OVERPRICED admission consultants alternative??

College Essays
1

<p>Hello everyone!</p>

<p>I’m a worried mother of 3 trying to make sure my first gets into a good college after school and was hoping for some advice! </p>

<p>Does anyone else feel as annoyed as me about these admission consulting people charging thousands of dollars to review your kids essays, resume etc??? I personally would love to use this sort of service but just cant afford the sort of money they charge. It feels as though its not a level playing field when my son is competing against people getting all this advice that our family cant afford!!</p>

<p>Are there any similar services where I can get someone who knows how to get into a good school to talk to consult with my son and I about his essays?? I’d even be more than happy to pay a smart college kid who got into a good school to give some advice to my son for a small fee (my budget is no more than $100) – has anyone else ever searched for anything like this before? Does it exist???</p>

<p>Thank you all so much and god bless</p>

<p>Jenn</p>

2

<p>Can he ask his English teacher to take a look at his essay?</p>

3

<p>I don’t think there is anything that a consultant can do that you can’t do for yourself. I don’t know what schools your child is looking at, but I can promise you that for every admit that was professionally “packaged” there are many hundreds, in some case thousands, that did it the “old fashioned” way. Kids have been getting in to college for a long time without the benefit of consultants. Is it more competitive today? Of course…but if you and your child are willing and able to invest some time, and be creative with the many, many resources (like CC, for one) that are available to anyone who has, or can get access to, a computer…there’s no reason to think that s/he will be at a disadvantage. </p>

4

<p>My daughter’s essays were read by our family (including her little sister). She bounced a few ideas off the family when she was working on them. Some of them were read by one or two of her best friends. Some of them were read by her English teacher. I don’t know anyone in our area paying for professional college advisers to “edit” their essays. I really doubt that is the norm. Personally, I wouldn’t want a stranger advising her on what her essays should be or how to present herself. That seems so fake to me.</p>

5

<p>I don’t think a student would have the perspective needed to be really helpful - other than perhaps helping with editing. The hardest part of the process is deciding what to write about and some of the consultants are really very good at helping the kids identify the right topic. That said - for $100 you are highly unlikely to find anyone. A lot of schools have “Essays That Worked” online - I would suggest having your son/daughter read through as many of them as possible. Some of the best ones are not about monumental events - they are very nuanced, and very personal. Hopefully that will spark some ideas. </p>

6

<p>My sister was asked by the son of some friends to review his essays. The family could have afforded to pay any amount, but she was this student’s first choice. She must have done a good job as he was accepted to Dartmouth, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and many other top schools (not Stanford :frowning: ). She’s just a well-read person who is a good editor.</p>

<p>Ask. Ask friends, teachers, the librarian, older students. Have him read it aloud to you (if there are difficult phrases, they will be hard to read aloud).</p>

7

<p>I agree with most of the above. We don’t know anyone who used a consultant and son and friends got into some top notch schools. They used each other and teachers to review essays, as well as anyone else willing to read and critique. My fear of consultants is that the essay could end up being a “cookie cutter” essay, where I feel these schools really just want something from the heart that helps them get to know the applicant. I think you will be just fine without spending a fortune on a consultant. </p>

8

<p>RE EDITING: In my lawyering work we often read aloud entire documents to someone with the same hard copy document to look for error/confusion/clunkiness. </p>

9

<p>The English teachers at my daughter’s high school review essays for admissions.</p>

<p>However, the “secret” to college admissions, is to find a college that meets your needs that you can afford.</p>

<p>You can maximize selectivity, but if you can’t afford the school that may not help.
You can minimize cost, but that is complicated, because list price is obvious, but the discounted price is not.</p>

<p>You should try to calculate the Net Price Calculator for a few schools, with the understanding that the results for the self employed may not match .</p>

<p>You should not be hung up on USNWR rankings.
For example, if you are studying engineering, any ABET program is good.</p>

<p>Personally, I believe that the following are measures of school quality:
4 year graduation rate
class size (after freshman year , are there more smaller classes and more interaction with students and professors
class selectivity. if your student scores a 30 on the act, would he/she be happy at a school where the median score is 24? If you are qualified for the honors college at a public university, you will get a private school experience with brighter , more motivated students for a public university price)</p>

<p>If you have a low EFC and high stats, the more selective colleges that meet need, will be good choices.
If you have a high EFC, and low savings, you should look at colleges that provide merit aid.</p>

<p>You want to graduate with as little debt as possible.</p>

<p>I didn’t pay for any advisor.</p>

<p>If you only want to find out what schools your child has a good chance of being accepted to, start with the tool on this forum and Naviance statistics for your high school.</p>

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<p>For some perspective there’s a book written by Lacy Crawford called Early Decision: Based on a True Frenzy. It’s a fictional account of the college admissions process and it’s a giggle as well as a cautionary tale. Except…I confess I kind of saw a little of myself in some of the parental activity in time to dial it back a bit. Thank goodness I’m not wealthy yikes!</p>

<p>Use Naviance, use CC, there are a lot of really smart, helpful people on here who give advice for free because they want to be helpful! Invest in, don’t borrow because you will mark it up and have it for a long time, a 573 best colleges book (or whatever) and look through it obsessively, er carefully, and tag the pages with sticky notes, then remove them as you eliminate colleges. Just taking the SAT and/or ACT will get your student on mailing lists of more colleges than you ever dreamed. Look at the stuff they send, then recycle it, you won’t have to remember who’s who as they will continue to send the same info in a different package for the next 27 months. Really you will do a far better job than some consultant because you have a vested interest in the process and you know your child better than anyone. Heck, you’re already doing a great job just by seeking out advice! </p>

<p>As far as essays, I’m sure your child can write a coherent sentence at this point but if you feel compelled to pay some college English major 100 bucks for assistance, I’m sure they would be most appreciative, I wouldn’t spend much more than that however. I can tell you my D never showed her essay to anyone at her school and every acceptance letter she received had a reference to her “great essay”, both of us thought it was good but never expected adcoms to actually mention it. The point is, have people outside the educational system and your family read it for content and ask them what they learned about your child. Maybe people in your workplace who graduated high school before 1988 or other well educated people at the gym, church, the local bar etc. “Real World” people. Some of the colleges have great tutorials on their websites as to what they look for in an essay, Boston University springs immediately to mind but many others do as well, just check their websites. Mostly, though, breathe and laugh, just don’t forget those two things and all will be well.</p>

11

<p>I am going to present the other side. We did use a counselor through a company called Collegewise and it was definitely a good value for us. They have a few different “plans” that include just the application review but we went for the full, unlimited counseling. The counselor was a young woman, former admissions person from a small southern school, but had a M.Ed from Penn. She helped my daughter come up with a list of schools that were a fantastic mix. She met with her every week for at least a couple of hours and helped keep her incredibly organized. My daughter had applications in before Labor Day and with the first one she applied to- a rolling admissions school- she knew within one week that she would at least be going to college. This is well before the ED apps were due in (she did not go ED but had several EA and was accepted by every one). My daughter is a good student, but she is not an uber-student. No significant leadership, some good community work, did not break 2000 on the SATs. Yet, due to the approach she took she has gotten into several schools that have excellent reputations and rankings. </p>

<p>It also took the pressure/tension off of us as parents so we could be her supporters but not her task masters. I actually never even saw her Common App or essays until it had already been submitted. I have yet to see any of the supplementals. That was her counselor’s job to help her, strategize with her. </p>

<p>I do think there are some good counselors and would not put them all into the expensive/not helpful category. </p>

12

<p>see what your kid’s school and local organizations have to offer. My school offered 3 different free options for college prep(in school course, evening sessions and summer sessions). The local community college also offered a couple of day long sessions for ~$50 a piece. I did a lot of this process the ‘old fashioned way’, but I did do the paid course and evening sessions and those helped some.</p>

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<p>A consultant can be helpful in choosing topics and editing essays, but it is not necessary, if you can get help from an english teacher, counselor, a well educated friend or a family member. I think the key is to start working on the essays early, like Junior year, and through the summer. Reading a few articles about successful college essays and reading some sample essays can also help you to see whether he is headed in the right direction. Whoever said that choosing a topic can be the most important part is correct. If the topic is poorly chosen, it will be very difficult to turn it into a good essay. You can do it!</p>

14

<p>FYI, some of us are not fortunate enough to have Naviance available at our high schools… wish we did. </p>

<p>Also, I would generally not trust an online only site. For laughs I read a book called Crazy U, that tracks one father’s journey through the college process. He hired one of the online sites to write an essay for him (which the son did not use) and the essay was trite and terrible.</p>

<p>Some high schools, or various Saturday academies, community colleges, local recreation centers will have little mini classes on how to write your college essay. The biggest advantage is that it gets the kids writing the essay over the summer and sharing them with others in the class and getting feedback from someone besides Mom and Dad.</p>

<p>Basic grammar and punctuation are obviously important. But beyond that, the most important thing for any reviewer or editor is to honor the writer’s voice. At the end of the editing process, does the essay still sound like your son and reflect how he views the world?</p>