There are two types of consultants.
- The pimps who “promise” to get you into xy school.
- The real consultants (who usually do have credentials and are part of a national organization). Their only job is to help you decide which school (college or boarding school) you are a match to from your interests and grades. They push you to write your essays on time, etc. But they don’t promise you will be accepted. They are usually worth their money unless you have known from diapers that you will go to exeter and then yale and that is the only place you will apply.</p>
<p>Idk how ameircan ones are like, but here — most “agencies” just write your essays and stuff. And, you can’t use your own email account which means you can’t view your decisions as soon as they come out! Those people have a really bad name here LOL. </p>
<p>$380 is fine with me, too.
Feel free to PM!!!</p>
<p>Are the “real” educational consultant’s job similar to that of a college counselor at a private school? Do college counselors positively “sell” their counselees to colleges?</p>
<p>Besides the tuition of my school, I never paid for the secondary school counselors, but they were really helpful.
They don’t sell you as much as advocate for you. They sit down with all the admissions directors to “discuss” you and try to help them decide if you’re a sort of borderline applicant and they aren’t sure about whether to accept you or not. Obviously they aren’t going to get the kid with straight Ds into SPS and Andover.</p>
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<p>I would imagine that colleges and college counselors get to know each other . . . the counselors have often visited the colleges and vice versa. And I’d think that certain counselors earn the reputation of being “reliable.” In other words, if counselor x consistently sends qualified students to college y, then college y is probably going to look favorably on future candidates sent by counselor x. Whether counselors actually pick up the phone and make a call on behalf of their candidates, I don’t know.</p>
<p>As director of the organization that establishes the ethical and professional guidelines for independent college counselors, allow me a word. Most of the comments above correctly note that the primary role of a qualified, professional educational consultant to to assist in finding a great match between the student’s skills, abilities and social & educational needs and preferences, with what is available in the thousands of colleges from coast-to-coast. Few families have the time and expertise to cast such a wide net and conduct an exhaustive search… but consultants (those who qualify for membership in NACAC or the Independent Educational Consultants Assn) spend considerable time on the road and attending conferences to remain current. Part of the role of the consultant is, as the inquiry suggests, to help make sure a student gives a complete and accurate picture of who he or she is, what makes her unique and particularly qualified for admission. No consultant should ever write the essay or alter biographical information. However a consultant will work with a student to brainstorm essay topics and explore ways to tell a complete story, so in this way they do act in a positive way to help a student’s application. By the way, 99% of professional educational consultants charge 1/10 of the amount some folks noted above–and many charge hourly allowing them to be affordable to most any family.</p>