Last year, Michelle and Gus Levy began thinking about what colleges would be a good fit for their son, Max, then a junior at University High School and a strong student. Instead of going it alone, the Levys hired an independent college consultant to help them narrow options, coordinate college visits and stay on top of deadlines.
“I had no idea what the process would be like since both of us had gone to state colleges in Louisiana,” Michelle Levy tells Business Report in a feature from the current issue. “To me, it was a way to relieve stress.”
Levy hired Nancy Cadwallader, an independent college consultant in Baton Rouge who has been in business since the mid-1980s. Levy says Cadwallader added value in a few key areas, including suggesting colleges beyond the well-known ones the family was already considering.
“She knew of colleges that I’d never heard of and didn’t have any exposure to and that would have taken me a lot of research to find,” says Levy. “Everybody is aware of the top tier schools, but she also turned us onto colleges we never would have considered.”
Over the last 30 years, the number of independent college consultants nationwide has increased from about 100 full-time consultants to about 8,000 full-time consultants and an additional 10,000 to 15,000 consultants who work part-time, says Mark Sklarow, chief executive officer of the Independent Educational Consultants Association in Virginia.
Hiring an independent consultant is not a cheap proposition. The national average for a consultant’s package is about $4,500, which usually includes two years worth of work, says Sklarow. And parents and students still have to do a considerable amount of work themselves, including writing essays and completing financial aid forms.
A growing trend is for consultants to offer a la carte packages or hourly rates, which can attract middle class families or families who simply need to refine their own work and research. The average hourly rate across the country is $160 an hour. Both of those rates are lower in Louisiana, says Sklarow.
The Levys paid a flat rate for Cadwallader’s services that also included coordinating onsite college visits, some college essay guidance and deadline management—tasks that would have exceeded the capacity of U-High’s school-based counselor, who is responsible for guiding more than 100 seniors each year.
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