Best College Admissions Consultants – 2024
May 7, 2024
As you look through the various lists of the “Best College Admissions Consultants” on the internet, you’ll be treated to an array of lists compiled by what appears to be some impartial ranking entity (“Aha, I’ve finally found the Consumer Reports/Wirecutter of college counseling!”). In reality, each of these lists is created by a particular college consulting agency, and published via a proxy server with no identifiable author. It’s about as “2024” a marketing technique as you can employ, but it’s also disingenuous and misleading, qualities that likely aren’t exactly aligned with what you’re looking for as you seek counseling and support for your child who is about to make what could be a $400,000 investment in tuition, housing, and other costs.
This list of the Best College Admissions Consultants only has one entry and it is, of course (spoiler alert), for our own company. While we do think we are “the best,” we also believe that there are dozens (or more) of other fantastic private counselors and essay coaches spread across the United States. Many others also provide research and experience-based advice that leads to positive outcomes for clients. As such, we aren’t knocking any other excellent company out there; in this space, we simply want to present the case as to why, for certain types of students and families, College Transitions may be the best fit.
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What makes College Transitions unlike any other college counseling agency?
- The CT Founders have authored two published books: The Enlightened College Applicant (2016, 2023) and the annual college guide Colleges Worth Your Money (now in its 5th edition).
- We’ve published research in top higher education journals such as Education Evaluation & Policy Analysis, Research in Higher Education, and The Journal of Higher Education.
- We’re regularly quoted by top national/global publications (example here).
- CT maintains a free Dataverse, Common Data Set Repository, blog, and newsletter for parents, students, and counselors.
- We developed a College List-Building Tool.
- We are certified in and able to offer valuable Career Assessments.
- Our essay coaches are highly trained professionals who all have teaching or tutoring experience, typically at the college level. Many of our coaches are also published writers or researchers who hold master’s or doctoral degrees in English, writing, or education.
In addition to these specific features and achievements, our philosophy also differs from many competitors. In short, we take the long view with our students and work backward. Through developing a sense of what future happiness and career success look like to a given individual, we can help develop an undergraduate plan of attack designed to get them on a successful and realistic path toward that vision.
Finally, we work with all our students 100% virtually in a model that we have honed relentlessly over the past decade. We deeply understand that building trust in a remote environment requires responsiveness, a value that is at the core of our counseling and essay coaching services. Accordingly, our efficient and effective counseling and essay coaching model makes it possible for students to receive expert, personalized support on a flexible schedule. This model also enables students to dedicate the bulk of their time to what matters most: schoolwork, activities, test prep, essays, and actual applications.
Best College Admissions Consultants (Continued)
College Transitions Clients’ Recent Acceptances
Class of 2023
Representing 36 states, 11 countries, and 126 different high schools, the College Transitions Class of 2023 was our largest, most diverse, and most accomplished yet. With support from our team of counselors, CT students earned admission offers from more than 200 colleges and universities. We have included a sampling of our most popular schools below. Institutions listed in bold accepted five or more of our students.
| Amherst College | George Washington University | Rice University | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| American University | Georgia Institute of Technology | Rochester Institute of Technology | University of Maryland |
| Babson College | Georgetown University | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Barnard College | Hamilton College | Rutgers University | University of Miami |
| Bates College | Harvard University | Scripps College | University of Michigan |
| Bentley University | Harvey Mudd College | Skidmore College | University of Minnesota |
| Binghamton University | Haverford College | Smith College | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Boston College | Imperial College London | Southern Methodist University | University of Notre Dame |
| Boston University | Indiana University | Stanford University | University of Oxford |
| Bowdoin College | Johns Hopkins University | Stevens Institute of Technology | University of Pennsylvania |
| Brandeis University | Kenyon College | Syracuse University | University of Pittsburgh |
| Brown University | King’s College London | Swarthmore College | University of Richmond |
| Bucknell University | Lafayette College | Texas A&M University | University of Rochester |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Lehigh University | Trinity College | University of St Andrews |
| Case Western Reserve University | London School of Economics | Trinity College Dublin | University of Southern California |
| Carleton College | Loyola Marymount University | Trinity University | University of Texas at Austin |
| Claremont McKenna College | Macalester College | Tufts University | University of Toronto |
| Colby College | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Tulane University | University of Vermont |
| Colgate University | McGill University | Union College | University of Virginia |
| Colorado College | Middlebury College | University College London | University of Washington |
| College of William & Mary | Mount Holyoke College | University of British Columbia | University of Waterloo |
| Columbia University | New Jersey Institute of Technology | University of California, Berkeley | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Connecticut College | New York University | University of California, Davis | Vanderbilt University |
| Cornell University | North Carolina State University | University of California, Irvine | Vassar College |
| Dartmouth College | Northeastern University | University of California, Los Angeles | Villanova University |
| Davidson College | Northwestern University | University of California, San Diego | Virginia Tech |
| Denison University | Occidental College | University of California., Santa Barbara | Wake Forest University |
| Duke University | Ohio State University | University of Cambridge | Washington and Lee University |
| Emory University | Penn State University | University of Chicago | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Elon University | Pomona College | University of Colorado Boulder | Wellesley College |
| Florida State University | Princeton University | University of Connecticut | Wesleyan University |
| Fordham University | Purdue University | University of Edinburgh | Williams College |
| Franklin & Marshall College | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | University of Florida | Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
| Furman University | Rhodes College | University of Georgia | Yale University |
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Plans
We have plans for high school students of all grade levels:
Mentorship & Planning
Grades 9 and 10
Provide guidance for all essential college planning tasks during the first half of high school, including:
- Academic advising and course selection for all grades
- Extracurricular planning
- Summer activity planning (including support for summer program essays)
- Resumé building
- Diagnostic standardized testing and score assessment
- Preliminary college visits and demonstrating interest
Applying
Grades 11 & 12, and Transfers
Offer support throughout the entire college search and application process, including for the following tasks:
- College list development
- Preliminary review, assessment of chances, and strategic positioning
- Course selection
- Extracurricular planning
- Essay coaching (for personal statements and supplemental essays)
- Activities list and resume development
- College interview prep
- Standardized testing strategy
- Letter of recommendation strategy
- Financial aid and scholarship guidance
- College decision guidance and college transition support
We sincerely believe that you will find the Best College Admissions Consultants for your needs right here at College Transitions. Again, we invite you to get to know us more through our website and/or by filling out a Consultation Request.
