by Emily Snyder, IECA Member (Virginia), and Chair, IECA College Committee

I just returned from the PCACAC Conference that Mark Sklarow referred to in his most recent post to this blog.

Five events occurred during the Conference that reaffirmed that my decision to attend was the right choice for me: (1) having the opportunity to connect and network with admissions professionals in a small, personalized environment, and becoming updated on exciting, new programs and changes at the colleges and universities in attendance; (2) participating in the panel moderated by Mark Sklarow; (3) learning that three public school administrators in my area have become believers in the value of a credential for school based counselors and educational consultants; (4) being informed about upcoming changes to the 2010-2011 Common Application; and (5) seeing a planned, relaxing evening among three colleagues quickly morph into “dinner for 7″.

Mark has already spoken about the value of our panel presentation — I was glad to play a role in helping educate others, challenging and dispelling myths, and providing a more accurate interpretation of the role we play in helping the students we work with achieve successful outcomes.

Learning that some public school administrators, these three in particular because they are in my area, are on board with the idea of a certification for all those who provide educational guidance to students, regardless of whether they are independents consultants or school based personnel, was a bittersweet experience for me –it helped me see how far we as a professional association have come, while at the same time shed light on how far we have to go.

It was just a few years ago that The Common Application made changes to its format without much user input or advance notice. From the groundswell of concerns that arose, advice from different constituencies is now a regular part of the yearly review process. During this morning’s presentation, 7 of the 20 (I believe that’s an accurate count) attendees who were independent consultants, 6 were IECA members. Let’s hope that sooner rather than later IECA consultants will be given equal opportunities, with The Common Application and other organizations that impact students, to provide input and have proportional representation at their advisory and decision making tables.

All that aside, for me, the MOST IMPORTANT experience was dinner amongst 7 individuals who as little as 5 years ago would never have most likely all agreed to socialize over dinner at the same table. At that time, some of these very same individuals were still on “the other side” of the fence regarding the validity and value of educational consultants. If not for the ongoing efforts of individual members and IECA as an organization, who would have thought it possible.

Mark’s comment yesterday about the young woman who couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about is revealing; for me, in a different way than anyone might anticipate.

Five years ago at the university this young woman now works at I made a phone call to the admissions office on behalf of an applicant and his family — there were very valid reasons why they were not in the position to make the call themselves. Without any knowledge of my credentials, I was told in no uncertain terms that my phone call was not welcome. That same applicant, who is not much younger than the admissions representative who spoke up yesterday, will graduate from that very same institution next week, and will be starting law school in the fall; my, how far we have come.

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by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consulting Association

I spent the last few days attending the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling (PCACAC) Conference in Dover, Delaware with school counselors, college admission officials, and independent educational consultants from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, DC, and West Virginia. I heard a couple of themes emerge that deeply impacted me.

Shannon Gundy, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Maryland, College Park, served on a panel that I chaired, exploring school counselor/consultant relations. Shannon noted that in preparation for her presentation, she asked members of her staff how often they “heard from or worked with” an educational consultant. Their answer: about once a month. That led Shannon to conclude that the University of Maryland doesn’t really have much of a relationship with educational consultants and gets relatively few students applying to the state’s flagship school.

Of course recent independent studies would suggest otherwise. The Lipman Hearne study, aided by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions, showed that 26% of high achieving students—exactly the kind that would explore admission to the University of Maryland—used educational consultants. Yet educational consultants have worked so hard to keep their existence in the background that we may have led to the impression that we are of little consequence, hiding our significance (and growing numbers), and suggesting to colleges that we are an unimportant constituency. In reality, for many colleges we are their greatest source for out-of-region students. Shannon wondered why we didn’t make our numbers better known.

I was reminded of a panel at our Summer Training Institute a few years back. There, Corky Surbeck, dean of admission at Goucher College, was asked if he ‘minded’ if a consultant called him to discuss any special circumstances. He surprised everyone in the room when he stated flatly that he wished consultants called more. He noted that consultants—fully qualified and vetted consultants like those in IECA—have an interesting insight that he and his admission staff needed to hear. With students applying to Goucher for all sorts of reasons, he knew one thing: if a student working with a consultant was applying to Goucher, there was a good reason the consultant thought it was a good fit. He and his staff would welcome finding out why.

Consultants have been so wary about being seen publicly that many advise their students, when faced with the questions about “how they heard of the Common Application” or “Did you use an educational consultant in your application,” to leave the question blank—again, diluting the strength of our numbers, our work, and our efforts on behalf of students.

The other comment I have heard replaying in my head came from a twenty-something school counselor attending that session. She noted a strain of unacceptance: That school counselors resist cooperating with consultants, and consultants advise their students not to reveal to the school that they are involved. She found this absurd! “Aren’t we all working for the same goal: serving students?” she asked. When she was told what NACAC and other institutions were like 10-15 years ago when consultants were not well respected, she noted that this was ancient history and it was time we moved on.

Truer words were never spoken. It is time we moved on, taking our seat at the table, reflective of our professionalism and commitment to students. IECA introduced the phrase “good fit” into popular use more than 15 years ago. Our members have visited more campuses, hold a higher percentage of certifications, attend more professional training, and find great matches. It is time that every college, school, and parent know it. It is time for us to assert our knowledge and our leadership.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

A major source of frustration, based on what I hear when I travel, revolves around the strained relationship between independent educational consultants and school-based college counselors. School counselors feel that students working with consultants are often advised to keep that relationship a secret from the school counselor, leaving the advisor confused about a student’s choices and actions. Educational consultants report that school counselors often tell their students, using direct language, not to hire a consultant or face being cut-off from school assistance. School counselors worry about the message being sent when students choose to go outside of the school for advising, and consultants worry about being ‘discovered’ as involved in the process.

This seems surprising, when both the IECA Principles of Good Practice and NACAC’s Statement of Principles of Good Practice call for an honest, cooperative relationship.

Ways to improve this relationship will be brought to two meetings of regional ACACs this spring. One panel, led by Marty O’Connell of Colleges That Change Lives, was presented this past week in Jacksonville, Florida at the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling Conference (SACAC). The session, entitled “Building Bridges Between Colleagues: It’s All About Counseling Students,” included college counselors from both a public and private high school; John Gaines, associate dean, undergraduate admissions at Vanderbilt University; and IECA member Bill Dingledine (South Carolina), representing independent consultants. The title is the same at next week’s meeting of the Potomac and Chesapeake (PCACAC) chapter. I will be given the opportunity to moderate a session that includes two IECA members (Emily Snyder of Virginia and Shelley Levine of Maryland); a public and a private school counselor; and Shannon Gundy, director of undergraduate admissions at University of Maryland.

These efforts underscore an ongoing effort by IECA to reach out to school-based college advisors, find common ground, and enhance cooperation. In many communities such efforts are producing solid results.

It is still shocking to me that there are a few state or regional ACACs where independent educational consultants are mistreated: not allowed to serve as officers, facing obstacles to becoming members, and denied the right to serve on committees. Yet other ACAC groups have IECA members serving on the Board (and in one case, president) and among the most active volunteers.

As we look forward, IECA is exploring ways to find greater cooperation with NACAC and regional groups, particularly as we plan conferences, training programs, and more throughout the country. The IECA College Committee will also be looking for opportunities to improve relationships, and enhance respect and mutual cooperation.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

Early this morning I received the draft of the Strategic Plan meant to carry IECA through 2015. The Task Force charged with writing the plan, chaired by Mary Jane Freeman of North Carolina, began its work about 16 months ago by reviewing the implementation of our previous plan. They discovered that the 2005-2010 plan truly served as the guiding document for both the Board and staff. In their report card they found that of the scores of goals and objectives listed, virtually all had been either “completely” or “substantially” implemented. Such adherence to the plan is what propelled IECA dramatically forward during those five years.

One of the lessons for the membership is that such plans matter. That is, when the Association adopts a path to follow it is a genuine outline of where IECA will go. Now, with the new plan we have a clear idea of what the Association should look like in 2015, and it is an exciting future. And lest anyone think that IECA plans to sit back and enjoy our successes, the new plan, submitted to the Board for review and approval, lists 71 new goals, objectives, and implementation strategies.

While the plan will soon be available for all members to review, here are some of the major goals and what they would mean for IECA and its members by 2015:

1. We seek to ensure that the public identifies IECA as the foremost association of educational consultants. This means that IECA will undertake serious efforts, including the commitment to resources to become better known to the general public so that families immediately look to see a consultant’s IECA affiliation as evidence of competence, skill, and ethical bearing. This goal includes working to make the IECA Web site is the preferred source of admissions and placement resources.

2. Assert our goal that while no unqualified consultant should ever be allowed to join the Association, that all serious, professional and qualified consultants sense an obligation to join IECA as evidence of achieving professional stature. As part of this goal, the plan calls for an expansion of outreach, mentoring, networking, workshops, and the expansion of our new initiative to develop regional consulting groups.

3. Assist members in maintaining profitable, professional and state-of-the-art practices. Our goal is to not only become better known in the public and continue to drive potential clients to our members, but also to assist members in finding new efficiencies to reduce office costs in time and money, and to help sort through new technological developments.

4. Provide IECA members with tools and opportunities for professional growth and promotion of ethical practices. This includes new efforts at promoting the transition from associate to professional status, continued training efforts through our partnerships with NACAC and others, and introduce new educational opportunities through regional and online offerings.

5. Provide paths for leadership within the Association. IECA has been blessed with staggering numbers of members who volunteer: to serve on committees, to assist at conferences, who volunteer with special events. The plan calls for greater effort to ensure opportunities for all who wish to become leaders in the organization to find the path available to them.

6. Finally, the plan calls for whatever by-laws changes are necessary and whatever staffing changes are required to meet the demands of the Association’s growth and new initiatives. In part the plan recognizes that new program initiatives spurred by active committees, affinity and regional groups will lead to increased demands for staff support.

The picture painted by the strategic initiatives is clear: in 2015 IECA will have asserted its leadership and well-earned reputation of its members through increased public awareness and increased outreach to our professional colleagues. We will be a proactive organization: adding programs, tours, workshops, and national and regional programming, to ensure our members have whatever resources they need to succeed and lead. We have exciting days ahead!

The Strategic Planning Committee members are: Mary Jane Freeman (NC), chair, Nancy Cadwallader (LA), Pearl Glassman (NY), Charotte Klaar (MD), Audrey Ludemann (CT), Bari Norman (FL), with Diane Geller (CA), IECA President

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

Based on facts and figures alone, we know the economy is showing significant signs of recovery. We have had two consecutive quarters of positive GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth, and this alone would mean that the recession is, technically, behind us. While employment figures have not shown dramatic improvement, monthly losses of over a half a million jobs shrank to losses of fewer than 10,000 at the beginning of the year, and in March we saw actual growth. So things are better, right? Well, polls indicate that a solid majority of Americans believe we are still in a recession. Most experts think that when we see relatives unemployed or hear of neighbors losing their home, the average person remains cautious and pessimistic. And while unemployment has fallen below 10%, most experts think the real number (including those who stopped looking for work or took part-time jobs) remains remarkable high, at nearly 20%.

At the beginning of the recession I suggested that consultants could better judge the likely impact on this profession by looking at two figures: consumer spending and consumer confidence. That is, are average Americans beginning to spend money, particularly on non-necessities, and are they showing signs of confidence in a rebound that makes them a bit more comfortable, agreeing to a major purchase? So what do we know? The Conference Board tells us that consumer confidence index began to rebound in March, with more Americans thinking that the economy will improve over the next six months than those who believe it will get worse. Significantly, consumer spending increased for five straight months—despite the crippling snowstorms in February—and has exceeded the expectations of economists. Spending on bigger ticket items has improved as higher wage earners are beginning to believe that if they still have their job, they weathered the storm and are safe.

So what does this mean for consulting? I believe we have begun to turn the corner. I am hearing reports from members across the United States that things have begun to pick up. Particularly in college advising the trend seems very positive, while things are rebounding a bit more slowly in therapeutic and traditional boarding placements. I hope more members will e-mail me or post what they are seeing so we can gain a broader perspective. To be sure, there are some parts of the country where things remain very, very difficult, particularly areas where unemployment remains at twice the national average. However, as the stock market continues to improve (it is over 11,000 as I write this blog), companies return to matching retirement contributions and job security returns, we can count on continued improvement in educational consulting. Many have heard me say that consultants will do better if they allow clients to pay in smaller amounts, spread out over time: when any economic uncertainty exists, people want to pay out of their checkbooks, not out of savings or by cashing in a 401(k) or bond. The need to dip heavily into savings or home equity is one of the things preventing therapeutic programs from rebounding more quickly.

So bottom line: I think we are at the beginning of the improvement and I suspect we’ll see real signs of increased clients loads. Those who will gain the most are consultants who can be identified as qualified, competent, and worth the cost. We hope that membership in IECA will provide that reassurance as the economy brings families back to consultants for educational advice.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

The Secondary School Admission Test Board is an organization originally created to handle the administration of entrance exams for the nation’s independent schools. Over the years, that mission has grown as the SSATB extended its reach into more than 100 countries, developed a Standard Application Online, new tracking strategies for school applications and financial aid, entered into training for admission directors and their staff, and took a leadership role in research and promotion of independent education. As a result, the organization has voted to re-create itself as the Consortium for Independent Education. This newly titled umbrella organization will serve its mission through a number of subsidiaries. These include the familiar SSAT in North America and (with a global subsidiary) throughout the world; ‘The Admissions Organization’ to serve admission professionals; a division that will be dedicated to providing services for families; and the ‘Princeton Institute for Educational Research.’

The move is the culmination of a strategic initiative begun in 2005, and we wish SSATB much success as it both formalizes the expanded services it has pursued in recent years, and continues to expand these services and research moving forward.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

The key role of the educational consultant is to find the best possible match between a student’s educational, social, community needs and desires, and what colleges offer. The role of the college consultant is not, as the media would have us believe, to sit back, let a student decide where they want to go and then “help them get in.” A student’s learning style, the campus’ political environment, academic vs. social component, weekend activities, LD support services, physical environment, and so much more go into this important decision.

Many consultants indicate that one of the great satisfactions in their life is introducing students to a potential college that the family has never heard of, but which proves to be an exceptional choice—just the right match for the interests and educational needs. A great consultant needs to have as much information about colleges as possible. It is this accumulation of knowledge that allows the match to be suggested so that a student can then plan a visit and evaluate on their own. Consultants can gain this information from a variety of sources. To be sure, exploring Web sites, view books, and literature is important. However these are written by a university’s hired public relations firm, and so while critical information will be shared, it is skewed to present the best possible image of a school. It’s one thing for a small college to claim 75 clubs, but the real question is: are these clubs active? Welcoming? Supported by the student body overall? Consultants should also make use of published data, like that produced by Wintergreen Orchard House. But we all know that numbers—minimum GPAs, test scores, size of freshman class, etc.—tell only part of the story. Numbers do not capture the feel of a school. Other published sources such as guides from Princeton Review and Fiske are also critical components, but of course these are the evaluations of someone else, and someone whose opinion may or may not match your own.

Most consultants also get feedback from past clients, which is a way to ensure that their impressions of a school are in fact accurate. Others look at student Web sites and other ways to get a less filtered view of what current students are thinking and saying about their school.

What really distinguishes consultants, particularly IECA members, from school-based counselors, is that they do visit campuses. How better to describe a potential school to a student than to be able to share a view, in order to discuss it as a potential match. Consultants sit in the dining hall, observe interaction, read bulletin boards to see what events are coming, notice the influence of the Greek system, and discern what the political climate is. A consultant wanders over to ‘Main Street’ to see the student/town interaction, observe the maintenance of the physical plant, and see if students USE the gym, the library, the student support center, etc.

Of course there are added benefits to such tours: consultants become acquainted with college admission representatives, developing a stronger professional relationship that is further aided by the hundreds of college that participate in IECA conferences and programs yearly. Moreover, while some consultants visit campuses individually, more visit together with colleagues or take part in the many organized tours that IECA plans throughout the year. This provides opportunities to interact with peers, discuss changes in the admission scene, new developments on campus, and so much more.

No one source of information is sufficient to gain a complete view of a college, but it is the visit—a personal visit by a trained professional—that when combined with statistics, published reports, Web sites and more, is likely to provide the best, most complete picture of a college or university. Such a picture informs the consultant whether or not a school should be placed on the list of possibilities, allowing a student to conduct their own research. It is this difference that makes consultants invaluable for families and makes IECA members the most respected in the field.

This article originally appeared in the April / May issue of IECA’s Insights newsletter. To subscribe to Insights for free, send your name and address to info@IECAonline.com.

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by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

It is that time of year, when colleges announce their tuition and fee schedule for the 2010-2011 school year. Throughout the country we have seen college administrators act so aggressively to pat themselves on the back that I suspect more than a few have had to go to the hospital with arm strain. After a year where tuition increases in some schools exceeded 10 percent—and where some colleges raised tuition mid-year, an almost unheard of decision heading into the current semester—many have been relieved to see increases limited to just 3, 4, or 5 percent.

College registrars have been touting increases, generally in the 3 to 4 percent range, as evidence that they understand the economic frustration of students and families and fears among many that larger increases would have devastating effect on students’ ability to remain enrolled.

Such comments leave me extremely frustrated and show how divorced from reality many colleges are.

I have tracked, for about 20 years, how college tuition has increased at roughly DOUBLE the rate of inflation. That means in those years that the consumer price index increased by 4 percent, tuition typically increased by 8 percent. When inflation was 5 percent, tuition grew by 10 percent. So where were we in 2009? We had essentially no inflation with the annual rate at -0.4 percent. So have colleges matched that lack of inflation by holding the line? No, the current 3 to 4 percent increases are dramatically higher than the inflation rate. Even as we look at the first few months of 2010, the Consumer Price Index is up about 2 percent, reflecting, yet again, college tuition rising at double the cost of other goods and services.

When one looks over time, it is easy to see how college tuition has gotten ridiculously out of hand: if the price of food has about doubled over the last 20 years, the price of going to college is up 400 percent or more. Given that wages have not come close to matching this increase, we can easily see the growing impossibility of affording college for those of modest means. This explains the growing trend of students graduating with loans beyond what any 22-year-old should face.

In the current climate we understand that other factors weigh heavily on colleges. States are essentially bankrupt, resulting in a freeze in college funding for the luckiest of state universities, and outright cuts to many. Yet colleges are also seeing the result of a generation of run-away costs and tuition hikes.

As we look to the future, families must stop seeing colleges as resorts: we all have seen parents who visit campuses and are enthralled by the lavish health clubs, dining halls, arts centers, and more. Colleges may need to look at the highly paid “professors” who conduct research but do not teach, among other efforts, to keep the lid on costs. Keeping college affordable is a mission that should dominate college administrators’ efforts today, and all of us need to watch this effort.

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