@hoovermam Do you mind sharing /or pm me - what did not work out with Solomon’s services? Considering working with them, so any input will be greatly appreciated!
@goofball00 Which package (how many schools) did you go with? Out of those schools, to how many were you accepted? Their admission rate stats aren’t quite clear since they include international applicants and students who have been working with them since freshmen/sophomore years. We’re considering their senior application package. If you were able to complete the 11/1 SCEA application in 2-3 weeks and 6-7 apps by early December— how much time did you have to put in per day? What does the “roadmap” that they talk about look like? Is it just a schedule of when things need to be completed? Anything that you can share about the process would be great (via the thread or pm). Thanks!
This is my experience so please put this in your consideration. My son stats: SAT 1590, 5 on all APs, volunteered at homeless shelter for 4 years, few clubs ( only treasurer for leadership roles- my husband and I were working long days and needed him to watch special needs brother).
Didn’t realize college application were so crazy now. School counselors were overwhelmed and their goal is to make sure students graduate not to get them into top colleges. Didn’t realize he wanted to get into MIT/ Caltech/Stanford until summer before senior year. Solomon process looked great on paper. Told us that our son is a great candidate for those schools and “led” us to the personal program- $10,000 for 3 schools. Told us we had 24 hours as they only had 1 spot. Long story short- its a waste of money in this kind of situation. If you want more details let me know and would be glad to discuss more with you.
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Sorry to prod, but did they not help, or did they not get results or did you not use them or are you using them now, etc?
@hoovermam If you don’t mind, what made it a waste of money? Did they not provide services that they said they would; what did you not like about the process? Thanks!
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I’m still quite new to forum ( join last year to help figure out what to do last year) Apparently you need 15 posts/junior member to PM someone. I would love to tell you what we went through but it would take too long here. Long story short- I felt that they fell short on their promises. For example- I asked for interview help. All I got was an email response leading to web links on advice on interviews and a few pointers of what to do/don’t do ( common sense and basically same things from the website sites). The advisor seemed busy with their own life and did not do a “mock”interview. Not a single prep question for specific college interviews. Nada. To be fair- maybe they are helpful for someone else’e child as above like goofball. But for the highly competitive schools with high achieving academic students -in retrospect- it’s a waste of money - at least in my case and the way we were treated. Hope this helps.
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@Curiously13- We used them. They did not meet my expectations ( see an example in another reply) and I would not recommend them based on my experience. The expectation was not about getting them into these particular colleges but to help get ready or prepare them for the process. Not much help or advice. It’s about the process and process went downhill from the minute they received my money.
@hoovermam , I am so sorry to hear that your experience was not that good. Since @curiously13 asked a few specific questions, I would share about our experience with Solomon, which was very positive. We reached out to them in late Sept in DS’s senior yr. We signed up like 7-8 school package. DS has the aspiration to do the work , knowing he has good stats and want to give top schools a shot, we fully supported, we did not want to leave any regrets. He has competitive test scores, GPAs, and ECs, and our consultant helped him to showcase his compelling stories. DS spent 3 weeks working intensively with the consultant to perfect his personal statement and his SCEA supplement essays in the month of Oct, he did many drafts , till both the consultant and himself felt happy about those. He then followed the timeline his consultant gave him, strategically tackled the other schools on his list including effectively recycled some of the essays, he would sent his consultant the essay as soon as he finished one, while waiting for feedbacks, he started to draft the next one, it took 2-4 days to get the feedback, he then revise those essays again. Depends on the essays , some took 2-3 rounds to perfect, some needed no revision. He also had a mock skype interview with his consultant which was very helpful. By mid Dec, he had finished additional 6 school application drafts. In mid Dec he got his acceptance to his dream school (HYPMS league), he later on only submitted one additional application, he did not apply more schools even though he had the applications ready. End of the March we were thrilled to find out he got into the 2nd HYPMS school he had applied. DS was very diligent, I think he spent 1-2 hour a day at least 2-3 weekdays per week plus more hours on weekends from late Oct to mid Dec on college applications while still stayed on top of his ECs and his challenge senior courses. To say it was a lot of work is just an understatement, but I think he viewed his college application as taking another challenge course , he wanted to do it well and he did. We felt our investment on his college consultant was one of the best things we did for him.
@goofball00. Would you of felt the same way if your child didn’t get into these schools but did the work?
@goofball100. Your experiences were opposite to mine. The advisor didn’t get our names right, nor the colleges we were applying to in the beginning. Seemed like an email template that was given back to us., probably from another student but the names were changed, but not their college choices (red flag there). I requested a change in advisor and was told no, that the advisor was solid. I went along with it hoping they were right. But it felt like a catch up - my child did the work then waited to hear back from them for awhile until it became a rush on their part. No help with recommendations and no mock interview. There was a revision with one essay but the rest of the essays were basically unchanged. Overall I felt the advisor was too busy with their own work until I had to ask them what was going on. Not worth it in my opinion. Everything was also finished by early Mid December. My child was also top of his class, took a lot of AP courses, near perfect 4.0 ( unweighted)and also was very diligent, spending lots of night working on his essays as well as attending to classes and EC stuff. My child will enter college with nearly 2 years of college credit already under their belt. Basically I rolled the dice and took a $10,000 risk to relieve my anxiety so that I felt we did the best we could with no regrets. You were lucky with your consultant. We waited … a lot. I felt that we always had to initiate contact to get things going. They wanted us to spend more money for more colleges but after this experience, we said no and my child got into a college that we are satisfied with with no help from this service.
The reason why I’m posting is to let others know it’s a crapshoot. I tried to do due diligence and searched over the web about this company and looked for reviews. Only found one unhappy customer but felt that maybe it was them. But there was really no other reviews to help someone make an appropriate decision. So, here I am stating some facts that I had experienced. Maybe if my child was applying for a non competitive field or won an olympic medal, things would have been different. Honestly all the information can be gleamed from sites like college confidential. I did find it interesting that when we applied in early Sept of our child’s senior year- they only told me that there was 1 spot only and that I had 24 hours to make that decision. Seems like there was another opening later in the month. Congrats to your child. In the end we are happy with our kid’s choice as well but it was done without their assistance. I just wished the process was as suggested by the brochure, especially at the higher service. This was NOT about my child getting in those colleges but the process. Just let the buyer be aware that you can have a great experience like goofball or not and to be prepared.
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@hoovermam Thank you for sharing your experience with SAC! Congrats to your child & Best wishes!
@goofball00 Would you please share the initials or first name of he SAC consultant that worked so well with your DS. I would like to see if that consultant would be available for my DS this year. Thank you.
@goofball00 Yes, Pls if you could share the consultant name u worked with as we plan to sign up with Solomon but they insist on taking the premium package which is far more expensive too.
People pay per college? Is that typical? I thought that some of the advantages of hiring a consultant was that they can help you come up with a list of schools based on fit. So it was $10K for the common app essay 3 school supplements, basically?
May you share the counselor’s name ?
We contracted with Solomon Admissions to support our daughter’s college application process and are very pleased with the service and results.
Understand that this is not a scenario of Solomon doing the work for you. The applicant is still responsible for preparing their own application. Solomon’s experienced staff provided cycles of reviews, honest feedback and targeted suggestions to address shortcomings. This is extremely valuable because their review is similar to how college admissions boards would view an applicant that they have no prior knowledge of, other than what is provided in the application package for review. With Solomon’s support and guidance, her application package improved and really optimized the representation of her background, accomplishments, and abilities in a more clear and convincing manner.
We are very pleased that her early decision application at a very competitive university was successful.
@curiousyoda, @blowfish, @Jes3, @tsbasmo1,
Are you using Solomon admissions? Can you please share your experience with them so far? Also can you specify if your child is a sophomore or junior or senior in high school? Very much appreciated!!
@collegedad116
How long did your daughter work with the consultant? How many colleges package (3 or 6 or 10) did you choose and did you choose their “premium” or “standard” package? Were you able to negotiate the price down with them and in how many installments did you pay? If you don’t mind sharing, which major did your daughter choose? Would really appreciate if you could answer these questions!!!
I would like to contribute to this community by sharing our experiences with Solomon. We are very proud of our decision to work with Solomon and a talented and diligent consultant assigned for my son, GA who got into one of the HSPMY top colleges by EA program last week. Before deciding to work with Solomon, we interviewed more than five consultant companies. Choosing a right consultant service is critical. After a couple of conversations between GA and the consultant, I realized we made a right decision. There may be uncertainties about the final result beyond our control, but I believed GA would achieve the best result from his side. I recommended Solomon to my close friends a while ago. Having high level mentors in different life stages of a person absolutely makes big differences. I believe not only the experience interacting with the consultant from Solomon helped GA to get into a good college but makes GA to understand the future direction in a big picture of life: how to improve self, help others, contribute to the communities effectively. I very enjoy the interactions between GA and the consultant, such as brainstorming, discussing, convincing, clear and efficient communication back and forth, etc. I didn’t get into details in this note such as how they worked on Essay, etc. I thought these are standard and normal procedures that any consulting companies claim. The key point is the quality of the consultants and the standard of the organization.
I am in a unique position, or perhaps not so unique. I chose to enroll my daughter in Solomon based on a referral from a friend whose daughter was also working with them. I have since seen a few more of my daughter’s friends go through the program and achieve targeted results. Each has gained a vast majority of skillsets necessary for this process but they have each gained confidence in their directives moving forward. I am beyond thankful for what they have done to guide my daughter towards reaching her top choice school. Her consultant was incredibly gifted at what he does, he was able to tap into what makes my daughter tick and help her expose it on paper. She undertook and was guided on a path of extracurriculars that were challenging but fun for her and lifted her resume. She had some lofty goals but we had time to develop a “pitch” for her. I highly recommend Solomon, and also recommend getting started as soon as possible. I get that question a lot, when is the right time to start? Now. I learned that the hard way. There is a lot that can be done through their knowledge and assistance, taking advantage of any time you have is crucial. You will never get this time back in the process. Daughter was accepted EA a few weeks ago HYPSM. Thank you Solomon Admissions!