<p>Michele Hern</p>
<p>My opinion:</p>
<p>She provides information for pay but you can get that information elsewhere for a lower cost or for free.</p>
<p>Of course you may not be able to receive personalized advice from a professional but with some sense and some digging for information you could do for yourself what she does for her clients.</p>
<p>Am I wrong?</p>
<p>Adcoms might hold inside connections, making them able to pull the right strings for an applicant. And yes, while test scores and grades are most important, she probably helps with the presentation of the application as well, including the essay. And she probably also advises her clients on how to shape their extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>On the surface it may sound a bit sketchy but if that 92% figure is accurate then it is clear she is doing something right. Remember that college admissions is a delicate practice that might not even depend on being the best applicant but rather being the right applicant, the applicant a school is interested in getting.</p>
<p>1) Some admissions consultants have been working for so long with certain colleges/universities that those institutions have come to trust their judgment about who is a good candidate and who isn’t.</p>
<p>2) Some parents and children drive each other mad during the application process, and everyone is happier when someone from outside the family takes charge of things.</p>
<p>3) Some parents and children would rather pay for other people to do their research for them.</p>
<p>4) Some parents would rather deal face-to-face with a professional expert than trust to their own instincts.</p>
<p>5) 92% get into their first choice college does not tell you what those choices were, or whether they were places the student had ever heard of before meeting the counselor, or whether any financial aid made it affordable. It just means that in April when the letters came, the kids (and parents) were happy with the places they were accepted at.</p>
<p>You are absolutely correct that you can do the work yourself and get into a school where you will be happy and successful. Save your money for books.</p>
<p>Regarding the 92% figure, I understand that she does turn clients down, so obviously she could turn down folks she thought would not make the cut anyway, thus not jeopardizing her record.</p>
<p>There have been many recent threads on this. In my opinion a good college counselor can help tremendously in helping position a student for the best shot at colleges of choice and guide the application towards that end. I’ve also discovered through personal experience that you don’t need to spend the crazy money Hernandez and a few others charge to get an excellent professional.</p>
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<p>No private counselor talks to colleges about their clients. In fact, their goal is to make their help in the process totally invisible. I heard Hernandez on NPR talking about the fact that her clients would not been accepted if colleges knew of her presence in the process. One counselor I know does not even have a web site for this reason.</p>
<p>Korg: Hernandez doesn’t help her clients do WHAT?</p>
<p>Of course a non-viable applicant can’t be shunted to the front of the HYP accept pile by anyone’s magic consultation work. But don’t you think a seasoned college counselor might be able to suggest a good list of great match schools to the student and his/her family?</p>
<p>And I’d imagine she would only accept people who agreed to be realistic. Why waste time with the 2.5GPA kid who wants to go to Caltech? He’s delusional.</p>
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<p>That’s exactly what she does.</p>
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<p>I don’t think she “shapes the activities,” but rather the presentation of them, if that’s what you meant.</p>
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<p>That’s part of it, but more specifically, the parent often has difficulty establishing credibility with the student, as the student sees the parent as having way too much emotional investment in the project, and has having personal agendas. Parents are suspect, or can be, even in the best of relationships. Sometimes even where’s great cooperation, the third-party validation is what makes the difference in family peace and in both the parents and the student trusting their hunches and being corrected when they’re very “off.”</p>
<p>you can also obtain Michelle’s advice for only a few bucks – purchase her books on Amazon.</p>
<p>This reminds me of a story I have related in other threads. I read this in a book–I would credit the book if I could remember which book I read the story in. Once upon a time a man had a college admission consulting business. He insinuated that he had an “in” with the admission committee at Brown University. He said to clients, “I can’t guarantee that every client I speak up for will get into Brown, but if your child doesn’t get into Brown, you’ll get your money back.” He asked for a payment of $3,000. Once the parents paid up, he proceeded to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. (In fact, he had no connection with the Brown admission committee at all.) Some of those applicants got into Brown, and he cashed their checks. Some others didn’t get into Brown, and he returned their checks. That’s a pretty good income for doing no actual work.</p>
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[quote=Korg]
The thought that people who hire Ms. Hern</p>
<p>My 3 kids worked with a private admissions consultant (not Michele) whose main task was to help them identify schools that were appropriate for them. 2 of my kids ended up at schools they had never heard of previously (I had heard of one but didn’t know much about it and would have never thought about it for DS; I had never heard of the school our youngest D ended up at.) All 3 kids LOVED their schools and thrived. It was worth every cent we paid.</p>
<p>If you read her website, she likes to start working with students in the 9th grade. So ‘shaping their extracurriculars’ means providing guidance. In other words, if you are talented in science, she will find science competitions for you to compete in, and give advice on how to do well in them. By the time you are a senior you have a resume tailor made to what Michele knows your dream college wants.</p>
<p>She was the former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth so it’s safe to say she knows what she’s talking about. But if you dont want to spend too much money I suggest buying her book “A is for Admission” which was informative and even if it is a bit outdated (1997) I think it still conveys what colleges want.</p>
<p>hmom5 - </p>
<p>Back in the last century, I worked overseas for a college-placement and exam prep company. The company directors did indeed communicate on a regular basis with the programs these students were applying too. One university was known to give instant, positive, admissions decisions for candidates recommended by my boss, and several other universities were known to rarely reject one of our candidates. Granted, these were international candidates so in many ways the company served the role of a guidance counselor or college faculty advisor.</p>
<p>Things may indeed be different for US-based college placement companies, but frankly it is difficult for me to believe that these folks don’t in some way communicate with at least one or two “pet” universities thus guaranteeing that their candidates have a place to go in the fall.</p>
<p>^ I think hmom5 is right when it comes to domestic applicants. I go to a boarding school with a lot of international students and yes, they do use connections like you describe (for example, my friend from Hong Kong sent his resume, an unofficial transcript, and test scores to USC in September, to get a kind of early evaluation).</p>
<p>I’ve never seen this happen with domestic applicants (unless they have some crazy connections like a kid whose mom was admissions dean at Cal).</p>
<p>Happymom, back in the day the college counselors at the elite prep schools would call the Dir of Admissions at HYP and tell them which boys they’d be sending that year. Trust me, those days are over.</p>
<p>Here is Hernandez addressing the issue:</p>
<p>[For</a> $40K, Consultant Gets Kids Ivy-League Ready : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95034319]For”>For $40K, Consultant Gets Kids Ivy-League Ready : NPR)</p>
<p>Michele responds in person – I think many in this forum pinpointed the advantage of working with a counselor. Indeed, I start with many students in 8th or 9th grade and have several years to push them, channel their interests, help them develop areas of expertise, but you are correct in that I cannot invent TALENT. I work with many talented students, but I can’t “make” someone a great bass clarinet player. But I can help them find ways to build on their own talents and interests in a way that helps their college admissions chances. As for statistics - you are all correct in being wary of stats, including mine. A few points to clarify: 1 – I don’t turn anyone down because I don’t think they would get into a top college just to “juke” my stats. My goal is to match them to the best college that is the right match in their RANGE as determined by their academic prowess. I have many kids who don’t apply to Ivies - of those that DO, 92% get in, but many are gunning for the Hamilton’s, Colgate’s, etc… and not HYP. 2 – I would turn down the unrealistic parent who thought their 2.5 GPA kid would get into Cal tech - no point in working with parents who are unrealistic about their own kids. And yes, I have helped give free advice on CC for years, my books (4 of them) are all $10 (and by the way, the NEW UPDATED A is for Admission will be out in 2 weeks, so look for it as much of the outdated stuff is rewritten!), I sell many less expensive guides and products on my web site, but whether you think my one on one consulting is worth it (I’ll let parents and students, a decade’s worth, be the guide here), it’s unfair to criticize without knowing the time I put in and the results my students have had. The good news is, I offer help at every price point, so I don’t think CC members need to criticize my most expensive offering when much of what I offer is free or under $100. is it as good as working with me for 4 years? No, but it certainly can help and I’ve led the charge to making much of this “secret” info public in the first place.</p>
<p>Michelle:</p>
<p>great to hear that you updated your A for Admission. It’s a great read and I highly recommend it to cc. No family should be without.</p>
<p>Thanks Bluebayou - appreciate it!
Michele</p>