Look: if you’ve been wondering “Is college consulting worth it?” Is it too expensive? Or, any number of variations of the sort…

I’ve got some good news for you.

Yes. College consultants are worth it. But, only the right ones are worth it; and, there are a lot of bad ones out there. Like, A LOT.

So, before I tell you how to distinguish the “worth it” from the “not worth it”, I’m going to tell you the big, bad, and ugly.

Here we go.

I’ve been a college admissions consultant for many years now. I’ve seen just about everything and worked with clients from all over the world with all different backgrounds.

Here’s what I can say about a lot of college admissions consulting firms.

Many of them are…

untrustworthy
predatory
borderline extortionate
not as effective as they advertise
(sometimes) worse for you

As a consultant running my own firm, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this with my own eyes.

It’s not pretty.

In fact, here’s the dark side of college consulting: consultants will do everything they can to convince you (and your parents) that you have no chance of getting accepted into any school. Often, these are exaggerations made to scare students and parents into buying college consulting services. And, the more they fearmonger you, the more unnecessary add-ons they can charge you.

But wait! It gets worse!

Many college consulting firms will try to sell their services by telling their clients that they have previous Ivy League admissions officers working for their firm.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Except, it’s seldom actually true. Many of them are lies. And, even the ones who actually ARE previous admissions officers are NOT the ones actually working with you or your child.

Instead, most college consulting firms will hire students from Ivy League schools whilst charging extortionate rates. Meanwhile, your Ivy League mentor will be more focused on their senior thesis or research than your college application.

In other words, most college consulting firms do NOT have your best interests in mind. They prioritize selling more expensive services with unnecessary add-ons that don’t actually help you get accepted into your desired institution; and, their consultants are often underpaid students with other interests to worry about.

Good grief!

Now, does this mean that you’re out of luck?

Well, not really!

In fact, there are in fact some great college admissions consultants out there. They’re just quite rare.

Of course, this makes people think of a few things.

“Hey, if I just choose the most expensive college consulting firms out there, then I should be good! Right? The best ones should be the most expensive ones with the most comprehensive packages. Right?”

Well, before you start picking up the phone and contacting test prep centers, tutoring centers, and private consulting firms, you need to consider a few rules.

And by a few rules, we mean a checklist.

This is going to be a rather comprehensive guide on how to see whether college consulting is worth it for you. Then, we’ll be discussing how to choose the correct college consulting firm.

Table of Contents

Is College Consulting Worth it? Should I Get a College Consultant?
How to Tell if a College Admissions Consultant is Legit.
Where Can I Find a Legit College Consultant?

Professional College Application Help.

Contact us. We'll get to you within 24 hours.

Is College Consulting Worth it? Should I Get a College Consultant?

There are a million reasons to hire a college consultant and a million more to not. So many facts. So much data. So much analysis.

That’s why we’re going to make it very simple for you. Ready?

Are you stressed?

Yes = hire a college consultant.

No = don’t hire a college consultant.

Let me explain.

If you’re not stressed about the college admissions process, you’re probably already in a pretty good position. So, hey: good for you! There’s no reason to hire the expertise of a professional consultant!

If you are stressed about the college admissions process, it’s likely because you have a lot at stake. Maybe USC has always been your dream school. Perhaps the finance career opportunities at NYU have given you dreams of working on Wall Street. Or, maybe it’s crucial your child attends a great institution because you don’t want them to struggle financially in the same way you did when you were young.

If your dreams are at stake, don’t risk it. Your dreams deserve the best.

Let’s repeat that.

Your dreams deserve the best.

Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Now, before you start signing up for college admissions consulting services, let’s also consider the following. Remember how we said college consulting is a field with a lot of bad practices in it?

Yeah…

You need to be VERY careful with who you choose to hire as your college consultant. It’s your responsibility to find the right college consultants who are trustworthy and fit for you.

How to Tell if a College Admissions Consultant is Legit.

I actually provided a shorter comment on this which you can find in my Reddit comment here. You can also find more of my Reddit guides here.

Your Needs are #1, Period.

Your college admissions consultant is going to have your needs as their first priority.

This rule is very important.

If your college consultant is recommending you to do certain things that are against your best interests, they are not the right fit.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you don’t want to pay for a private college consultant, so you choose to work with your school counselor. They tell you that you need to apply to fewer schools because it’s better for retention rate, which is better for the incoming students after you. They also tell you to major in something “realistic majors” despite the arts being a passion of yours. Or, they may even tell you as a White/Asian male to major in the liberal arts such that disadvantaged people of color can have space in STEM.

Don’t work with these people. Because they have multiple interests, they’re not going to be prioritizing you as their #1 need.

While giving others a chance, having a realistic major, and pursuing social justice is great, your results are what matters at the end of the day. And, if your advisor is working against that, they’re not a good fit for you since they have other elements to worry about.

Here’s another very common example.

Let’s say you do hire a college consultant who offered to work with you through the entire college admissions process. They are very pessimistic, and ultimately encourage you to apply for lower-difficulty state schools that don’t match your 3.9-4.0 GPA. This is a very common tactic used by college consultants who wish to increase their advertised acceptance rates. By being conservative and pushing you to play the safe route, they effectively maximize their chances of helping you get accepted into the “top schools” of “your choice.” It’s also why you see consulting firms say most of their students get into their #1 school.

Don’t work with these people. They are more interested in your chances of success so they can advertise to other potential customers, and they are not interested in getting you accepted into the schools that you want or even the potentially risky colleges with low acceptance rates.

A truly worthwhile college consultant is willing to work with you to help maximize your acceptance rate DESPITE low acceptance rates. They should not be discriminatory with who they choose to work based on academic performance.

They’re Professional, and not Denigrating.

As a consultant myself, I feel this shouldn’t even need to be said.

Unfortunately, in this industry, cruelty is quite common. It’s not rare to see college consultants, whether they’re competent or not, be rude, arrogant, and denigrating to their clients. Often, it’s to the students who are already overwhelmingly stressed about their situation.

The college consultant may be a previous admissions officer from U Mich, Yale, MIT, etc.

At the end of the day, unnecessarily harsh consultants WON’T yield positive results.

Period.

I’ve seen people try this act all the time, especially at my old workplace when I worked as a test prep instructor. People would flaunt their fancy degrees from UCLA or USC and pretend that their smarts would immediately make them the perfect tutor/consultant/advisor for the job.

Sadly, reality dictates that being good at Math does NOT mean being good at consulting and advising students (especially stressed and nervous ones.)

A good college consultant is going to have a combination of both expertise and proper consulting skills to help stressed students navigate the admissions process despite the stress. They will understand the admissions process is painful and anxiety-inducing for everyone; thus, they expertly guide them to maximize their acceptance rate whilst reducing stress for families and students alike.

They Pay Attention.

If you’re going to hire a college consultant worth their salt, you’re going to need someone who is capable of listening and paying attention to what you say.

That means when you tell your consultant your worries and struggles, they can articulate your concerns back to you whilst conjuring reasonable solutions to your problems. Or, at least, they can help guide you to the right path using their experience (which is more often the case.)

Note that a lot of college consultants will attempt to be “brutally honest” not as a way of proper consulting best practices; rather. They will use this to scare you and, once again, push more expensive services to you.

Remember:

Strictness =/= correct.

Kindness =/= correct.

The college consultants who are correct are often the ones who can pay attention to your situation and use their expertise to guide you based on your UNIQUE experiences.

Cool Tip for Parents: if you’re planning on purchasing college admissions consulting and essay help for your child, you should consider having the prospective consultant speak with your child. Try to notice how your consultant speaks with you vs your child. Are they uninterested in your child’s anxieties? Are they actually paying attention to what your child is saying and asking when approaching alternative routes in the essays? Are they talkative? Or, are they rather quiet and banal in their advice (such as only providing surface-level corrections)?

They are Confident Enough to Let You Try Out Smaller Hours/Packages.

This is a straightforward rule.

In a lot of college consulting (and even tutoring) firms, the representative or salesperson will try to “close the deal” by getting you to sign up for large amounts of time. It can be a summer program, a comprehensive package, and sometimes even a 4-year commitment package.

Don’t start out with these large commitments.

Period.

They may say they have high demand, few spaces left, and limited time. Whatever.

At the end of the day, any company would be excited to have you on board if it’s a high-ticket deal. And that includes consulting firms that “only have a few spaces left.”

The college consultant you choose should be confident enough in providing you with a free consultation and sometimes even multiple 1-hour-sessions that showcase their consulting and advising skills.

If they are pushing you to make a purchase on a large package deal without trying out the service first, leave.

Okay, let’s say that they do allow you to try out the service for a few hours.

You NEED to be on your child’s side. And, if you’re a student reading this, make sure your parents are on your side.

You two are a team. You need to share information with each other in order to know whether a college consultant is actually legit.

For instance, if a college consultant gives a student a few hours to try out the service, the parent should be capable of relying on the student to give them a proper assessment of the service. Did they feel it was helpful? Did they feel like the consultant was respectful? Did the student leave feeling better than they originally did?

These are all crucial to ensure you’re actually getting a consultant who is worth their salt, and not someone who is trying to pick your pocket.

Professional College Admissions Consultants Will Give Accurate Advice, Even if it’s Against Their Best Interests.

Remember our first point.

A good college consultant is going to prioritize your needs as #1. The client’s needs take top priority.

That means a good college consultant will give you strong and applicable advice to maximize their chances of success; and, sometimes this may conflict with their personal interests. If a college consultant is honest enough to tell you the scope of their competency and is willing to tell you they or their firm is incapable of optimally capable of helping with some parts of your application, you know they can be trusted.

An untrustworthy college consultant will attempt to upsell you on every possible service. Everything from test prep help to essays is fair game. They would be willing to help with every element even if they know that they are not the best person suited for that role.

Here’s an example of proper admissions consulting.

When I work with clients, I tell them EXACTLY what I believe to be optimal ROI. So, a student who is mostly applying to schools that don’t take SATs into consideration but values the essays heavily is going to need help with essays. Therefore, I tell them how much help they need on the essays. I don’t tell them they need to take the SATs due to a mysterious “college admissions factor” that doesn’t exist, even if it would increase my sales.

Your Consultant Uses Their Expertise as a GUIDE, Not a Hammer.

This is a subtler point. But, it’s important nonetheless.

When shopping for a college consultant who is worth it, you want someone who doesn’t rely heavily on their expertise alone. Sounds strange right? Well, let me explain.

Expertise in the admissions process is “book knowledge.” That’s very different from reality. Everyone’s experience with academics is going to be different.

It’s a unique journey with no one-size-fits-all strategy.

So, the college consultant’s job is to assess their client’s needs and background to have a general idea of where they’re coming from. Not where the average student is coming from. Not from the control group that many consultants are used to working with. They need to know where the client is coming from.

Then, they can use their expertise to guide them and create a unique path that suits their needs.

Here’s an example. UNC-Chapel Hill is considered a competitive school. But, I’ve worked with a few North Carolina residents who already had the school as their flagship and therefore would have an easier time getting accepted. They then would have a different approach to their college list and how much time they dedicate to each school.

Another example: as a general rule, students should not exceed the word limit on their additional comments sections when explaining unusual circumstances. However, some students have a particularly troublesome and complicated experience that needs to be elaborated on in detail, as it sheds light on a new perspective and way of looking at their application. So, despite best practices, I often recommend those students get connected with their local admissions officer and send a well-edited and polished letter elaborating on their experiences.

Here’s another example. Students who can afford more college consulting services often purchase more hourly editing services from me in bulk. In those hourly services, I can edit at the microscopic level. But, for students who are low-income, I can only provide a limited number of hours to them due to their financial restraints. So, I often focus on the most difficult parts for them and tell them how to DIY the rest.

Where Can I Find a Legit College Consultant?

Give us a try.

Yeah, yeah. We know. It’s arrogant to come out the front gates saying we’re more legit than the rest. But, look. I’ve been working as a college admissions consultant for years now. I’m not lying when I say that so many college consulting firms out there are scammy.

You can ask anyone out there. A lot of them (and I mean A LOT) are untrustworthy.

After all, being a SoCal Asian American who grew up surrounded by Kumons and ACI Institutes at every corner looking to pickpocket other fellow Asian Americans… I would know.

Here’s the long answer: to find a legit college consultant who is worth their salt, schedule free consultations with other firms, and test them out. See what they’re like, and determine which ones are legit using the guide I provided above. If you follow my guide step-by-step, you’ll be able to smell the sharks from a mile away!

Now, here’s the short answer.

Give PenningPapers a Try. Work With Us!

If you want a legit college consultant, start with a free trial session from me. I’ve created PenningPapers to provide actual college consulting services and give quality client treatment without any of the scumminess that so often constitutes this industry.

If you made it this far into my guide, you probably need the help! And… well, I can tell you all about why PenningPapers is great and all. But, that’s not for me to decide! That’s for you to choose!

How to Know if College Admissions Consulting is ACTUALLY Worth it For You.