The landscape has changed considerably in the past six years. Back when my eldest son was applying to colleges, and specifically MIT, we hadn’t given a tremendous amount of thought to either the application process or the list of schools. However, were were connected to a local (presumably expensive) consultant through a mutual friend, and she was kind enough to work with my son pro bono because of our modest income. What I learned from both the consultant and the application process was both helpful and profound, though she mostly helped with essay editing and understanding how to communicate with colleges.
My son eventually graduated from MIT (and was admitted to all of his schools including Princeton, Penn, Caltech, Mudd, Vandy and WUSTL), but we didn’t really approach the admissions process differently because he was a STEM applicant, since it was clear from his background that he was heavily immersed in math and physics.
OTOH, I’ve worked with some STEM applicants that are more atypical and I would say it was helpful for the student to have a consultant to help tailor the application towards STEM while still emphasizing strengths elsewhere.