Deep-Fit College Counseling: An Investment for Life
We often hear concerns about the cost of college counseling when we speak with prospective families. Families’ questions usually boil down to: what will we gain from college counseling, and is it worth the expense?
A 2024 Pricing Survey by the IECA found that the average hourly rate for college counseling services is $224, and the average total cost of services per student is $5,838. There is variation in different parts of the US, with the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast having the highest total costs of $7,180 and $6,909, respectively. Of course, some counselors charge far more than these averages and often make the news. However, such counselors are outliers and do not represent the college counseling industry. Even so, I’ve been surprised at the range of prices that other college counselors have quoted prospective families. One father wrote to me: “I have seen a wide range of prices during my interactions, some exceeding $45K and all the way up to $80K, which I ruled out because that seems ridiculous.” At Lantern College Counseling, we charge a bit above average but far less than these numbers! The prices for our services are published on our website and reflect our deep expertise and the substantial value of our work while still being reasonable.
Should You Hire a College Counselor?
Given the costs of college counseling, you may wonder if this is something that you can do on your own. When families ask me this question, I suggest they think about college counseling as they do other types of services they might invest in, such as personal training. Is it possible to get in shape on your own? Yes. Would a trained fitness expert to personally guide you lead to improved outcomes and a more positive fitness journey? Most people would say YES. Similarly, a college counselor can help your child’s college search process go more smoothly and result in stronger outcomes than otherwise.
Considering the high cost of college, it is surprising more families don’t invest in college counseling! After all, ideally, college itself is an expensive four-year investment. I write “ideally” because, for many reasons, most students do not graduate from college in four years, often leading to even higher costs than families anticipate. College is one of a family’s greatest financial investments. College counseling arms families to be most thoughtful about this significant investment at a fraction of its cost.
What Are The Benefits of Hiring a College Counselor?
There are potential financial benefits to hiring a college counselor. As mentioned, most students do not graduate from college in four years. One reason is that they’ve chosen a school that is not a good fit. Working with a talented college counselor may lead to a better college fit for your child, increasing their chances of a positive four-year college journey. Secondly, families often express an interest in their child’s earning merit scholarships to reduce college costs. Most merit scholarships come directly from universities and colleges themselves. Some schools offer significant merit aid, while others provide none, including those in the Ivy League and many other highly selective institutions. An experienced college counselor can help your child build a college list that fits your family’s financial needs and goals.
A college counselor will help you navigate the emotional and psychological aspects of the college search, provide personalized attention, structure and organize your child’s application process, and be a go-to source of expertise, all leading to stronger applications and less stress. I explain to families that when we support them, we guide them in the driver’s seat, customizing their child’s college application journey with their input. We anticipate forks, turns, opportunities, and hazards. Our structured yet flexible, highly individualized, and high-touch process meets each family where they are and makes what could be an overwhelming process manageable. Our balanced approach ensures that the students will have options they are proud of. Our expertise helps students make their strongest applications, including developing and growing through activities that help them learn and stand out. We play many roles, as needed: a go-to voice of calm, expertise, and perspective. We enable parents to be the parents, not their child’s college taskmaster. We can absorb individual stresses to prevent families from spiraling up in stress together. In sum, a college counselor can help a child’s college search process be more manageable, less stressful, and yield better results, making a family’s lives easier and happier during their child’s last years at home.
Our families say our work and “organizational wizardry” “reduces the stress for parents and the students,” makes the process “so much easier and more authentic,” and “makes the complex process manageable.” A current senior’s parent writes about Lantern college counselor Eliza, “Eliza has done a wonderful job motivating and organizing our son, and keeping him on task.” One mother shares that we have made her daughter’s college search process “stress free and enjoyable for a very anxious girl!” Another writes, “As parents, you made our job a lot easier.” And another parent says the process “would have been impossible to navigate without (us).” A mother who did not use a college counselor for her older son shares that her “stress level was so much lower” than when her older child applied to college. Lastly, a current senior’s mother writes, “Eliza has helped me off of the edge many times. ; ) Our daughter is always uplifted and happy after talking with Eliza.“
Why Choose Lantern College Counseling?
Many families looking for a college counselor are eager to know the counselor’s experience on a board of admissions and with helping students apply to college. Lantern’s two counselors have been helping high school students apply to and transition to college for over 25 years. Families have told me that they will only hire a college counselor who has served on a Board of Admission, as I did for eight years at Wellesley College.
What many families don’t realize is that perhaps even more valuable than the experience of serving on a Board of Admission is the experience of working with college students after admission and while they are on their college campus. This experience is critical to guiding high school students to campuses where they will thrive. Lantern’s two counselors have been supporting and educating students on college campuses in mentoring and advising roles for over 45 years. Lantern College Counseling knows what makes students thrive and is acutely aware that getting into college is just the beginning of a student’s college experience.
This deep experience led me to develop a new paradigm for the college search and application process centered on the concept of Deep-Fit™ with college thriving as a foundation for lifelong success. At a Deep-Fit college, students can achieve their personal and academic goals, have impactful experiences, develop confidence and agency, and lay the foundation for a successful life. Lantern families have access to our structured process to support building a Deep-Fit college list and making Deep-Fit applications, including home-grown resources, so their child stands out in the application pool. Lantern College Counseling is the home of Deep-Fit!
When families hire Lantern College Counseling, they have access to our collective expertise: over 25 years of experience helping high school students apply to and transition to college and over 45 years of experience supporting and educating students on college campuses. At every stage, Eliza and Jennifer partner as a team to support your student, including key stages such as college list building and finalization, application strategy, review of the essays and application materials, and final college selection.
Lantern’s CS, Engineering, and STEM Expertise
At Lantern, we are thought leaders in higher education on college campuses and in college admissions counseling. Our dual roles in higher education and college counseling mean we are constantly learning and staying on top of cutting-edge areas, industries, and programs, which is particularly relevant to the changing STEM landscape. Other independent educational consultants hire us for our STEM expertise and help to guide their STEM students. We are sought after for our STEM insights by podcasters and are frequently in the media. On November 1, 2024, I recorded a Tests and the Rest podcast* on "Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an Undergraduate Major: What You Need to Know," where I shared my insights as the Dean of Academic Advising and Undergraduate Studies for the School of Engineering at Tufts University and an Independent Educational Consultant (IEC.) As Dean at Tufts, I oversee the undergraduate curriculum, including the AI-related fields of computer science, data science, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering, and routinely advise undergraduate engineering students to prepare for a career in AI. As an IEC, I frequently guide high school students to college programs where they can pursue their interests in AI. I also often present at conferences. Last year, I was an invited panelist at the IECA 2023 Spring Conference Featured College Session titled "Is Artificial Intelligence Changing College Counseling?" where I provided insights from my career as a computer science professor, engineering dean, and IEC specializing in STEM with a focus on the impact of AI on college counseling and higher education. The year prior, I presented an educational session at the 2022 IECA Fall Conference titled “Navigating the Computer Science Admissions Landscape.”
We are STEM experts. I am a dean at Tufts School of Engineering, overseeing the undergraduate curriculum and leading an undergraduate engineering advising team. I hold a BS in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and an MS and a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Eliza was a key member of my engineering advising team at Tufts for six years before moving back to Canada to be closer to family, where she now has a role at Carleton University. At Tufts, Eliza advised all undergraduate engineering students during their first year, half of whom were still deciding on their engineering major, and all students interested in internally transferring from the School of Arts and Sciences into the School of Engineering. As such, Eliza and I have deep knowledge of engineering majors and disciplines and are talented experts in guiding directed and undecided STEM students.
Fun fact: Eliza was Jennifer’s daughter’s academic advisor when she was an undecided first-year student considering engineering at Tufts (while Jennifer was still working at Wellesley College), encouragingly guiding her through the internal transfer process and welcoming her into the School of Engineering! As a mother, Jennifer was so grateful to hear her daughter excitedly chatter about her caring advisor, Eliza, during her first year at Tufts.
* I will link to the podcast when it is available.
Lantern’s Expertise in College Success
Beyond STEM, we are experts on college thriving, as evidenced by our 45 years of supporting and educating students on college campuses and our Deep-Fit approach—experience that applies broadly to all academic disciplines. In fact, over half of our students do not plan to study STEM in college! We are deeply experienced in supporting undecided students.
We’ve developed a road map for college success, including over 70 action items in five main areas: wellness, academic success, know and use your resources, build your community, and create your future (career readiness) to help your student make the most of their college experience. We also advise enrolled college students who need support finding their academic direction, are experiencing difficulty, or are considering transferring. This spring, we will be launching a formal offering of this service.
Deep-Fit College Counseling: An Investment for Life
The college application process is about more than just getting into college. The steps and practices that build a strong application extend into college and beyond. For instance, we encourage our high school students to build relationships with teachers and mentors since doing so can help them make their strongest college applications and create their college future. Likewise, we teach them that relationships with college professors and mentors are among the most important impactful experiences they should seek in college and can help them create their post-college future. As adults, we call relationship building “networking,” a key to career success.
Similarly, through a Deep-Fit college search, students will gain confidence and learn to be active agents in their college search, while in college, and beyond college. We constantly challenge our students to see what they can create for themselves and equip them to do so. They learn that they can create their future and gain skills and experiences to do so powerfully. When we help students make their college choice, we know they are positioned to keep creating their future in college because they choose a Deep-Fit school that will likewise empower them. And, of course, they take the skills and lessons they’ve learned through our work not just to college but forward from college.
Deep-Fit college counseling prepares students for success in the college application process, college, and life. It is an investment in your child’s future.
