Are private College Consultants worth using?

blossom
Tue, 10 Nov 2020 00:55:51 +0000

I know folks who hired one and felt it was a total waste of money, others who thought it was money well spent.

I think it depends on how realistic your goals are.

Can a counselor get you significantly more need-based aid than your finances suggest? Not by doing anything legal if your kids are already seniors. Marginally more money? Yes. If you are divorced and have a complicated financial situation then a counselor (who is really experience with YOUR particulars) might be helpful, especially if it defuses a toxic relationship with an ex-spouse.

Can a counselor get your kid merit aid? Yes- by suggesting schools you might not have thought of on your own- but you can find those colleges all by yourself, and with suggestions from folks here. The trick (as it were) is getting you and your kid to expand your geographic profile (not every family is willing to do that) AND to consider some colleges you’ve never heard of. No counselor can take a nice, bright, well rounded kid and magically get them a full ride at Harvard (need based aid only) or a full ride at Berkeley if you live in NY.

So OP- if you can share some of what you’re hoping a counselor can do for you, we can help you figure out if the hype and the reality are going to match up. And if the cost is going to pay out for you. Paying 5K to get a $1500 “award” to a college which was already on your radar isn’t much of an ROI.

There are no “secrets” to financial aid btw. So if a consultant tells you their package includes the “Secrets”, run the other way. It’s not a secret that making more money generally means less in aid, and it’s not a secret that there are lots of ways to “shelter” your money from college because while there are ways to do that, most of them are illegal. And then you have bigger problems than an unsavory college counselor…