<p>“Lousy consultant. Wrong advice”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think a lot of high-priced college consultants give bad advice. Those who serve the target market of Ivy-wannabes with discretionary income have probably figured out that they can make more money telling the kid’s parents what they think they want to hear than actually trying to help the kids reach his goals.</p>
<p>A good college counselor might have helped “Bob” and his parents develop a good list of match safety schools- learned more about what type of engineer Bob wanted to be, and helped develop a list of strong engineering schools that Bob could consider in addition to Cornell. </p>
<p>But if that counselor had said to the parents, “Cornell’s admissions is unpredictable, let’s work on finding good programs where a high stat applicant like Bob is sure to be admitted.” – or “relax – just let Bob explore what he wants, it’s good to have unusual or offbeat experiences to write about in the essay”… the parents would probably have hired someone else. </p>
<p>So unless that consultant offered a money-back guarantee, it’s to his benefit to give bad (but time consuming) advice that fits the parents preconceived notions of what their kid should be doing to improve chances of admission. </p>