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Archive for: College Admissions Consultant

College Admissions Consultant


We recently wrote a newsletter about college admissions consultants. It focused on how more and more students and their parents are turning to college consultants in the hope of improving their chances of gaining admission to highly selective colleges like those in the Ivy League. We stressed how it’s important to select a college admissions consultant who is a  member in good standing of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) and the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). And even with these affiliations, you should peruse the website to see just who you’re thinking about hiring. As a point of information, The Ivy Coach is a member of both organizations in good standing.

College Admissions Consulting, College Consulting, College Consultant, College Consultants

If a college admissions consultant recommends working in a soup kitchen for a day to bolster your college application, you might want to consider shopping for a different college consultant!

And so we’re not surprised to see a college consultant quoted in the “New York Times” putting forward some really ill-advised information. We’ll take out the college admissions consultant’s name in this blog so as not to embarrass. See if you can find what’s wrong with the text below quoted from the “New York Times”…

“Students do not have to spend a summer abroad for an essay-worthy experience. When Mary Lang Gill was a rising senior at the Atlanta Girls School, a private school, she hired [College Admissions Consultant X], an independent college counselor and the author of “[College Admissions Book X],” a college admissions guide. After learning that Ms. Gill loved to paint, [College Consultant X] connected her to the Florida Highwaymen, a band of renegade painters active during the 1950s and ’60s. ‘I spent a whole day with them,’ painting and observing, said Ms. Gill, who just graduated from Dickinson College. ‘It was one of the coolest things ever, and I love that and I got to put it on my application.’ [College Admissions Consultant X] said she spent a great deal of time with students helping them find the right topic for the college essay. ‘Picking the essays is as important as writing them,’ she said. After that, she said, the stories ‘write themselves.’”

Were you able to figure out what’s wrong with the above text? We’ll give you a hint by asking you what’s wrong with the following sentence: Working in a soup kitchen for that day back in October really taught Sam the importance of giving back. A day?! College admissions counselors don’t care what you did for a day! They want to see activities that weave a narrative throughout your young adulthood. This college admissions consultant found the student something to do for a day and then urged the student to write about it in her college essay? Yikes!

College Consultant


College Consultants, College Consulting, College Admissions Consulting, College Counselor, College Counseling, College Admissions Assistance, College Admissions Consultant, College Consult

College applicants make mistakes on applications. College consultant The Ivy Coach makes sure that there are no mistakes on applications and that students take advantage of all opportunities to stand out from the pack.

10 Benefits of Hiring College Consultant The Ivy Coach:

During the entire college admissions process, college consultant The Ivy Coach will…

- Give you ongoing and personalized attention.

- Assuage your anxieties, helping you feel more confident and less stressed.

- Ensure that you avoid the mistakes that so many applicants make.

- Assist you from the initial search phase through final applications.

- Help you distinguish yourself from other students applying to the same competitive colleges.

- Encourage you to maximize on every available opportunity.

- Provide you with assistance on all of your specific questions and concerns.

- Teach you lifelong communication skills while you write your essays and prepare for interviews.

- Maintain family harmony during this most stressful time.

- Work with you so that you are accepted at a college where you will be happy and successful.

Check out our posts on College Consulting and College Consultants.

College Consulting


Mark Sklarow, the Executive Director of IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association) to which The Ivy Coach is a professional member, reports that an AP poll indicates high school students are not happy with the college counseling they receive at their high schools. Writes Sklarow, “A majority said that their school wasn’t good at helping them choose a field of study, aiding them in finding the right college or vocational school, or assisting them with ways to pay for continuing education. All the more frustrating was that the vast majority came to the process excited about the idea of college, but felt unprepared to go about the search and application process.” And that’s where the role of independent college consulting comes in.

College consulting – if done right – can ease the burden of the college admissions process and improve students’ chances for admission to the colleges and universities of their dreams. High school guidance counselors are overworked. We know. Our founder, Bev Taylor, was a high school guidance counselor for many years. High school guidance counselors, while a wonderful and important school resource, are often not up to speed on the latest trends in college admissions and their expertise isn’t necessarily college admissions. It’s just a part of their job.

College Consultant, College Consultants, College Admissions Consultant, College Admissions Consulting

College consulting gives you expertise on the ins and outs of the college admissions process and it also serves as a buffer between stressed out students and parents.

High school guidance counselors may not have the time to visit top colleges. They may not know that a student checking box x or writing z in a college essay will hurt one’s chances for admission to highly competitive universities. Writes Sklarow, “Most high school counselors are among the most over-worked and under-appreciated members of the school community. They struggle with caseloads two to three times the suggested average. They are rarely afforded the opportunity to attend professional training, even as the issues they struggle with become more complex.” Good college consulting can help students and their families big time.

According to the AP article by Connie Cass, “Most of the 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed gave high schools low grades for things that would ease the way to college: A majority say their school wasn’t good at helping them choose a field of study, aiding them in finding the right college or vocational school or assisting them in coming up with ways to pay for more schooling.” Independent college consulting offers a buffer between stressed out parents and stressed out students. Students and parents don’t need to be fighting in this process. They don’t need to be worrying if they’re doing things the wrong way (and quite often, they are indeed doing things the wrong way). That’s why more students and parents are turning to private college consultants than ever before. A good independent / private college consultant can be the difference between admission to your dream college or reluctantly attending your safety college.

Check out Mark Sklarow’s post on the IECA’s website.

And check out our related post College Consultant and read more reasons to hire college consultants.

Contact The Ivy Coach today.

University Admissions Counselor


The target demographic for a movie like “Tron” was not senior citizens nor was the target demographic toddlers for “Scream 4.” What does this have to do with the college admissions process you ask? Well, it has everything to do with it. You must know your audience. When filling out the college application and particularly when writing your college essays, it’s important to know who is reading your application and essays. If you’re really intent on attending a particular college, you should know the name of your regional university admissions counselor and make contact with him/her. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about knowing what kind of person is reading your essays and deciding whether or not you should gain admission.

University Admission Counselors, College Admissions Counselors, College Counselors

It's important to know your audience. Just who is a university admissions counselor?

To put an entire group of people into a category is to stereotype. And that is exactly what we are going to be doing right now. Hey, at least we own it. Social psychologists will point out that stereotypes are in fact often based on truth. Anyway, a university admissions counselor tends to be interested in pursuing a career in higher education. Many assistant directors of admission are right out of college — some went to the very university that they now represent as an an admissions counselor. And still others just love the world of college admissions that they aren’t looking for another type of job in higher education. Maybe they want to move up the ranks and become a dean of admission. University admissions counselors also often come from diverse backgrounds — much like the students they are recruiting and later evaluating.

We hope that gives you some insight into who is reading your application and college essays. Read about the admissions process at Amherst College and about mistakes on the college application.

College Consultant


A study by the Independent Educational Consultants Association, an organization to which The Ivy Coach is a member, indicates that 26% of high-achieving students hire a college consultant. So the long held belief that a college consultant is a service that is used exclusively by the wealthy to assist in the college admissions process isn’t true. Shocker. What next…colleges actually look to see if students are full pays (that they can afford the full cost of the annual tuition) even if the university is “need-blind?” Say it ain’t so!

According to a IECA press release, “Based on a nationwide survey of 1,264 students achieving an 1150 or higher on the SAT I (on a 1600 point scale) and/or ACT composite of 25 or higher, those identified in the study were in the 70th percentile and higher. Assisting Lipman Hearne in the research phase was the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA). The study provides tremendous insight into the factors students use when deciding among many variables, and explores information gathering among students. It was the finding that more than a quarter of the students hired an educational consultant that may be most surprising.”

The fact is that when high school guidance counselors and college advisors have case loads of 500 or more students and also have non-college counseling responsibilities, your child may not get the personal attention that he or she deserves. Also, not every high school guidance counselor is up to speed on the latest ins and outs of the highly selective college admissions process. The Ivy Coach offers that personal attention, expertise, and individualized assistance with every aspect of the college admissions process. There are many more reasons to consider hiring a college counselor. Read more reasons for hiring a college admissions consultant and contact us today!

College Consultants, College Admissions Consultant, College Consult, College Consulting, College Admissions Consulting

More students are using college consultants than ever before.

Check out the IECA press release here.

And check out our newsletters: Can I Get a Little Advice Here? and Multiple Demands on the High School Guidance Counselor Limit Time for College Advising.