FREE GUIDE · CHOOSING A CONSULTANT

Thinking about an admissions consultant? Ask these six questions before you pay.

Good help saves your family time and keeps the application in your child’s own words. These questions work for any firm, including ours. Applying to graduate school yourself? They work for you too.

Do you need a consultant at all?Our view: many students apply well without one. Start with your school counselor and the free guides on this site. Paid help makes most sense when your child is applying in a country or admissions system their school doesn’t know well, when their counselor can’t give them much time, or when they want a mentor who has been through the same applications.

Looking down into a domed reading room, with long desks spreading out like spokes — La Trobe Reading Room, State Library Victoria, Melbourne · Photo: Bhullargraphic / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and cropped.

SIX QUESTIONS TO ASK ANY CONSULTANT

Ask every firm the same six questions, then compare the answers.

Open each one to see what a good answer sounds like, when to be careful, and how we answer it ourselves.

1. Who will actually work with my child, and can we meet them first?

A GOOD ANSWER

You meet the person who’ll do the work, before you pay anything.

Be careful if a salesperson signs you up, and you meet the adviser only after you’ve paid.

2. How do you count your results?

A GOOD ANSWER

They tell you how they got their numbers.

Which years the figures cover, how many students they include, how offers are counted, and a plain statement that past results don’t guarantee your child’s outcome.

Be careful if you see a success rate with no method behind it.

3. Who writes the essays?

A GOOD ANSWER

Your child writes every word.

The adviser asks questions and gives honest feedback, within each school’s rules on outside help and AI.

Be careful if someone offers to write or rewrite essays, or to “polish” them until they no longer sound like your child.

4. What exactly will we get, and what will it cost?

A GOOD ANSWER

A written plan and the cost before you commit, with time to decide.

Be careful if you’re asked to sign before you know the full cost, or promised “unlimited” help with no detail.

5. Will the adviser have enough time for my child?

A GOOD ANSWER

A firm that limits how many students each adviser takes on, and says no when it’s full.

Be careful if the firm takes every family that asks, even in the weeks before the main deadlines.

6. Have you helped students apply where my child is applying?

A GOOD ANSWER

Recent examples at the same schools or in the same school system, with the students’ names kept private.

Be careful if all you hear is famous names, and nothing about what the students actually did.

Two cups of coffee on a long wooden café table — A café table · Photo: Luke Chesser / Wikimedia Commons, CC0. Resized and cropped.

WARNING SIGNS

Walk away if you hear any of these.

Any one of them is reason enough to keep looking.

Four lines to walk away from, and why

What you hear	Why it’s a warning sign
“We guarantee admission.”	Only the school decides, and no honest adviser can promise its decision.
“We’ll write it for you.”	It stops being your child’s work. UCLA, for one, says it “expects an application to be the work of the student.”
“We know people on the committee.”	A firm that hints it can sway the school’s decision is either exaggerating or offering something it shouldn’t.
“Sign today, or you’ll fall behind.”	Pressure helps the firm, not your child.

ONE OF OUR STUDENTS

Here’s what our help looked like for one student.

D.K. is a real client. We share only her initials, to protect her privacy.

Snow-covered courtyards and red-brick towers in Penn’s Quadrangle — Penn’s Quadrangle · WestCoastivieS, CC0

D.K. brought her own thinking into her story.

Her economics and philosophy interests were strong. Her essay sounded more like a position paper than a person.

HOW WE HELPED

We helped her build an essay around a school lunch-subsidy debate, then compare curricula and aid packages.

Offers received: Harvard, Yale, Penn, and UChicago
Why Penn: She valued room to explore economics and philosophy and compared the final aid packages.

Read D.K.’s journey

HELP YOU CAN GET FOR FREE

Start with the free guides.

Use them whether or not you hire anyone.

Planning GuidesUniversity, boarding school, the MBA, the master’s, and the PhD, with this year’s real dates.Open
Evanston Township High School · Photo: Damperpedal / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Resized and cropped.
Admissions GuidesWhat each school teaches, how to apply, and what it costs, with official links.Open
Blair Arch, Princeton · Photo: ajay_suresh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Resized and cropped.
Guides by PlaceWhat applying looks like from where your child lives and studies.Open
Main Building, University of Hong Kong · Photo: Adon3465 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized and cropped.
Free toolsAn essay starter and a financial aid checklist, with no sign-up.Open
Bates Hall, Boston Public Library · Photo: Ncysea / Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Resized and cropped.

Notebook and coffee prepared for a consultation

START WITH A CONVERSATION

Let’s work out your next step, together.

Bring your questions to a free 45-minute introduction with your proposed mentor. We’ll listen, talk through your options, and send you a personalized plan by email. No scare tactics and no pressure to sign up: we’ll tell you honestly what we think, even if that means pointing you somewhere else.

Arrange your free introduction Read our story →