We worked with Solomon Admissions and were beyond impressed with the service. For background, DD has competitive test scores, a high GPA, and decent ECs. But she doesn’t have any national-level awards that would truly make her shine in the eyes of the AdCom.
Initially, we were unsure about working with a college consultant. The service is expensive and there are no guarantees about the final result. DD tried applying SCEA on her own, but she struggled to put together a creative and impressive personal statement and supplemental essays. In the end, DD wasn’t confident with her application and ended up not applying early to her dream school. I was very disappointed with her; however, I also knew I personally couldn’t provide the support she needed with her essays.
After talking to friends, a parent strongly recommended Solomon, we reached out to Solomon mid-December. Luckily they did have a spot open for us after their other successful SCEA and ED admissions. We signed the 3-school package. After the consultant reviewed DD’s statistics and EC’s and spoke to her on the phone, he provided us with great strategic positioning - a way that would make her truly stand out from all the other applicants. By that time, she had already written the essays for the 3 schools, but the consultant recommended that my daughter rewrite her personal statement and supplemental essays. The consultant worked extensively with DD on these essays. They worked together on coming up with an outline for each essay that would align with her positioning. Afterward, she sent him a draft and he promptly provided some honest feedback. They worked together on multiple drafts for each essay before being sent to a professional editor who would improve them.
We were incredibly impressed by the consultant’s thoroughness and dedication. Even on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, he was working with DD on her applications. After the applications were submitted, the consultant immediately provided DD with a list of interview questions and specific tips on interviewing with each school. They did a mock interview and he provided very detailed feedback for each question. Not only has DD learned the ins and the outs of the college application process, but she has also learned how to present and market herself - skills that will benefit her in the future. No matter what the final college decision results are, I am highly satisfied with Solomon Admissions. From my experience, Solomon consultants truly care about their students and work hard to help them get into their dream school. I would recommend the services of Solomon to every family.
We worked with Solomon for almost a year and I was impressed from the first phone call to the submission of the last application! We were paired with the perfect consultant that guided every step of the way. He created a master plan on our first phone call and we followed each step. He identified schools that we should considered based on our daughter’s interest. He answered hundred of text and email’s we sent on a weekly bases. Our Consultant Victor was calm and a guiding light though then entire process. His vast and well rounded knowledge was invaluable. It gives me great peace of mind to know we did everything possible to make sure that our daughter has the best chance of acceptance into a top 10 school - that will truly be life changing experience for her.
Thx for posting this candid and helpful reply. Your summary seems very much on point
We worked with Solomon for both our kids and we are pretty happy with our decision. Both our children received acceptances from their top 3 choice schools. Our second child is still waiting on the Ivies. We are Asian-American and therefore at a disadvantage. The key is to engage with Solomon when you are a freshman. What they provide is a narrative that blends all your interests in academics and extra-curricular activities and enable you to come up with a compelling story to the admission officers. We had the luck to get a very knowledgeable counselor to work with us. She is extremely knowledgeable, meticulous, no-nonsense and most important, very effective. She says it like it is and doesn’t sugar-coat – which aligns well with our family’s wavelength.
I’m an international student who found out about Solomon relatively late, around the September/October of my senior year. I was paired with a senior consultant after indicating an idea of my top three schools (all with acceptance rates below 10%). Throughout the process, he kept me on track with deadlines and useful, honest feedback; I eventually gained acceptance into my first-choice ED school.
My overall experience with Solomon has been very positive! They’re professional and much more helpful than the counsellors at my school.
I agree with @BatmanRocks, though—I wish I’d found out about them earlier.
Wow. Am I the only one who thinks it is more than a coincidence that these brand new posters are commenting on this thread with their great experience? Is this a paid advertisement?
@Lindagaf You are not the only one.
Nope… But I want to know the stats of these kids. It’s one thing if a 4.0 36 Act gets in x, compared to a 3.6 32 Act kid
Given that the majority of these comments are from hit and run “members” (and I say that with much skepticism), I doubt the veracity of anything said here in regards to stats, @Knowsstuff .
My guess is that get a discount off their bill if they agree to post positive reviews. Or of course, it could be Solomon employees.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Let’s move on. Provide testimonials and users can (and should) make their own determinations.
I am a student who worked with a Solomon counselor for my top three colleges, (JHU, Brown, and UChicago) from August to my ED acceptance notification in December. From my experience, it was a service that’s totally worth it; my consultant (Mark, I believe), helped me pick out schools based on my interests and if I actually had a chance at getting admitted. Those selections saved my family a lot of hassle and time, as we didn’t have to waste time and resources on colleges I really didn’t have much of a chance on getting into. This was really important since my family was pretty new to the college admissions process. He was also of great use in helping me write essays, giving insightful recommendations and being willing to be ready at any time to answer my phone calls (of which there were many). I cannot emphasize how much that input would influence not only the essays he edited (I rewrote those 3-4 times each), but also the other essays that he didn’t see.
Now, the counselors will tell it as it is and often quite bluntly; however, I felt like that was quite beneficial in the end. They don’t sugarcoat the fact that getting admissions into some of the most selective schools is nearly impossible and looking back I believe that honesty motivated me to work harder.
If you want to know, here are my stats.
GPA (out of a 4.0) as of junior year: 4.60
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
ACT Composite: 35
SAT Subject Tests (Mol. Biology, World History, US History): 800
I can say that I am a customer of Solomon and found them to be over-priced, with difficulty accessing their staff once the (huge) bill was paid. Their guidance about courses to take in junior year was lacking imagination, no different from school guidance counselors, and their editing of college essays in the summer and fall of senior year was also not great. I ended up providing editorial comments and finding errors in the essays even after their editing was complete. We are awaiting decision letters, so I wanted to post this comment on Solomon prior to that so it’s clear that this isn’t sour grapes. The only real benefit I think we got from signing up for Solomon was some help staying on schedule. Really really really not worth the money!
We worked with Solomon Consulting for my son. We joined in 2018, in his Sophomore year. It was indeed a financial commitment of a large sum, and at least for us, a bit unnerving. After the contractual process (we signed up for 5 college apps) was over, my son was connected with a Sr. consultant Peter Zimmerman. Peter, from the very early on got involved in his coursework selection, Extracurriculars, volunteer work, and emphasized building a narrative. Peter’s unique insights and technique convinced us, the parents, to back off and let him take the driver seat. We were thrilled how things progressed from there on out. My son bought into it. Peter kept checking, guiding, kept setting next targets and milestones the next 18 months, and my son kept achieving it.
Peter then helped us select the 5 schools in summer after the Junior year, recommended early admission route based on fit and admittance chance. He worked diligently on the essays and the questionnaires with my son. Many, many edits. My son Applied and was admitted to both Duke as ED, and Caltech as EA. We are obviously ecstatic as these were ‘reach’ schools.
I believe Solomon consulting is very underrated. Their insights into what each individual college look for, and how to build your application accordingly were pivotal in my son’s admittance to two of the most prestigious schools in US. I remember during a college visit at Georgetown last summer, The admission director said " we can fill our seats 3 times over if we just select HS valedictorians, we need more". Solomon consulting was that differentiator at the end.
These testimonials sound too perfect to be true. My S20 just got accepted to an elite college and I want to share that super expensive college consulting is not really needed if you do your own research. I know it is a scary process but it is not really that mystical. What got my kid in I believe: high rigor in courses, high GPA (one B did not hurt him), leadership in several clubs, a good internship and an interesting personality that shone through the essays.
just pitching in our experience and results, working with Solomon Consulting. People can make their own minds, and have different affordability levels too. College admissions is not mystical, true, but not all kids are leadership material (mine included) or get good internships or have interesting personalities (my kid is serious and not imaginative). We needed help to bring out, build, differentiate, and showcase his strong areas. We knew we needed help to pull it off.
Agreed! Their marketing material is very compelling and they do put on the hard sell. My need was last minute and i wanted to see if they could assist with 1 schools. This was not part of their package.
At the end, against my advice my child didn’t want use a counselor and did all her app and essays herself. Results have been solid thus far.
I agree @snsh17 Buyer beware!
I wrote the #55 review. I wanted to post a review of my experience after my son accomplished exceptional admission results. So yeah, I am new, and yeah this is only my experience. I can’t speak for others. Solomon Consulting is a premium service, they are not just essay editors for applications time. I joined them in my son’s Sophomore year, and we worked together as a team throughout. A lot of guidance and material they provided would not have remotely occurred to me (… and I have a BS in EE). I had to hold back my ego to get along at times also, and at times my son was stretched and overwhelmed. It was a process for us. They don’t sweet-talk, and our consultant was hard on my son, constantly pushing him to do better, and more. My son is a very bright kid, but bright kids don’t always end up admitted at Duke and Caltech. What I learned is that If you have high aspirations for your kid, and are strongly committed, Solomon Consulting can provide you a clear edge.
The whole process of my college application process went very smoothly with Solomon Admissions Counseling. I was paired with a wonderful consultant who was formerly an admissions reader at multiple schools so he is very familiar with what admissions officers are looking for in an applicant. During our first call, he had created an application document for me, that included courses I’ve taken, grades I received, awards I’ve achieved and extracurricular activities I am involved in. From there, he created a plan on how I was going to present myself in my applications and since I started Solomon at the beginning of my junior year, he advised me on certain activities I should involve myself in to bolster my application in junior and the beginning of senior year. Being a former admissions reader, he knew exactly what direction I should take so that my essays and extracurriculars and interests written in my application would be read favorably among the admissions committee. Because of his excellent guidance, I was able to get into my dream school!