Maybe you are the parent of an eighth grader wanting to get a jump on high school course selection, or a junior family at the end of your rope with the mounting application stress at home. Wherever you are in the process, you’ve decided that you need some help, and you’re pretty sure that you’re ready to start working with an educational consultant.

It’s not just the college search that can feel overwhelming - the search for the right educational consultant (or college counselor) can be overwhelming too! Educational consulting is a field with a notoriously low barrier to entry, so how do you know if the consultant you’re considering has the knowledge and experience to support you and your family? 

The answer is - do your research and have a conversation! Take the time to make sure you are working with a consultant who can help with YOUR specific goals. To get you started, we’ve compiled some questions to ask before you hire someone to work with you on your college search.

Questions to Ask

1. Who in your office will be reading and reviewing my child’s college applications? Does that person have previous experience working in an admissions office? Does that person have previous experience working in a high school counseling office?

2. Who in your office will be reading and reviewing my child’s essays? Will more than one person review the essays, to get a variety of perspectives on the work? Does someone perform a final proofread of everything?

3. What do you believe is an appropriate level of parent involvement? Will you share my child’s essays and applications with me if I ask to see them? What if my child and I disagree on important matters, such as college choices or quitting a major activity - whose side will you take?

4. How will you help keep my student on track in implementing your college admissions strategy?

5. Do you advertise your services? How do you typically connect with prospective clients?

6. How many students do you work with each year?

7. What services are included in my package? Do I have options to make sure the services will help with my family’s specific needs?

8. What services are NOT included in my package? What will I be responsible for at home with my student?

9. What are your hours? How long will I have to wait for an appointment? 

10. What kind of experience do you have with students like mine? What if I need to pivot or my family’s goals change during the process? Is your experience broad enough to accommodate this or do you only work with students in a particular niche?

A few thoughts

You will notice that some of these answers are relatively straightforward, with clear “right” and “wrong” answers. For example, it’s extremely important to retain a consultant who has professional experience working in an admissions office. Nearly everyone in our field would agree with this… unless they don’t have the right experience :)

On the other hand, most answers relate to individual family preferences, and what is right for one family will not be right for another. For example, one area where our views actually differ from a lot of other consultants has to do with final decision-making power. While we do our best to make the process as student-centered as possible, we feel that parents, not students, should be the final decision-makers in the event of a disagreement.

So while we would not hesitate to let parents know privately if we believe they are making a mistake, we would maintain a neutral position in front of the student and would never contradict their parents. We also tell students off the bat that there should be no expectation of privacy between us and their parents; if their parents want to read their college essays, we will make those available. Other consultants believe that this approach would be completely inappropriate, and that these decisions should be left up to the students.

Again, there’s no right answer, but it’s important to make sure the person you hire has views that align with your own.

FUN FACT

You may have noticed that we use the titles “educational consultant” and “college counselor” interchangeably. An “educational consultant” is a broader term that encompasses a wide variety of professionals helping to support families and organizations with issues related to education. On the other hand, college (and graduate school) counseling is our particular specialty. Either term is correct - you pick!

If you’d like to talk with us about whether we’d be a good match, don’t be afraid to reach out! We also make sure that many of these answers are visible on our website, and pride ourselves in our transparency: