Several times in the past month I’ve gotten the same question “should I hire an independent college counselor?” I’ve been asked about it by super wealthy families and middle income families (poor families tend not to ask about purchasing luxury goods). Since this has come up so much I figured it was time to stop replying in private spaces accessible to only a few.
Before I answer, let me define what we’re talking about. IECs. Independent college counselors. Private college counselors. Sometimes called college consultants, college coaches, even educational consultants sometimes. Basically, it’s folks you pay to help you figure out your kids educational pathway. You might remember the Operation Varsity Blues scammer Rick Singer.
And while Rick is not typical of IECs, he is an example of what happens when counselors decide to build a business based on family anxiety, fear, and the desire to give our children every opportunity we can afford. Social media is full of independent counselors claiming to have the secret sauce to college admissions that—for a few measly tens of thousands of dollars—they will share with you to help your child avoid the horrible fate of going to a “bad college.” Here are a few IG ads:
So the first message is caveat emptor to the 9000th degree. There are lots of scams and scammers in 2025. But the good news is there are lots of smart, well-intentioned, calming people who have a great deal of knowledge about colleges and college admissions. And I’ll get to them in a second, first. . .
Your School Counselor
In the college admissions process, your first and most frequent stop and resource is your school counselor. Whether you’re in a public school or private school, the school counselor (if you have one – not every school does) is likely going to be the best resource for your child. So make sure you have a good relationship with them.
My friend and independent college counselor Mark Moody says “Nobody is better positioned to help students than the counselors working in their school alongside their teachers, coaches and other trusted adults, and nobody has better understanding of how students fare at specific colleges.” He further adds “School counselors often have direct lines to regional reps, they host admission officers on campus regularly, they have historical data on their school’s applicants to every college, and the admission offices trust their recommendations and assessments of students because of the institutional relationship.”
I couldn’t say it better. In fact, rather than try to tell you about whether you should hire an independent counselors I emailed a few and gave them a bunch of vague questions to answer and a short turn around time. They were gracious enough to reply. Here are parts of their replies, I’ve lightly edited them and removed some of the more redundant responses.
Enjoy!
Stacey Cunitz Blue Moon Educational Consulting
That’s a great question. Let’s go!!
The short answer is no. No one actually “needs” to hire a college counselor. It’s sort of like hiring an accountant—there is nothing an accountant can do for you that you cannot do for yourself. But just as there might be good reasons to hire an accountant, there can also be good reasons to hire a college counselor. Here are a few:
- Your child has specific needs or identity that make the college list-building process more complex than just size, major, and location. For example, a learning disability, neurodivergence, a severe food allergy, a chronic medical condition, or a psychiatric history. Or they might have a particular faith tradition, or be a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Look for a consultant who has experience working with students like your child.
- Your child has executive functioning issues, and you want them to be as independent as possible in this process. A good college counselor can put your child in the driver’s seat and get you out of the position of project manager.
- You feel like you don’t know what you don’t know and you want to have someone in your corner who is available to answer questions when you are available—evenings, weekends, and during the summer, for example.
If you are interested in hiring a counselor, my best advice is to go to the IECA or HECA website and search for a consultant there. Educational consulting is a wholly unregulated industry, and it’s important to choose someone who has relevant experience, education, and an ethical approach. Both IECA and HECA vet their members for these characteristics. Both have requirements for ongoing professional development, and both offer consultants a community of highly qualified peers who learn from one another.
Mark Moody M Squared Counseling
I have some of this kinda answered here, too.
Q: Who needs a college consultant
Anyone who wants to explore options for college education with an understanding that even if the parents attended college, the process, as well as the colleges themselves, their costs, and many of the finer points have changed since mom and dad went. I often compare my services to that of a wilderness guide. I live out in the admission jungle and can save you time and effort by leading you to the sights that most connect to your interests and personality, and keep you out of some of the quicksand and dead ends (Pitfall, anyone?)
Q: Who doesn’t need a college consultant
I think that any student heading to a four-year college can benefit from an expert in higher ed options and the admission process. Even if the first step is a community college or something more open-enrollment, a counselor can help plan the pathway. Otherwise, be sure you understand the support offered at your school. If you attend an independent school with dedicated college counselors, you probably don’t need additional help. Despite what you hear or how some IEC’s market themselves. Additional help can become more of a hindrance if the student is balancing duplicate conversations with conflicting advice. That said, there are plenty of completely justifiable reasons for seeking a little additional support even if you have school-based counseling. Stay away from IECs who ask to remain unknown to the school counselor and who don’t defer to the institutional-history-based assessment of admission likelihoods that the school office has. They talk directly to the regional reps who visit and read apps from the school. And in every case, avoid counselors who claim to have special abilities to “get kids in” to “dream schools,” and/ or who propose plans to build an inauthentic student story through paid activities and not-quite-authentic pursuits and essays.
Q: What should you hire a college consultant for?
Help with streamlining the college exploration and list-building process, and guidance/ feedback to make the application materials reflect the student’s authentic voice and personally distinctive qualities. Few students have practice writing narrative biographical short-form essays. It helps to have a sounding board with perspective.Consultants can also help with specific goals like finding the best financial aid options or “merit-based” scholarships, aka discounts, for students, if either of those are priorities.On a less strategic but often just as important level, having an objective third party to advise students and parents can help keep things healthy and productive in conversation around the house. The last years of high school should be as joyful and low-stress a time with family as possible!
Q: When should you hire a college consultant (what grade)?
I think that the start of 11th grade is an ideal time for many students. However, engagement in the 9th or 10th grade level, especially with a counselor who has school-based or adolescent counseling experience, can be helpful. When I work with students of those age levels, I am an advisor to help them navigate curricular choices at school and pursue exploration and deepening of their activities in an organic, authentic way. Typically, we check in once a month and just talk about how things are going! It makes the more focused college conversation that can begin in junior year more informed and comfortable, since we have a rapport and knowledge of each other!
Q: What does hiring a consultant mean (hours, frequency, tasks, etc)
In my experience, the baseline cadence for meetings is once a month, until the summer before senior year, when we dive into focused college application work. I prefer to work in comprehensive packages that allow as many meetings as possible, but different models work for different counselors and different scenarios.Along the way, some of the milestones include questionnaires for parents and student to kick off the process, potentially additional surveys to check in during 11th grade as college preferences start to evolve. Big picture, the goal is to have a fairly solid college list in place by summer before grade 12, and to have much of the essential application work wrapped up around the time senior year kicks off, or by October. A goal of mine is to have all of my students finished with all application work, no matter the deadline, by mid-December at the latest. I think it is essential to go into the winter holiday break from school without application work hanging over the student, so they can actually rest and recharge with family and enjoy their last semester of high school!
Raquel Maysonet-Sigler
Advantage U. Educational Consulting
Q: Who needs a college consultant?
A: As a college consultant who also sees the confusion and challenges that parents and students face as a school counselor, I think the most efficient answer is the family that can afford the services and wants to “outsource” the nudging and pushing of a teenager to meet college deadlines. Most of my clients are seeking someone who knows the work involved with getting students to plan efficiently, can keep them focused on their college goals (college list, college plan and college essay) and the expense is usually seen as a benefit emotionally and as a time saver for the parent as well. For those families that have multiple children, when I get a second or third call the request usually changes from “I Need help with my child and their college application process” to “Can you help Joey with his essay and list? I think we can handle the apps this round.” I typically work with parents at the same time (especially those doing this for the first time) to ensure that they understand what their child is working on and doing throughout the entire process. And quite frankly sometimes parents know their child well enough to understand that they need someone to keep them on task and walk them through the entire process.
Q: What should you hire a college consultant for?
A: As stated in above questions families will acquire a consultant for the college process to save time and energy (IYKYK) – mental and emotional. Consultants can be great for feedback on a college list and programs that match well with your child, feedback and assistance developing a strong college essay – and supplements- for all applications, assessing what teachers to ask for letters of recommendations, etc.
Q: What does hiring a consultant mean (hours, frequency, tasks, etc)?
A: For my company I typically work with the parent and student individually. Given the student and parents commitments, what is the best time to meet consistently (midweek or weekends)? What areas do you want me to focus on with your child – list, essay, applications, supplements or ALL of it? How involved do you (parent) want to be in this process?
Students who are juniors will likely start meeting monthly to work on the college list and discuss essay topics and then move to bi-weekly and possibly even weekly leading through the start of the school year to ensure applications can be started and submitted on or before Thanksgiving break. If the student is a senior then they will likely meet weekly through to the submission of their applications.
Acquiring a consultant for the college process does not have to be a full service option – if your child needs help with developing a list – focus on that. My child needs help with their college essay – focus on that. A consultant’s job is to make your life easier as a parent helping your child through this phase of their life. Advantage U. helps to eliminate that stress and help you feel more in control of the decisions you make throughout the process – as a parent and as a student.
Jennifer “Jenn the Tutor” Jessie
Q: Who needs a college consultant
No one NEEDS a consultant. Let’s start there. You and your student could get through this process on your own.
But I do have a scenarios that will help parents decide if you are a good candidate. Ok so you and your student are in the kitchen and you’ve noticed on their online portal their grade has gone down. You ask them about it. Do they stonewall you or can you have a conversation with them? Is every other phrase, I know, stopppppp, you keep overreacting, it’s not a big deal, I already did my makeup. Do you spend the next day wondering if you are being told the truth and if you will cross a line checking in?
If you tell your kid what their budget is for new school clothes would you trust them to take your card or would you put guardrails in place to ensure they do not go over budget? Do they have a tendency to go over budget?
Is your student prone to trends and whims of their friends. Are they are trendsetter or someone to jump on a trend? Have they bought items that are way too expensive but low quality? Do they have a hard time differentiating name brand from quality?
Those questions seem random but the first set tells parents if they have the capacity to communicate with their teen, the second tells parents if they can trust their teen to stay in budget, and the third tells parents what approach their student will take to their list.
Hire a consultant if you are already fighting with your kid to get things done and do not want to have fights throughout the year. Hire a consultant if you have a budget in mind for higher education and want to make sure your student doesn’t overspend and thereby compromise your ability to support them in the future. Hire a consultant if you want to make sure your student has a list that is sound and based on needs rather than amenities like nice dorms and good food over quality education.
I would also say if your student is closed off and overwhelm, hire a consultant.
I think people focus on what a consultant can bring to the table and for me, I focus on being the bad guy. You don’t want to nag your kid about their essay; I can and will. You don’t want to say we do not have an unlimited budget and you need to be looking in this price range, I can and will. You don’t want to tell your kid you are worried their wants list for a college is based on vibes and the amenities and not education or that they are just picking colleges based on what is popular in their friend group, I can and will. You want to make sure the education is a good fit for your child because you know they have a problem getting up in the morning so you do not want them to go to a large school where they can skip regularly, I am more than happy to bring them back down to reality.
You should not be hiring a consultant to give you an edge or for insider knowledge. Do not hire out of fear that you need to get your student “ahead” but hire one if you want a project manager with experience.
Q: who doesn’t need a college consultant
If your teenager does a good job managing money and living within your means. If they complete deadlines and there is a clear form of communication. If they are the kid you do not need to worry about. If they are organized and responsible.
I wouldn’t say that doesn’t need a consultant. I would say that the parent should ask the student if they need support or a second pair of eyes.
This is not binary. It doesn’t have to be hire or don’t hire. It can be hire for editing. Hire to look over the list. Hire to help right before deadlines.
I think people think of consultants as a beginning to end but they can be as needed.
Q: What should you hire a college consultant for?
The list for sure. Your kids are not trained to pick a college- that is by design. So they are easily swayed.
It is also hard to figure out what colleges are a good fit because branding influences and it is hard to figure out if your student is in a good position in the context of their school and if that will be maintained when they enter the national market.
I will say I see students all the time doing lists with safeties, reaches, targets, and dreams- hate that model- and the schools labeled as a safety are not safe. That does not have an impact until the first round of rejections and deferrals happen. Then the student loses motivation and overapplies to colleges and ends up with a lot of colleges saying yes but them not wanting to go to any.
Overall project management. Keeping the application flowing. I can look through the common app as an advisor and because I have experience, I know okay the student has not finished these supplementals but it is 13 days out so I need to put it on their radar 10 days out, push it a bit harder 8 days out, and then get serious 6 days out. Or, if a student tends to overthink and rewrite a lot, I know at day 13, I need to put my foot on the gas for them.
Q: When should you hire a college consultant (what grade)?
Honestly, I think a lot of these apps are overproduced because people construct and entire reality, persona, and make decisions in the context of admissions. For me, having a conversation before high school works. Quarterly check ins throughout 9th and 10th. Becoming more involved 11th. Full blown 12th summer or even post exams 11th.
But don’t hire for the edge. Passion projects, research, starting a non-profit, and other things that “worked” for other applicants also have a strong track record of not working.
Q: What does hiring a consultant mean (hours, frequency, tasks, etc)?
I mean 100% a lawyer answer here. It depends. It really does. The more independent students, I may see them once a week. A student who easily gets overwhelmed I may see them 3-5 times a week for 20-30 minutes. Before a deadline, I am with my students up to 8-12 hours a day if not more.
Yetunde Daniels Rubinstein
Arising Educational Consultants
Great question with heavily nuanced answers. Here are some thoughts:
– I believe personalized, one-on-one guidance is a fundamental necessity, not a luxury. Every student deserves to be seen, heard, and supported in making choices that align with their post-secondary goals. By working with a student for at least a year, I help them understand their potential and confidently chart their own course, beginning as early as 6th grade, to help families navigate the educational landscape. Work with students can begin the summer before 9th grade, aimed at immediately matching their opportunities with their potential. At this stage, there are no intentions of achieving a mythical holy grail; rather, it is to help the student maintain or begin to climb the upward trajectory they can maintain throughout their four years of high school.
– Bringing in a specialist with specific expertise to help your student navigate their schooling experience. For example, many students take a peripheral role in their school community for various reasons. Therefore, helping students maximize opportunities aligned with their learning style and goals is a great opportunity to work with an educational consultant (making the distinction between a college consultant and an educational consultant). That student may attend a school with fantastic resources, and may not need my services for the college application process, given the resources at the school. Our work together could help the student connect with in-school personnel.
– My approach is distinct from that of a traditional “college consultant.” I am not focused on blindly checklisting toward a mythical holy grail; rather, my work is about coaching and supporting the student’s journey. We work together to help students develop essential skills in self-advocacy and empowerment, making deliberate choices grounded in their lived experiences and shared humanity.
My services are designed to:
- Empowerment and Self-Advocacy: Provide students with the practice and support they need to trust their voice, make intentional decisions, and navigate their educational journey with confidence.
- Holistic Development: Help students connect with in-school personnel and maximize their extracurricular and academic opportunities, ensuring they are not just preparing for college, but also for a fulfilling young adulthood.
- Personalized Coaching: Offer individualized support that is tailored to each student’s specific needs, helping them climb their own unique upward trajectory throughout their four years of high school.
Keith Wilkerson College Thoughts
Very few people NEED a college adviser. Lots of families want one. You could easily plan your own wedding, but bringing on a wedding planner will often streamline and alleviate a lot of the stress surrounding the project. Having someone whose job it is to keep up with notable events in the field, show you the best ways to stay organized, and advocate for you, your voice, and your vision on your team ensures a process that feels supported and organized while also making sure you don’t feel left in the dark.
I’ve worked with the children of Directors of Admissions and College Presidents, not because they don’t know how the process works, but because they understand that professional distance allows for a more objective approach to college readiness. You can often avoid unnecessary trials and tensions by bringing in a professional. It’s like hiring a driving instructor—you bring on an expert who has done this thousands of times before and knows how to guide from the passenger’s seat. In the end, you get a student who doesn’t only get a license or an acceptance, but one who can confidently and capably drive.
We help alleviate the stress and confusion often associated with the application process, empowering students to take ownership of their journey. Our dedicated team of compassionate educators is here to simplify your journey to college, providing the support and expertise your hardworking student deserves. Our student-centered approach to college coaching means we tailor our work to your student’s unique needs and allows us the flexibility to spend more one-on-one time with each student to expertly complement the work they might be doing with their school-assigned college counselor.
Meredith Graham Meredith G Educational Consulting
College Planner Pro runs an IEC pricing survey every year and they ask about general structure of programs, packages, and offerings, so I’ve attached this year’s results here. (I’d guess a few of us will share it with you.) It’s interesting stuff!
I’ve done versions of a presentation on this locally, and I’ve also attached a PDF of the slide I use with many of the common reasons families have hired me. The vast majority of students I’ve worked with over the years are either first-generation Americans whose parents came to the U.S. for grad school or for a job so they don’t really know how undergraduate admissions works in the U.S. system, or STEM-interested students whose families want help navigating that complex pathway to college, or both.
Who really benefits? One group are families where something has happened during high school that might need a bit more storytelling or contextualizing during the application process. Another group are those who have very specific questions or pieces they want help with. Maybe the student changed high schools for some reason, or they want to study something that is totally outside the family’s frame of reference, and they don’t know how to help the student tell their story or put the pieces together. (Or they’re worried that they don’t know!) Once, when I asked a student why she wanted to work with someone like me, she said, “I’m an REI shirt girl at a Mean Girls high school.” She knew she wanted a different path than the one most other students at her high school typically followed. She just didn’t know what that was or how to find it.
Sometimes, it’s because the family wants a caring but neutral third party to help keep family relationships intact. A few years ago, during an intro meeting with a family who was shopping around for consultants, I asked the student to imagine a car ride as a metaphor for her journey to college, with her in the driver’s seat and me in the front passenger seat. I asked her where she imagined her parents on this car ride—were they in the back seat, or on the sidewalk waving as we drove by, or somewhere else? She promptly responded, “In the trunk.” Her parents and I burst out laughing, then I asked her why that was her answer. She said, “Because I know I’ll want their advice, but only when I ask them for it.” The parents said that sounded exactly right—they all agreed she was really stubborn and wanted to do things her own way—and that was at the core of their reason for wanting to hire an expert they all trusted and liked and respected. They knew they would spend months arguing over everything, and they didn’t want to do that.
Different consultants have very different approaches to the work, both in terms of style and what’s covered/offered. I offer a comprehensive program, an express program, and hourly options, and I offer the hourly option as a way to keep a family’s costs down while focusing specifically on the pieces they want the most help with. For example, this week I met with a junior who is considering applying for college in the UK via UCAS, and I recommended we start with a single hour to discuss how those applications are different from applications to some of the popular American universities. I answered his family’s questions and gave them some resources and some questions to discuss, and once the student has decided whether or not to pursue those applications the family might reach out again with more questions, or possibly for comprehensive support. Or they might be fine to tackle the rest on their own!
When should a family start? The two most common times I hear from families looking to enroll are in the summer/early fall of the senior year as applications are ramping up (like, now, for the Class of 2026) and from families of students in early 9th grade. Philosophically, whenever a family realizes they want to hire someone is the right time to start. Functionally, waiting until this time of the senior year means that a lot of consultants are at capacity and can’t take on another student, but the word-of-mouth network among consultants is strong. Folks want to take care of the families who are referred directly to them even if they can’t sign them on. For example, I still have some capacity for seniors this year since I’m in my first year of my solo practice, and my two intro meetings this week are with families that are “overflow” from other counselors you and I both know and trust. I don’t take that for granted.
Breanne Boyle BB College Prep
I am often asked by prospective clients to explain how what I do differs from what the family can look up on Google. My answer usually includes something about how they absolutely do not need a college consultant, but you might find it helpful. I don’t think I have worked with a parent yet who had a consultant when they applied and I certainly didn’t have one. And we are fine. Sure, the process is different and there can be a lot of moving parts, but what I think is most different now is the information overload. Parents and students are hit from every direction, starting at a pretty young age, about how important it is to get into a “top college” or how competitive the entire process is. This means they walk into this already assuming this will be difficult and stressful and, truly, that perception is what helps the industry of educational consultants grow.
I don’t want to feed into that stress – they already get enough of it from other sources. So what do I tell them when they ask this? I let them know they will absolutely not ruin anything for their child if they do not hire me (or someone like me), but the benefit of having me around is that I will alert them to things they should do before it hits them from every neighbor or TikTok personality. I come alongside the family and help project manage the process, explain how things work, and support the student in small, bit-size pieces, making it manageable and allowing students to slow down and spend time to research many different schools. I customize things to each student. Essentially, I cut through the noise.
In my lighter moments, I sometimes tell those prospective clients that my families hire me to professionally pester their students to do this work and I let the parents pester the student about everything else. It’s not that simple, clearly, but I think it sums it up well.
No, you do not need a consultant, but if you find one that aligns with your goal and vision of the college application process (who won’t add stress over all those ridiculously selective schools that reject basically everyone), and it works within your budget, then hire them.
An important piece of context for anyone who made it this far. These are some of the people I email when I have questions about colleges. I’m not a college consultant or counselor. I’m a generalist. I know about “college” writ large, as an industry, as data in spreadsheets with 2000 rows and 3000 columns. My friends above are specialists they, like many school counselors, know about the details of many colleges (especially local and popular ones).
If you’re a book person you might like one of these, the first is by another independent counselor Shereem Herndon-Brown (and has an awesome foreword) and Tim Fields of Emory U and the second is by Rick Clark of Georgia Tech and Brennan Barnard. They are worth checking out.
But there you have it. Better advice than I could give you. Advice from the people I email and call when I have questions about college.
You might want a private college counselor. You will benefit from one. You don’t need private college counselor.
If this was helpful please pay me in the appropriate internet currency by liking, sharing, and or subscribing.
Bellowings 