College Advising Cost: Is It Worth It?

With finances and futures at stake, choosing a school that is well-suited to a student’s needs and financially sustainable (especially if your child will be paying for college), can be a complicated decision. That’s why an increasing number of parents are opting to hire a college admissions consultant to help with the process.

Read on to see how a college advisor can help your family, and if investing in college advising costs is worth it.

Why Is a College Advisor Needed?

Paying for college is one of life’s biggest financial hurdles. With an average sticker price of $11,610 for an in-state public school, $30,780 for out-of-state, and $43,350 for a private college, the overall costs can easily exceed $150,000 over four years. But college is an investment that pays dividends and helps set up your child for a more financially successful future.

According to a 2013 College Board report, adults with a college education are more likely to be employed, earn a higher wage, have access to better health care, and provide their children with better opportunities. So is hiring a college consultant worth the additional cost?

It is, according to Bari Norman, PhD, a former admissions officer at Barnard College of Columbia University and certified educational planner at Expert Admissions.

Joanne Prague Doyle, founder of Northeast Education Advocacy and former high school counseling coordinator, agrees: “Do I think school counselors have the time to give to every student that could be really required? Absolutely not.”

Doyle cites the countless obligations of a guidance counselor including managing scheduling issues, 504 meetings, and student planning and placement meetings, leaving little time for in-depth college planning sessions.

Because of those limitations, Doyle recommends getting to know your child’s school counselor and establishing lines of communication as soon as possible. “If you start early, regardless of whether it’s privately or with a school counselor, you’re way ahead of the game,” Doyle notes.

Benefits of Hiring a College Consultant

There are many possible benefits of paying for a college consultant to guide your child through the college application process, which according to Norman, should start at the beginning of high school. “Colleges are focusing on everything starting from day one of ninth grade,” says Norman.

• College counselors provide guidance. Without proper guidance, Norman says students risk choosing a school for all the wrong reasons like size, popular ranking lists, and other general characteristics. “You should choose the places that are best for you. These may or may not be the same places as where your family or friends went or want to go,” notes Norman.
• College counselors focus on the student’s needs. When considering schools, Norman says it’s important to look at where a student will thrive and find the right balance between academics and social life. “Ideally, you’ll attend a school where you’ll be happy, where you’ll feel comfortable, and where you can see yourself growing and changing in all the ways we hope you will over the next four years,” says Norman.

And, according to Prague Doyle, that’s where a college consultant can play a pivotal role: “I think the right one, with the time, the expertise, and the real willingness to get to know the student and the student’s match, is worth gold.”

What Does a College Admissions Consultant Do?

According to the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA), a professional educational consultant works with students and their families throughout every step of the college process, including high school curriculum planning, college selection, exams, applications, essays, majors, and financial aid.

“The beauty of working with any kind of independent college consultant is that there’s no agenda,” says Alison Forbes, independent college consultant and founder of Forbes College Consulting. “It’s really less about colleges and more about the kid. It’s really an opportunity for self-discovery.”

How college consultants help families

With around 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, there’s a lot of information to sift through and a knowledgeable college consultant can help narrow the field down.

• A college consultant helps clarify goals and values, then identifies schools that are a good fit—not only academically, but also socially. According to Forbes, social fit is one of the biggest reasons students end up transferring to another school.
• A college consultant can also help students crystalize goals and prospective career paths before selecting a program. A study published by the National Center for Education Statistics estimates that about 1 in 10 students change their major more than once, which can ultimately end up costing students and their families extra time and money.
• A college consultant can help reduce the tension that can arise between parents and children by bringing in someone from outside the family structure who can objectively help with the process. “It gives you your dinner table conversation back,” says Forbes. It’s normal for adolescents to be more receptive to ideas and suggestions that come from a third party, rather than their parents or guardians.

How To Find a College Consultant

Rather than searching for “college consultants near me,” the best place to find a college admissions consultant is through a professional association like HECA or the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). Both offer online directories of accredited members listed by location and description.

Mark Sklarow, CEO of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, says it’s important to find a consultant who matches your specific needs well.

Consultants vary in their approach and work style, says Sklarow. Some consultants are going to be very kind and caring, while others are going to be taskmasters. “Some consultants are highly skilled in working with kids with learning or physical disabilities. Some work really well with kids that are into the performing arts and some work really well with kids that are student athletes,” Sklarow adds.

What To Look For in a College Advisor

Things to look for in a consultant include how knowledgeable and current they are about admissions processes, how many college campuses they’ve visited, and what they’re doing to learn about various colleges. Other questions Sklarow suggests asking include how long they’ve been working as an educational consultant and what they did before becoming one.

“Were they an admissions director? Were they a school counselor? What was their background and what’s their specialty?” says Sklarow. “All of those sorts of things should be part of the discussion that’s taking place.”

Consultants that promise to ‘get students in’ to schools should raise a red flag, Sklarow notes. “If the discussion is about a place where your child will find success, where they’ll thrive, that it’s about the match, about succeeding in college, not getting in… that’s what you’re really looking for,” Sklarow adds.

How Much Does a College Consultant Cost?

Depending on where you live and the level of engagement you’re looking for, Sklarow says that, on average, hiring a college consultant costs around $5,000, but adds that it can be much less, particularly if you only hire them for specific parts of the process.

“There are many consultants who will work on an hourly basis. So, a family that says we can still do much of the work ourselves, we just want to make sure that we are heading in the right direction, we want to make sure that we’re not missing something… it’s about $175 an hour,” says Sklarow, noting it can be less or more depending on where you live.

Are College Advising Costs Worth It?

Though it may seem pricey, working with a college admissions advisor can ultimately prevent attending the wrong college for all the wrong reasons or overspending and ending up with thousands of dollars in school loans, says Sklarow. Think about the following goals in helping your student.

A debt-free college experience

Getting your teen through college debt-free should be a top priority, according to Jeannie Burlowski, academic strategist and author of Launch: How to Get Your Kids Through College Debt-Free and Into Jobs They Love Afterward.

Burlowski says that college consulting can be valuable if it helps families strategize ways to pay for college and seek scholarships. “I think that keeping college debt down should be part of the picture; that’s what makes the consultant really worth the money.”

Identify student skills

According to Burlowski, a consultant is also valuable if they help the student identify their skills, and then use them to select a career and college path based on their aptitude, not just a cool sweatshirt.

“We’re not looking for you to have a dream college. We’re looking for you to have a dream life,” Burlowski notes and adds that good decision-making on the front end can help prevent writing out monthly loan checks for an unwanted degree. “I love college consultants that help you chart the course. They help students figure out an exciting destination and then figure out the fastest, least expensive way to get there.”

Apply to a range of schools

Burlowski cautions that consultants can be helpful as long as they aren’t discouraging students from applying to certain schools because they “don’t have what it takes” or recommending they apply to schools based on cost alone. Those approaches show a limited and misguided understanding of the process, says Burlowski.

“What we really want is for students to apply to a range of schools, so they’ve got a few dream schools that are maybe a bit out there, then a few could-fit schools, and then a few safety schools on the opposite end of the spectrum, because there are so many different factors that colleges are considering,” adds Burlowski.