Prep school admission consult recommendations?

MacJackAttack
Mon, 03 May 2021 14:39:48 +0000

This!!!
We hired a consultant. We already had our shortlist of schools before we hired her. We were allowed to purchase the ‘consultant very light’ package, which I felt that they only offered us when we politely declined their $$$$ full monty package.
We hired her to help our kid brainstorm topics for essays and then read and discuss them before submission. This had been a source of stress in our household and we were grateful to be able to remove ourselves from this chore with our typically conscientious, hard-working teen.
The consultant also did a practice interview with kiddo with some pointers.

The full monty package did include ‘advocating for your child with the school’ so I’m guessing that they speak with AO at each school after the application deadline. We did not pay for this and I have no idea if schools called the consultant about our kid. Somehow I doubt it.

I’m grateful that we hired her, just to preserve our sanity and the relationships in our house. She didn’t offer any mind-blowing insights (honestly, there is more up to date and relevant knowledge on this site) although she did encourage us to add a couple of schools to our list of only tippy top schools.