<p>brysia,</p>
<p>I would highly recommend not hiring an admissions consultant. Every college has a different sort of personality, and requires different types of people - and the admissions officers know that. If a college is truly a good match for your daughter, the college will accept her. She should go somewhere matching her talents - if you use a consultant to get into a name-brand school, competing with students who are extremely talented (not to say that your daughter is not, because I know nothing about her - sorry if it comes across that way!) may be bad for her self-esteem, post-college opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>All in all, you don’t choose a college - the college chooses you. The best thing you can do for your daughter is encourage her to be herself in the admissions process. First choices change - I know that my first choice was Stanford, but I visited during Admit Weekend in my accepted colleges and decided finally on MIT, because the atmosphere when school is in session is totally different than the atmosphere in the summer. So please, do without the counselor and let your daughter be herself - she’ll be happier in the long run.</p>