Any recommendations for an effective, savy but not outrageously expensive consultant to help with prep school admissions?
How about @GMC2918 and @LifeLongNYer? We are awesome 
Seriously, what do you think that you will be needing help with? DD applied out last year from a K-12 school, so with essentially no help. I spent as much time as I could with the K-8 boys’ school parents who were going through the process, as they’re masters at this. Other than that, I didn’t really feel that we needed help. The consultant prices that I’ve heard whispered are outrageously high…
We did not use a consultant. DD just had me, myself, and I, as DH was not involved at all in the process. It worked out well for DD, and she started process in the mid Fall.
If you start early enough, you shouldn’t need an expensive consultant, even if several schools are involved. Use summer to prepare for SSAT, request letters of recommendation in a timely manner, start asking smart adult friends or college students to look over essays when ready, etc.
Best of luck!
Another NYer here…daughter attended a k-8 private in the city and we didn’t use a consultant. We started our search for boarding school online and maybe 9 mo before admissions started. Researched online and this forum. Day schools we visited starting spring. Took a practices SSAT test with a testing company (Bespoke) so we could gauge where the scores would be and went from there. Start now and you should be fine. If you’re considering day schools too (in the city), use isaagny for the list of the schools.
We used Bespoke as well for test practice. It helps to see scores early, to get an idea of which schools would make sense. You also should book tours/interviews early, because prime Saturday spots fill up pretty quickly.
My DD’s only prep for SSAT was a practice test that I proctored at home. Used a practice test from book purchased on Amazon.com. Got everyone out of the house, put dog away, set up timers and away she went. I tried to mimic the actual timing and breaks as much as possible. Her practice results were very similar to actual results.
I agree with the previous posters. My daughter applied from a K-12 school. I went to the Parents League and spoke to one of their advisers which was free for members just to ask about the schools that we had on our list. We did have a tutor come 3 or 4 times to help prepare her for the SSAT. She took it once for practice and scored high enough that she didn’t have to take it again. I proofread her essays. She applied to four schools and was admitted to them all.
Re: SSAT, I bought almost all the prep books (Barron’s, Kaplan, Princeton Review, as well as SSAT official one, etc, through discount, amazon, used, etc) and had my kid do only the practice tests (not read the review section) 25 minutes a section test at a time, reviewing incorrect answers the next day. We signed up for June test (signed up as 8th grade although in 7th to do Upper test). After the June result, we focused on the weaknesses. Had the ONE real test in October and was done with SSAT.
Agree with all the above posters. I don’t think you need a consultant. Try us, we have very good advice if I do say so myself and we won’t even charge you 10K
We used a consultant for K1 who needed to find a school in Jube 2014. It was very helpful. As K1 transitioned to high school we had initially thought we would go back to the well, but with support from placement person at school and the work we could do on our own we saved the $.
I wish we had spent more time on SSAT prep and possibly looking at a larger range of schools. We only considered one school outside NE. We could not convince either kid to broaden the scope.
thanks everyone. I should explain that I’m looking for a consultant who could give a workhop or talk talk to a diverse group of parents who are looking for some guidelines navigating the private and public schools in NYC. Agree that it can be done without a consultant, but the group thought it would be helpful to bring someone in to present an overview and answer questions. Individuals may choose later to hire or not.
You might want to contact both the Parents League and the Junior League to see who they use/suggest. I would imagine that you might need two, because the private, public, and specialized public processes are all so maddeningly different from each other! You could also post on UrbanBaby if you’re feeling brave…
If its a one-off talk or workshop that you are trying to set up, contact the top specialists. I know that college consultants will give a one off that are actually extremely helpful. They do it to drum up business. No reason why BS consultants won’t do it. Parents League would probably also be happy to run a workshop for you. They are great.
You could see if Howard Greene or his son would be interested. I don’t think I’m allowed to post a link but you can google the name.