The cottage industry of educational consultants is unregulated. Practitioners are not required to have experience in the college admissions process or in high school counseling. So before you employ a college coach, experts suggest following these guidelines:
— Make sure the consultant has a background in college admissions or high school counseling. If not, you’re taking a risk.
— If you’re working with a smaller, mom-and-pop outfit, check to make sure a counselor has time to work with your child and isn’t overwhelmed with all the paperwork that college admission requires. Counselors should spend time on counseling, and that’s difficult when they’re also doing all the paperwork.
— Make sure the work presented in an application is the student’s work only. There are some coaches who will overstep the bounds and write essays for students.
— Be skeptical of anyone selling their connections. Everyone has a relationship, but to imply that will get your teenager into a school is an exaggeration at best. Students get themselves into college, and counselors should simply maximize the opportunity. If they are claiming a relationship can help, that is a bad sign because those connections often are meaningless.
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