I am international applicant and even when people in my area are applying to competitive local schools they use consultants. I didn’t use a consultant for the process and now im worried if I should have. Do the people you know who are applying use consultants, what have you heard, did I miss out?
Situations vary. Sometimes consultants contact the schools and sometimes they remain in the background.
I think consultants are quite popular in certain countries outside the US. A good consultant would be able to help the student build a well balanced list and hopefully introduce you to schools that might not be on your radar. They would have traveled to the schools and can provide you with a good picture of the environment. They also should have relationships with the schools and this is helpful for them to understand if you are a right fit and a what the school is looking for as they build the community. Also, they should understand how students from your country/city adapt and fit in at the school.
No consultant should promise or guarantee an outcome.
For a consultant for local schools much of the same applies.
Did you miss out - that is hard to answer! Do you feel you followed the prompts, understood the culture of each school, met their academic standards and showed the school how you would contribute to the community ?
I have no proof of this, but my gut tells me that OAs judge applicants that use a consultant differently than they do a kid that had the desire and drive to do all the work themselves.
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I would politely disagree with this - in many cases. Schools host consultant visits, they attend conferences together and many consultants are former AO’s from boarding, day and college programs.
I think consultants get lumped together and there are ones that are not reputable - it is a problem since there is no barrier of entry for the profession. There are many talented and ethical consultants out there too and families need to do
their homework.
A school that welcomes a relationship with a consultant can find out even more about the candidate, potentially information not disclosed to the school, gauge the students interest in attending and also help guide the student and family to finding right fit schools.
We remain grateful for our kids college consultant and I know friends on the boarding and day school space that feel the same way about working with one. What we see on CC is the same group of boarding schools and local independent schools by market - when there are so many more options - just like with colleges.
CC also tends to be negative about hiring a consultant with parents that didn’t hire one and have no direct experience leading the way. I tend to come in and defend, as we have personal experience and the experience of friends - all of us having kids with different profile and learning environments that found value with the consultant relationship.
Lastly, it doesn’t have to be cost prohibitive. I would shy away from the high price, large staff firms - and that is by personal choice. Plenty of individual consultants with smaller packages and even hourly services. Research, ask around and speak to former families and even AO’s.
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can you dm me
I think consultants can be valuable in helping a family “figure it all out” and find the right fit, but that doesn’t mean that AO’s don’t give a measure of grace to the kid that is obviously doing it all on their own. They are not expecting the “polished” application of a kid that used a consultant. I’m not saying either one has an advantage, I’m just saying that AOs know not to compare apples to oranges.
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We are international and did not hire a consultant. From afar, I did a lot of research and narrowed things down to six schools that fit very specific criteria. My DS then chose four of them. His application was both realistic and optimistic rather than polished. He is not fancy, nor are his ECs. But we proofread it and thought it “felt” like him.
No matter the outcome, no regrets. Best foot forward.
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If you hire a consultant, their job is to make sure you will attend a BS that is a good fit for you next year. The benefit is that they get to know you and guide you to the best place for you (including ones where you are likely to be admitted!). Is that an advantage? For many students, absolutely!
Does that mean you need to have a consultant? No! @cheerfulmom knows the lay of the land, has done a lot of research, is clear about priorities, so in all likelihood, would have paid a consultant to create the same list. A family considering only day options may be so limited by geography that a consultant can’t curate a list. The majority of applicants don’t have consultants.
In terms of application help, they can help clients think about essay topics, but you can get the same editing help by showing your essay to your English teacher. Btw, AOs are really not impressed by essays clearly written or over- editted by adults.
At this point, you have done your best. Don’t worry about a path you didn’t follow.
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We’re here in the states and used a consultant. Our kid’s private middle school just doesn’t send kids to BS and we didn’t know anything about them either so the school actually brought one in for two sessions. She was great but she mostly helped him make a list of schools to look at. She didn’t read essays or call schools.
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Consultants can be helpful in navigating the process and ensuring that you don’t make obvious mistakes. That said, I wouldn’t worry about missing out. Since you are on this board, you clearly are doing your own research and learning key things yourself. In terms of applications, much of the key things that schools evaluate are things that consultants can’t be very helpful with, like your interview, test scores, grades, and recommendations. Yes, they can help you prepare, but their impact will be limited on those items. They definitely can make your search and application process more efficient, but you also learn a lot by leading the process yourself. You miss out on things by not using a consultant, but you also miss out on things if you use one.