I set up my S on a Trello board. It is a free service to organize a project. I use it at work. I made each college he was interested in a workstream with specific tasks, including essay topics, required dates, sending scores, etc. It took me a morning to go to each website, research and set it up. Then, whenever S asked me a question, I said, did you check the board? It allowed me the control I needed to make sure it was all done but left all the responsibilities in his hands. This eliminated any need in our house for a consultant. But he did also have a really good high school GC.
Yes, you both are correct regarding my meaning of merit. Need based at the ivy brings it inline with a âmeritâ award at the state school so the total out of pocket isnât that different ± $6K. Thatâs barring any additional awards from state school as I know we wonât get any additional at an ivy.
@FinalFor, both my older boys got fantastic need-based financial aid packages from places like Princeton, Penn, Caltech and Vanderbilt because of our moderate income. They were able to stack outside scholarships on top of that, so we paid very little for them to attend their respective schools.
@sbjdorlo, That is encouraging news. He is interested in Vanderbilt so thatâll be a visit later this year.
@FinalFor our Princeton tour guide said that Princeton cost less for his family than his state flagship (Rutgers).
@GnocchiB I donât doubt that all. Princeton aid is generous and the campus is lovely. We visited 2 weeks ago. Our state gigantic school is only slightly cheaper than Princeton all in without additional scholarships. He liked Princeton, Cornell, Swarthmore and a couple other LACs we visited including the state school and a border stateâs giant school but was hoping heâd get excited about one of them. Weâll visit Vandy and some other schools. One of them will get him excited.
@eiholi we had the same problem as there seemed to be a lack in local BS/MD specific help in our area. We did find a couple but we had reservations after speaking with them for the amount of money it costs. This area is not regulated, so there is nothing stopping someone from taking your money and providing non helpful services. we were very cautious. All of the BS/MD recommendations we received were for companies either in the west or east coast. That seems to be where thereâs the most activity in this area (i suppose due to incomes?)
We were open to video conferencing and doing all of our work online so we relied partially on the companyâs Alexa ranking. I recommend all parents do the same if they are considering a long distance based option like we did. We found most of these companies who claimed to have a majority of their clients throughout the country, had rankings in the millions which is pretty mediocre.
It would be nice if we lived in a world where our kids did not have to compete for such limited spots at these programs but unfortunately this is reality.
@AS2017 We felt the same way when we were vetting these companies. Most had no problem taking our money except for one. Thatâs why I think itâs so important to ask around and not just rely on what is listed on their website. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, but for us, if we had to do it again, we would have saved up a bit more and started the process earlier b/c even though our DS was very successful, the process placed A TON of stress on him compared to other students in the same company that were coasting along because they had started receiving help since grade 9!!!
@sushiritto I disagree that a consultant is like having insurance or paying for AAA. Those are services as you state, you may not need, but itâs nice to know theyâre there IF you need it.
For us, we could not have gone through the process and supported our DS the way they DID, without them. At least for BS/MD programs, I disagree that everything can be done by the average typical student and parent, especially if you have no medical background. This may be true for a very small select group of applicants and their families with generations fo physicians.
If you look at the stats for BS/MD programs, you will see that most (applicants + parents) who try to get into these programs without help are rejected.
I have never used a private admissions consultant. I have a friend who used one for his son. His son got the full ride to NYUâs film program. I have used what information I learned from my childâs admissions search to assist other students. I am confident that the help needs to start in tenth grade at the latest and must include some guidance with standardized testing. I have never charged one child. This year marks my third year of providing free assistance.
In year one, one student got into both Columbia and MIT. In year two, one student got into UPenn, Cornell, Duke, Emory, and Notre Dame among others. This is year three. One student got into Brown, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, Boston U, and Carlton College, among others. None of those students used a private counselor and none could afford to do so. None of those students used tutors. They focused on two study guides - one for the ACT and one for the SAT. They used forms from the College Board website to identify colleges. One of three people read their essays for free.
With some early planning, many parents can provide comprehensive guidance to help their students chose and attend schools which appear to be good matches.
@jessapen A private admissions consultant will sell you their services ala carte or in a complete package.
My D and I are neither lazy nor unorganized, but we hired someone who had a successful track record who has more expertise in the area of admissions than I. I call it insurance and hiring a professional in field where Iâm not.
Everyone can make their own value decision. YMMV.
@sushiritto I wasnât implying that anyone is lazy or lacks organization. As you said so yourself, you hired someone because they have more expertise so hopefully you were able to make use of their knowledge.
We used one that gave feedback on sonâs essays, recommended courses for senior year, an activity for the summer. It kept him on schedule, was low-key, and was focused on the student, not schools. The consultant worked hard to provide a range of schools that matched his interests and provided a framework for him to evaluate schools he visited.
It was about $7,000 total. We thought it was well worth it because it eliminated the parent/child friction, it wasnât a huge financial sacrifice, and it taught our son how to talk to adults about his interests and activities in a way that helped him improve his essays.
Oh yeah they also helped with standardized testing, finding good tutors, a host of stuff. He started junior year which some might say is late but worked fine for him.
And he got into his first choice ED so something clicked!
@jessapen Sorry, but my comment was directed at others who used terms such as âlazyâ and unorganized."
Locally, private consultants are actually used by parents who would never be considered âlazyâ and âunorganized.â Some private consultants may even have a âformulaâ for success gained from their professional expertise thru the years.
You can do your taxes by yourself, you can fix your car by yourself, you can represent yourself at trial (said tongue-in-cheek) and your child can do the college application process by yourselves. Again, YMMV.
We went to a counselor (supposedly highly regarded) in south Florida at some point in my sonâs junior year for an initial meeting. I was so unimpressed with what she had to offer, and how much it cost, that we never went back.
She started to lose me when she tried to gloss her way through homeschooling legal requirements, and it was clear she didnât have a good grasp of the topic (something I had been dealing with for years by that point). Then some other things she had to say didnât seem credible either. She blustered her way through 2 hours and charged us for the whole meeting. To this day I do not know why we sat there.
My niece had a great experience with an ACT prep tutor who also coached the kids on the side. She was very helpful. I think it really depends on the person.
âWe used one that gave feedback on sonâs essays, recommended courses for senior year, an activity for the summer. It âŠwas about $7,000 total.â
And to think I charge kids $5 for these same services, to what Iâd consider pretty good successâŠ
We used one and to be honest we did not follow his advice. He asked not to apply to two name-brand schools (wonât get into names) his quotes âyou have 5% chance to get into these based on what you have ⊠donât waste your timeâ guess what? We applied to both . one got waitlisted and another got in ⊠so all depends
My advice is definitely pay for Test Prep, whatever it takes to boost your score to your reasonably best number. And if you donât have creative writing ability in your family, you can pay for a small amount of essay writing and editing. I feel if you are decent at research, you should be able to do the school research yourself with your child. My son got into his first choice Early Decision this way. Not ivy! Good, smallish liberal arts school with a 27% acceptance rate.
I agree that paying for Test Prep, even if itâs really difficult to do, is usually worth it. And they are not all created equally. You might have to pay what seems like a lot, but if you are trying to get Merit Aid or into an elite school, it will pay for itself. BUT YOU MUST HIRE SOMEONE WITH A GOOD TRACK RECORD. High school teachers are often NOT the right tutors. My daughters used an Ivy league grad who has mastered the tests and is just brilliant. Ask around, they are out there. I do some college counseling (I have a certification in the field and a strong record) and in spite of what you might hear the trend to be with many schools going âtest optionalâ, a strong score can OPEN DOORS. And if you are willing to go to a safer choice, a strong score WILL get you merit aid.
As for essaysâŠI havenât read all of the posts but tend to agree with those who have cautioned not to overwork your essays. I have seen overworked/edited essays backfire for some students. I think the more genuine the essay sounds, the better. The less âSAT wordâ filled the essay is, the better. I think creative is good, as long as itâs not over the top and makes the reader question the essayâs authenticity. The essay may be very important at some schools (but may not be, too, depending on the situation), but it has to sound authentic.
As for hiring a counselorâŠeveryone has their own opinion on this. Iâm not sure paying 25K for a group that has former Ivy admissions reps on their team is necessarily going to pay off. The subjective components of an application are exactly thatâŠsubjective. There are no hard and fast rules. What one reader at Harvard thinks might be completely different than what another reader at Harvard or Stanford thinks. I know some other counselors and they have gone to âtrainingâ sessions and often will say they completely disagree with the speakers.
So unless you really have that kind of money, if you need a counselor, I would not pay that kind of money. (If you have 25K or more to spend on a counselor and want to be able to tell yourself that you did everything possible to help your child get in to a top choice, then go for itâŠ).
I would hire someone that can accurately help your student come up with a well rounded list of options. If you are aiming high, then you need to be top heavy just because the odds are against you. But you need to have some solid safeties and matches that you would be happy going to. A good counselor (but not necessarily an expensive one) will be able to look beyond acceptance rates and test scores and help you dig a little deeper to not only properly assess your chances or admission, but also if a school actually has what you are looking for. A good counselor will know that even though X university may not be a top twenty school, their âxyzâ program is very strong.
Then there are the counselors that are more administrativeâŠthey keep your kid organized, help them set deadlines, send scores, ensure applications are complete, etcâŠthat also might be worth paying for. As the above poster suggested, you might be able to do a lot of the research yourself, but you just need someone else to be the one nagging your kidâŠ
One more thingâŠif you are hiring a counselor, make sure that you are hiring someone that can help you strategizeâŠthe whole EA/ED I/ED II/SCEA/RD game has exploded and changes every year. But as of now it cannot be ignored and if you are aiming high, your only shot might be to apply ED somewhere.