Insider Tips for Choosing College Consultants

These days, educational counseling is a thriving industry. What’s even more surprising is the fact that, with the arrival of college admission season, many college consultants pop up out of nowhere.

The most significant question is: can college consultants really provide you any valuable advice?

It doesn’t matter if you are a student or a parent, most families are worried about getting their child, admitted to a reputable college.

Here are few points that you should consider before spending money on availing the services of college consultants.

Is opting for college consultants your only option?

No doubt, college admissions are getting tougher with each passing year, but there can be cases when paying to a college consultant might be unnecessary.

For instance, you can get college counseling in most of the high schools, and they can provide you the similar advice at no expense. However, if you think that your high school counselors are inadequate, or you want to get the best advice and admission guidance, utilizing the service of established college consultants is your perfect option.

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But if you don’t have the cash to pay for a private college consultant – which can run anywhere from $5,000-$40,000 – you might check out an online class that provides you with all of the information you need to apply to college.

Check their credentials

Though there are two major associations for college consultants, namely NACAC and IECA, most of the consultant do not have any accreditation. These two associations require their members to show a certain level of proficiency and experience, but they do not provide any accreditation. Therefore, you need to study their past clients before choosing the best services for you.

If considering hiring a college consultant:

  • Make sure that you ask for references from other families that have worked with the consultant.
  • Call them up and make sure that you ask for their honest assessment of the consultant.
  • Ask about how responsive the consultant was and inquire if there were any hidden fees involved.
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Do college consultants also offer essay service?

There are numerous college consultants that can also provide essay services to improve the acceptance chances of students. They help students in proofreading and focusing their essays. One problem that many students may face is that these days colleges can easily catch essays that are professionally edited. Therefore choose your essay services wisely.

Are they offering you paid scholarship information?

Here, one of the most important things you should remember is that most information about scholarships available free online. Therefore, stay away from college consultants that are offering you paid scholarship counseling. However, if they are providing you with a guarantee that they can get a scholarship for you if you are eligible, you can consider availing their services.

Conclusion

It’s a fact that getting advice from reputable college consultants can improve your chances of acceptance to a great extent. However, parents as well as students need to be careful before availing services of college consultants because some of them can be truly helpful while other services may also prove to be detrimental.

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