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One of the biggest obstacles in tackling college applications is narrowing down your college picks. I’ve written about many (mostly) free and helpful resources online to accomplish this task. But I would be remiss in not discussing another way to get college application help: by spending some dough and hiring a college consultant.

Happily, my stepdaughter Gabrielle received (mostly) acceptance letters at the end of her college application journey. The journey started when we hired Mrs. Rose Lucas to help us get here.

MRS. ROSE LUCAS, COLLEGE CONSULTANT EXTRAORDINAIRE

We met Mrs. Lucas on a warm day in May, after our hour-long drive to Lexington, Ky. We sat in her office, whose walls were coated in yellowed newspaper articles about students she’s helped in the nearly 35 years she’s been a consultant. Her desk was a mess. The expression on her face conveyed that she meant business, and, if we knew what was good for us, we should too.

We’d decided to hire her based on the fact that she’d come highly recommended by some of our friends. While shelling out $2,500 for her services was a difficult pill to swallow, we thought we needed the medicine.

That’s the first thing you should know about college consultants. They aren’t cheap.  In the world of the college planner or consultant, $2,500 is on the low side of expensive. The national average is about $3,600. Costs can run all way up to $10,000.

Mrs. Lucas conducted an hour-long interview with Gabrielle, asking her questions about everything from her hobbies and favorite movies to her favorite parts of the country and travel destinations.

By the end of that meeting, she handed us a list of about 20 colleges she’d chosen based on what Gabrielle had told her about herself. Mrs. Lucas informed Gabrielle she was to do research on six of the schools before our next meeting. Her assistant then leaned in and said, “I suggest you do it. You don’t want to get on Mrs. Lucas’s bad side.”

Photo by Piet Bakker from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/nature-lion-south-africa-whitelion-68421/

 

Over the next 10 months, Mrs. Lucas met with Gabrielle about every three weeks. In the summer, she broke down the application process by giving Gabrielle assignments each meeting, everything from putting together an academic résumé to filling out postcards to send to schools to request information.

All of it was intentionally done. The résumé would help Gabrielle fill in parts of the Common Application. The requests would be the first indication to the schools that she was seriously considering them.

In addition, Gabrielle was given a list of what books she should have read by the time she reached college. She was given a pile of essays that had been successful. And Mrs. Lucas scoured Gabrielle’s list of extracurriculars.

We didn’t use her help much when it came to Gabrielle’s essays as, obviously, I was editing them. While college consultants can provide useful insight, hiring a professional editor will help you birth, produce and polish the best essays. Far and away, the most stressful part of the application process was getting Gabrielle to write insightful personal statements in the middle of her summer vacation and into the school year. Again and again, she would come downstairs and fling herself on the couch, looking beached and defeated. “I don’t know what to write about,” she’d say.

By hook or by crook, though, we slowly got there. Since I, too, was a little scared of Mrs. Lucas, I made sure Gabrielle got her work done in time. Knowing she was there to be the bad guy in the event we weren’t in the mood to be, though, was a comfort. And having someone to turn to for FAFSA or scholarship help was great.

ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES

So, what were the advantages of hiring our college consultant?
• She was intimately familiar with the college application process.
• She had the ability to narrow down college picks and lend insightful advice about campuses.
• She was willing to be the bad guy and get the work done. Very helpful if your brilliant kid is also a brilliant procrastinator.
• She told us about schools we wouldn’t otherwise have considered.

The disadvantages?
• Cost
• There is no guarantee your child will get into his or her dream school even with their help.

Good to know?
• With dedication, you can do it yourself.

But don’t take my word for it. Click here, here and here to find articles about whether or not hiring a college consultant is worth it.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR AND HOW TO FIND COLLEGE CONSULTANTS

As for what to look for in a college consultant? See a list here.

As for where to find them? Type in “college consultant” in Google and you will find a list of them. IvyWise, IvySelect and College Coach are three big ones.

As for us, this is what I liked about our experience:
• Mrs. Lucas focused on Gabrielle. She was clearly there for the student, not the parent.
• After Gabrielle asked about one particular school we’d discussed, Mrs. Lucas shared that the women at that school were of a different ilk, more akin to Stepford wives-to-be. She said she didn’t see Gabrielle on campus there, and we quickly dropped the school as an option. That type of insider information is not something you’d find on a school website or even on a college tour. However, you can find student-written reviews about colleges online here, here and here,
• We knew the cost going in. Mrs. Lucas clearly outlined her services before we met with her for the first time.
• She kept meeting with Gabrielle even once her application was submitted, in part to find out about her acceptances and, I suspect, to help her make a decision about where she wanted to go.