Has Anyone Used a Professional Consultant in the Boarding School Process?

Prep School Admissions
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<p>I think Blairt is right, in a perfect world applicants’ essays would be submitted un-reviewed, and certainly un-”corrected”, by anyone. That would be a level playing field for all, ignoring the different level of writing skills taught at various schools. </p>

<p>But a few faculty I know at prominent boarding schools who read admission folders tell me they and their fellow readers are always slightly wary of the essays, simply because it’s not always easy to know how much help, or guidance, or even outright ghostwriting, was received. </p>

<p>So, many parents may feel, if everyone’s doing it, I’d better do it too. Maybe not right-but understandable in the highly competitive world of BS applications. My daughter did her own without help, though I admit I certainly did read them. But she is a better writer than I, so I wasn’t really even tempted. </p>

<p>But in the end Blairt is right. If you read the statements students are required to sign, the essays must be totally unassisted.</p>

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<p>To sum: It is, officially, not allowed at most prep schools for students to get any help for essays--be it reviewing, editing, or noncomputer spellchecking (which, you can tell from my 'noncomputer spellchecking,' phrase, I do not use properly :)). However, most students--roughly two thirds--do get help of some kind, ranging from a reading-over by a parent who says 'It's whom, not who, and that's with two ts, otherwise, good,' to consultants who all but write students essays. Because the majority of their applicants do get some help, schools tend to expect it, but they also recognize it. They can tell when an essay has been overly edited by someone, and this will work against the student. Also, it can be considered unethicial. Really, if a school requests that students get no help, and most do, it is cheating. Because others do it does not mean that it isn't cheating. Whether you consider it cheating that is okay is up to your own personal morals and principles.
It is perfectly possible for students to write excellent essays on their own, if they are interested enough in prep school to spend a lot of time on it. In regards to blairt, it is advisable to keep in mind that she was a tenth grader, not an eighth grader (though from the sounds of it, she was probably an excellent writer in eight grade as well). However, as an eighth grader who followed the rules strictly (no one saw my essays), I will say that it can be done. I don't know if my essays were 'fantastic' but I thought they were decent and felt proud of them, and I did get some 'compliments' from adcoms regarding them. Then again, writing is my main extracurricular, so I had a bit of an advantage there. Still, I think that an eighth grader can write a few very good essays (usually three or four can be altered or repeatedly used for different schools) if they have enough pluck and determination. Having a child do it 'on their own' is certainly an option.
All of that said, having a consultant can be very useful in finding prep schools that fit your and your child's needs, and using one for that, and to guide you in just what you should do in the application process, is perfectly ethical no matter what, and there are no rules against that. Just, as I've said before, make sure that you get a good and honest consultant because there are a lot of scams out there.</p>

<p>Oh, by the way, baseballmom, keep in mind that adcoms and public school teachers can feel the same way about minor spelling and grammar errors in that they are:
a. too busy to notice
b. don't really care
c. don't recognize the error themselves
Just saying. :)</p>

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<p>blairt and prettyckitty--I appreciate your comments, but seriously, the two of you have obviously reaped the benefits of a privileged lifestyle and education as is evidenced by the content and writing style of your prior posts.</p>

<p>I don't mean to insult you or belittle the work you put into your applications, but as a result of your superior education, you have an advantage over anyone from a run-of-the-mill public school who may be just as intelligent. It's not fair, but it works in your favor. </p>

<p>Most of your peers use educational consultants when applying to boarding schools and the schools are aware of it. There is review or guidance (similar to that described above by 'edconsultant') regarding the essay since it is part of the application. Do the schools view these kids as cheaters? Of course not! </p>

<p>Just because you didn't need your essay to be reviewed doesn't make everyone else a cheater. It simply means you are fortunate to be so well-educated and talented. It's easy to be idealistic when you're sitting at the top of the heap.</p>

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<p>baseballmom, once again i have to disagree with you. ok, students have had superior educations than others, but the prep schools say you can't have your essays revised, simple as that. It doesn't say "just because your education isn't as good as others, you can be allowed any outside source to check your work and put you at a significant advantage". That's just cheating, however you look at it.</p>

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<p>A quick check of applications on line.
Andover, Hotchkiss, and Exeter I could not find any statement that said anything about no review. Just to have it in your own handwriting. Although Exeter wants it both typed AND in your own handwriting.</p>

<p>This is EXACTLY what the St. Paul's application says in the essay section (this has been copied directly):</p>

<p>"In keeping with the St. Paul’s School Honor Code, my signature indicates that all information submitted is factually correct, complete, and
honestly presented. The written answers represent my own work and have not been edited by others."</p>

<p>In this case, it does not say "reviewed," it does not say no one can look at it. Having a parent or an ed con look at an applicaiton / essay for, like I said before, glaring "DO NOT SAY THIS" things, is not cheating.</p>

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<p>Actually, I go to a really mediocre, run of the mill public school and am on quite lot of financial aid for school next year. Not to say that I haven't had some priviledges, which I definitely have, but I'm middle class, not upper. I agree that I have advantages over lower-class applicants, kids who go not to run of the mill public schools but bad, inter-city ones, but I don't think I have an advantage of middle class kids who go to ordinary ones and certainly not upper-middle and upper-class kids who go to excellent publics and top privates.</p>

<p>I apologize, though. Cheating is a strong word, too strong for such a generalization. All I meant was that I just don't think it's right, even if other people are doing it, to get help for essays if schools say you shouldn't. I know that different people have different positions on that, and that there is definitely a lot of leniency and wiggle room in the policy. </p>

<p>By the way, I don't think I did pretty good essays because I'm brilliant or anything, and I'm sorry if it sounded that way, because I must have sounded really arrogent. I just meant, it can be done, and it can come out okay (and I mean 'okay'. I was proud of my essays, but I was proud because I worked hard on them, not proud because I'm hoping to win the Nobel prize in literature with them). I believe that goes for anyone, even if they haven't had a great education (though I know mine is better than many, many children's, I would include myself in that group.) Most of my writing education just came by writing, and letting my best friend read my stories and correct them, which is evident by my eternal inability to spell correctly or figure out what the heck a predicate is--I know, I know, it's like the part with the verb or something. </p>

<p>Right, my point is: bottom line, kids can and do get help, sometimes (and, as you demonstrated, sometimes not) against the rules, and it's usually not that big a deal, as long as the help is minor, but they can do it on their own, no matter their schooling.</p>

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<p>baseballmom,</p>

<p>I really don't think you should stress so much about the essays. Both of my sons went to a mediocre/weak middle school. I certainly read my sons' essays, but did not revise. They are both good writers, and all around good students, which I consider a prerequiste for considering bs anyway. I will reiterate what I said earlier; if you need an ed-consultant to help you understand the process/choose a school, then fine. Otherwise, I really don't think you need an essay reviewer. I think the essay is really looking for the personality of the candidate.</p>

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<p>I've spent about the last thirty minutes and two very long posts trying to say what keylyme just did in about six sentences. Very well put. Really. Listen to keylyme.</p>

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<p>You need to ask yourself these questions:</p>

<p>SHOULD a child who is not able to edit his essays or come up with imaginative approaches to essay prompts on his own even be applying to prep school? How in the world would he survive? Students need to churn out a few essays a week at prep school... will the ed consultant be attending school with the child? Even improper footnotes can get you in serious trouble at prep school. If a kid can't hack the admissions process and/or completing the one essay schools ask for on his own.... I can't imagine how he would hack the actual academics of the school. Admissions is tough, but it is nowhere near as tough as the actual school will be.</p>

<p>WOULD the child feel the least bit inadequate when he is surrounded by kids who do not need an adult to edit their work?</p>

<p>WHAT would the child learn from this? I need to hire people so that my work in comparable to my peers who didn't get help? I can always just have someone edit my work when it's not up to par..? I'm allowed to change the rules and other people are supposed to accommodate my lack of skill because of my background?</p>

<p>By the way, adcoms already take into account the child's background/education, and evaluate their profiles with those factors in mind. So, your kid would be getting a double advantage (on top of being an athlete, who are often cut slack when it comes to academics).</p>

<p>Also, I attended a bad public school -- so bad that my teacher needed to look up half of the words I used in my essays, to verify that they were in fact words... somewhat common words like "ungainly" and "superfluous" and "unremitting"... she did not know these words (and surprisingly, she was from a very privileged background).. in math, my teacher had to constantly reference the book for basic formulas. I write on my own, and don't have any "advantages" or "privileges"... neither should anyone else.</p>

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<p>blairt post from July 11, 2007...
WOW. I haven't been following this thread.. but i just skimmed through it.. and jesus christ..</p>

<p>allmusic:
- yes, there are crappy private schools. yes, some public schools are better than a few private schools. is this anywhere near the norm or the majority of cases? no. helll no.</p>

<p>-my public elementary school was not diverse at all.. i don't know why you think all public schools are in the inner city and full of diversity. i have lived in all very wealthy neighborhoods (top 100 wealthiest zip codes in america), and when i attended elementary school, i was placed in an amazing public school which is better than many privates. something like 60% of the elementary teachers has masters degrees..all had post bachelor's.. the teachers made $80,000 a year minimum (still couldn't afford to live in the town though)..we learned languages in 1st grade.. we could all draw decent to amazing charcoal sketches before 5th grade.. we had interscholastic sports teams from 1st grade and up.. 100% of all kids passed the english standards test.. 97% passed the math standards.. we did prealgebra in 5th grade.. we had a professional acting coach from NYC come down every week to give us acting lessons.. everyone went out to lunch at lunchtime instead of packing a sandwich...etc. etc. There aren't too many private schools like that. But this was a very, very nice community in which the police department's sole duty was to keep the "riff raff" out (they just patrolled the borders basically)... but you can't get a 3 bed/2 bath home there for under $1 million. Among the 6,000 or so residents, there was one black family.. no hispanics, and no asians.. just one black family of 5.. and they moved out within a few years of moving there. everyone else was white. this isn't too diverse.. that's %.0833 percent people of color.. 99.917% white. was this a cultured experience? no. i'm still trying to shake off the views i acquired from living there.. i still find it bizarre when i hear of people never having traveled because it was so common among my friends.. or that people find BMW's luxury cars, when they were so common around town i never guessed that they were something exclusive or coveted.. i'm always baffled to hear that some people haven't been on an airplane or whatever. i also grew up thinking that everyone went to college except for a few really dumb people... when only something like 20% of americans go to college. also, because i attained a stellar education, i am horrified by what some public schools offer.. i'm just deeply disgusted and appalled by the ignorance of some people who have not attained much of an education. this is all really deep-rooted in my mind because of the town i grew up in (even when we moved, the town wasn't too different).. and i'm still trying to shake a lot of it off... in many ways, this has hurt me. i may have been better off in a normal middle class town full of people who grew up differently.</p>

<p>thus, a public education is not necessarily "diverse".</p>

<p>^^ this type of public school is very rare. this quality of an education is rare in private schools, even.</p>

<p>most public schools aren't like that.. in fact, i would have a very hard time finding another one that came close.</p>

<p>collegekid:</p>

<p>people who can afford exeter and andover happily send their kids elsewhere. my grandfather, father and my uncles all went to prep schools that are rather unknown.. they could afford to go to any school they wanted, but they wanted to stay close to home. where did they go? one school was colorado fountain valley.. my uncle went there after my grandfather suggested it. they were living in texas at the time due to my gfather's business and going all the way to mass. wasn't appealing. he received a great education... he didn't WANT to go to any other school. same goes for my cousins.. they can afford the other schools, but because their family is so into sailing, tabor was the only school they were interested in... my cousin didn't even order brochures from andover or exeter.. she's not interested. she would rather surf and sail. are they new money? you bet not! they're so down to earth and un-ostentatious that if you saw them walking down the street without knowing their name or where they lived, you wouldn't have a clue. they're totally uninterested in money or showing it off. same goes with my grandfather! that guy won't even buy a decent watch or buy a new house. nobody in my family even talks about money... let alone shows it off. which is why they weren't insecure about sending their kids to a school other than AESD. they didn't need to gain more social acceptance.. they just wanted their kids to find a school that they really liked. that's money well spent to them. they could give a crap about "the big ten". my parents let me decide where i wanted to go..i could go to an unconventional art school or an old prep school.. it didn't matter, as long as i found a school i really liked. when i was accepted to tabor and exeter, it took me a long time to decide. i kept swaying between the two because they both offered different opportunities.. i ended up going to exeter because of the course selection and the amazing girls' xcountry and crew teams, but i will still miss sailing and the people at tabor. not everyone is a prestige whore.</p>

<p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------Blairt--you first visited Tabor on Mar 4 or 5, right? Didn't all the applications need to be in by January 15? And you were accepted, right? You also arrived for your Exeter interview 30 minutes late. So you received special treatment at the two schools that accepted you. Isn't that cheating?</p>

<p>Back to the issue of hiring an ed consultant to oversee the application process:
All of you kids need to pull out your dictionary and read the definition of "review". It is not the same as the definition of "edit". Enough already!</p>

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<p>I can't seem to get the quote feature to work, but want to be clarify that my post above is an exact copy of blairt's post.</p>

<p>Only the last two paragraphs that begin "---------blairt--" are mine!</p>

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<p>First of all, Blairt may have been going to revisits or just visiting the campus. I have also toured many people who have arrived late to our school for the tour/interview and I'm sure they were not rejected on that basis. It's sort of funny seeing a mom trying to put down hs students..</p>

<p>Second, back to your original post: You obviously have already made up your mind that you're going to higher an ed consultant as you keep defending that view. So what was the point?</p>

<p>And finally, if your kid really is as good at baseball as you claim, he should have a huge advantage. I think prep schools recruit a lot more than they let on. You really shouldn't need an ed consultant with that, assuming of course he has good grades etc.</p>

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<p>Ouch. Can't we all just get along? </p>

<p>Baseballmom, I think a lot of people here have told you their point of view about not using a consultant. I'll just say something really quickly to make my point. First, for spelling, there's always spell check on the computer. Print it out and write it by hand. Done and done. Secondly, I know TONS of people that went to bad public middle schools (most of the west coast kids) that basically learned how to write their first term whereas a lot of people already knew how to write. Sure, they didn't do so well their first term here, but after that they wrote amazing essays. Why? Because they experienced both the top and the bottom of education and society and they have so much to write about. I seriously and whole-heartedly believe that if your son writes his personal thoughts and experiences (even if it's a la Faulkner's stream of consciousness) they'll do fine. I think the essay, though it is focused on writing ability, is more focused on learning what the person is like. Obviously style counts, but I think it counts less than the story being told. A little piece of what is your son is transported into a paper. Thirdly, a lot of the people reading the essays have other things to do. I know some teachers that only teach two or three classes read essays too for admissions. There are so many! Honestly, I doubt they'd catch most spelling or grammatical mistakes-unless they're grave. Looking back on my essays, I had TONS of grammatical mistakes. </p>

<p>So that's my little spiel. I hope it helps! </p>

<p>Also, I'd like to apologize for some of the Exonians' behavior. I think they were trying to be honest but came off as rude. I'd like to point out that there's a difference between sharing experiences and flaunting your own work. Saying that your essays are amazing isn't very Non Sibi, is it? I hope your impression of PEA hasn't changed, baseballmom, because of misunderstandings.</p>

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<p>I'd second WoUt's comments. While an educational consultant, to be sure, can help with figuring out the "system," helping you to figure out how to evaluate schools, etc., the same thing can be done (much more easily!) simply by doing research of your own. And doing essays alone (not fun - I'm doing my college applications now! - at least I should be...) may not be the easiest way to go, but it's really the preferable choice. I really do think that cliche advice like "be yourself" shines through here - not only do schools want the most "honest," untouched view of candidates, but your son might be WRONG for a school. Not "not good enough," mind you, but "wrong," - schools have very specific characters, and it is only by getting a complete and honest view of your child that admission committees can decide not only whether or not your son would do well or not academically/athletically/etc, but whether he would be happy at a given school. Someone that would love Exeter may hate, say, St. Pauls, or Milton, and vice versa...</p>

<p>As for blairt, I agree with some of your points, but while I'm sure your essays were very good, and that, as you mentioned, that excellence came from your own work rather than that of your surroundings, I can see why your comments might be interpreted a bit negatively. </p>

<p>Nearly every single Exonian is a very, very good writer, who is able to write excellent essays, both before and after being admitted, on his own, but nonetheless, the desire to get in, to please, and to submit the very best essay possible certainly makes it very tempting to ask for an extra pair of eyes. Just because you were comfortable enough in your skills to not utilize that extra bit of reassurance doesn't mean every applicant, especially those who were two years younger than you, has that confidence.</p>

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<p>baseballmom, I want to apologize- I did not mean to come off sounding so harsh. Partly, I was answering while focusing on some of your comments that seemed, to me, unfair. WoUt is also partially right, I was trying to be honest and came off sounding rude. Anyways, good luck with your son in the coming year.</p>

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<p>psuedo8--no worries. There's a mix of adults and kids from various socioeconomic groups commenting here so the result is a broad range opinions depending on one's vantage point. It's healthy to entertain another's perspective.</p>

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<p>Yes, at Tabor, I received special treatment because they were looking to recruit high performing students ( I think they mostly get basic A/B, basic students who aren't the most competitive). That's all. My cousin, who applied, wasn't accepted at Tabor! And he's big on volunteering and is an A/B student from a top private middle school. So.. why did I get in? Because I had the highest SSAT score of the admissions pool (interviewer said so). And I wrote a great essay. But, alas, it's because my parents have billions of dollars that I'm not aware of.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, you're saying I don't deserve my spot at Exeter because I was 30 minutes late to an interview. Yet you're saying it's totally justified for your son to reap the benefits of an ed consultant and an essay editor and shady athletic recruiting practices.. because he's supposedly unprivileged (how are you going to afford an ed consultant and an essay editor then)? So it's unfair for me to write a great (it really was) essay, score a 98 SSAT, have 30 blue ribbons in riding, and get into Exeter... this is obviously plutocratic..</p>

<p>but your son, who you say needs essay editing, can have someone edit his essays as a privileged athlete, and this would be meritocratic?</p>

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<p>I couldn't help putting in my 2cents on this one:</p>

<pre><code>The essay is to help the school get to know the applicant. Yes, they want to see good writing style but they get a better feel for that on the ssat when you don't have weeks to think about it. When I applied to bs I used about 7 application per school(good thing they're free!) and yeah I had my essays edited! Whatever you write about... whatever topic you pick if you can't bring the essay back to yourself it wont be looked at the same. Editing an essay will just make it get a second look but again the essay is to learn about the applicant. Just have fun writing it!
</code></pre>

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<p>blairt- I hope you tone it down at school. You present yourself as an arrogant jerk.<br>
I'm sure you are wonderfully "high performing". NEWS FLASH- so are many others. If these high performers also come with strong athletics, good for them!
Another NEWS FLASH- not all kids enter prep school with strong writing skills. Nor do they all enter COLLEGE with strong writing skills (including highly selective colleges). My son is shocked at the poor writing skills of many of his college classmates- including some from top boarding schools. Oh wait, maybe they are all "privileged athletes" who had their college essays edited and that's how they got in!</p>

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<p>Honestly, I think that people can relax a little about the essays. I cringed when I saw one of my D's a couple of years ago. Completed in at least three shades of ink, it was filled with exclamation points and hearts. It sounded over the top, middle school girl enthusiastic. "I LOVE your school!!!!!" you get the picture. There were some big spelling mistakes too. It was her top choice school, we had no connections there, and I knew we couldn't afford it so I didn't say anything. Not ony was she accepted, they made it financially possible for her to go. She loves it there. I will say that they completely overhauled her writing style that first year though LOL.</p>