<p>I was the OP on the above-referenced thread. We did NOT wind up hiring an educational consultant because we had already narrowed down our list of schools to 3 - 5 good matches.</p>
<p>My son applied to 4 schools. We withdrew an app from one and he was accepted to the remaining three with generous FA.</p>
<p>We knew the schools were good matches for my son as a result of all of the research on CC and communications with CC’ers! If not, we would have needed a consultant! :)</p>