Well, there are some excellent educational consultants in the United States and each one of them has their own unique skill set. The overwhelming majority of them have not had the experience of being the Chair of an Admissions committee. School Match 4U President Mark Stucker has seven years of experience working for a selective school and we draw on this experience every single day in order to help families be prepared for the way their child is going to be evaluated. We are confident that we have a unique background compared to a number of consultants in the profession.
We can also put our work ethic and our commitment to customer service up against any other consulting group. It means a lot to us that you are entrusting your child to us because of our reputation, and we work to exceed your expectations. We also have extensive experience working with multicultural students, both on the admissions side and on the placement side. At least 50% of our college clients have been students of color. The overwhelming majority of our boarding school placements have been underrepresented students of color; although, we have significant experience with majority students and international students. The admissions evaluation is often noticeably different for students of color and it is extremely helpful to be working with a consultant who understands what the idiosyncrasies of the process are that make the process distinctive for them. We have extensive experience with students of all races and economic backgrounds. Some consultants cater only to affluent clients, but our clients have always come from a wide range of races, ethnicities and incomes.
We offer very detailed reports that our clients find extremely helpful. People come to us because they want a game plan, and we customize them for each of our clients in ways they find invaluable.
We spend less money on advertising than many consultants. We believe that if we exceed the expectations of our clients, they will pass our name on to others. We’ve been proven correct and do not need to spend thousands of dollars on advertising. We pass much of these savings on to our clients.
We are not legally set up as a non-profit organization, but we certainly have a non-profit mentality. We are well aware of the fact that we could charge much more, but this is insignificant. We are frequently asked by other consultants, “Why do you charge less than other educational consultants?” There are even some prospective clients who question us because of our low price. We do this because we are more concerned with helping families that need our services–but may struggle to afford our fees–than we are concerned about the fact that we are often bringing in thousands of dollars less per client than others. We also do not believe that it is fair for two different clients to pay different prices for the same service. Our approach to making sure we are not only serving families that make over $150,000/year is to price our services at a point where families that are not affluent–but are deeply committed to education–can afford our price point.
We put our heart into our work. There hasn’t been a single instance when we have ever been accused of doing consulting for the money. Our clients can discern our love for them and our commitment to them within 15 minutes of meeting with us.
There are some outstanding educational consultants in the United States, but at the end of the day, a family needs to select a consultant that they feel comfortable with.