Consultants find big demand
for good advice on colleges

Michelle and Gary Beamon didn’t know where to start when their daughter, Alix, reached the an age when college was looming on the horizon.

“She’s my first child – I had no idea what we needed to do,” Michelle Beamon said. “I didn’t know what to tell her.”

So last year, when Alix was a junior at Toll Gate High School in Warwick, the Beamons hired an independent college consultant. Now, as she enters her senior year, Alix is visiting schools recommended by Providence-based adviser Cristiana Quinn that complement her ambition to be a dancer.

“This is an investment,” Michelle Beamon said. “You want your child to end up at the right school.”

The Beamons are not alone.

As the cost of a college education continues to skyrocket, so is the number of families who this fall are turning to experts to help them navigate the often-mystifying world of college admissions, with its applications and essays, interviews and financial aid forms.

It is an increasingly competitive game, and a key job of the advisers is to make sure their clients stand out to admissions officers. In Rhode Island, consultants offer various services, ranging from conducting mock interviews to providing lessons on essay writing.

Their fees aren’t cheap – running as high as a few hundred dollars an hour – but considering the cost of a good education, local advisers say it’s a bargain.

“There are people making $200,000 decisions without understanding who their child is and what would fit them best,” said Claire Law, an East Greenwich-based independent educational adviser who charges $3,000 for 18 months of consulting work.

The rising cost of tuitions, combined with increased competition among students to get into the top schools, have led to “nearly explosive” growth in the field of independent admissions advisers, according to the director of a national trade group. Add to that the national statistics indicating that high school guidance counselors are too overburdened – an average of one counselor to 650 students – to provide proper advice on higher education.

Mark Sklarow, executive director of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, said last week that there were only 1,000 independent advisers nationwide five years ago. Now there are 4,000. “And we think it will double again in two years,” he said.

Locally, the number of people involved in this unregulated field is not clear – many work at it on a part-time basis – but a Providence-area phone book contains about 20 listings under educational consultants.

Quinn said she started advising high school students eight years ago, after working part-time for 15 years as an admissions representative for the University of Vermont.

When friends and relatives started asking for help in getting their children into a college, she decided to get a certificate on admissions counseling through online courses offered by the University of California Los Angeles.

Now she takes on about 40 students each year, charging $495 for every four-hour block of her time.

While advisers perform various services when they’re hired, Quinn said her top priority is finding a good match for each student. “Selecting the right colleges upfront is really the most important part of the entire process,” said Quinn, who has operated College Admission Advisors for a year in Providence. “There’s a right fit for everybody.”

After meeting with a student to assess their interests and ambitions, Quinn typically develops an initial list of 20 to 30 schools, which is whittled down to about 10 before the student’s senior year. “This list is very tailored to them,” she said.

Quinn makes a point not to focus solely on the Ivy League, and she avoids making promises that students will get into particular schools. “There are no sure bets,” said Quinn.

Law said it is also essential to draw out of students’ special attributes that will allow them stand out. To that end, the former Bryant University admissions officer administers personality assessments, among other things. “It’s important to understand the gifts a student has, personality-wise as well as academically,” she said.

Students are coached on how to use that information to their advantage – in essay writing, for instance.

“They’re use to writing essays about authors and books, but they have a difficult time writing about themselves in a way that toots their own horn,” said Law, who runs her consulting business, Educational Avenues, out of her home in East Greenwich. “They need to write an essay that’s them and in a way that no one else could write that essay.”

The extent of the services offered by consultants depends on how close the student is to attending college.

Advisers said they like to initially meet high school students during their junior year so college lists can be developed and students can be steered toward appropriate courses and activities. Most advisers also take on seniors looking for assistance at the last minute.

Law, however, likes to get an early jump on college planning if possible, meeting students once in the ninth grade and again in the tenth grade. “It’s just to make sure that they’re taking classes that will challenge them, interest them,” she said.

And it’s not just the families of high-powered students looking to get into the top schools who are turning to consultants.

Fred Bartlett, an admissions adviser based in Jamestown, said he often sees middle-range students who have “done everything right, but because there’s no rough edges, gets lost in the crowd.”

And he has dealt with children whose parents are frustrated by their lack of motivation. Here, Bartlett said, a counselor can motivate kids in ways a parent cannot, recalling one particular reluctant client. “We talked through what it means to be turning 18, and what rights and privileges he had as a person who is six months way from being 18,” said Bartlett, who charges $100 an hour. “It blew him away.”

Bartlett, a former Springfield College admissions director who owns Passport 2 College, has also dealt with single-minded students.

He recalled a girl who insisted on applying only to small colleges in New England. Bartlett convinced her to broaden her horizons. “I told her, ‘Let’s not get caught up in one flavor; there maybe some other flavors out there to go for,’ ” Bartlett said.

It is impossible to verify success rates of independent college advisers, but Michelle Beamon said that she’s glad she hired one. At the top of her daughter Alix’s short list of colleges is Elon University in North Carolina, a school the Beamons knew nothing about before consulting Quinn.

“It’s been great,” Michelle Beamon said.

In fact, when another one of the Beamons’ daughters is ready to start looking at colleges next year, they plan to use Quinn again. •