IntrepidIvy
Solomon Told Us to Aim Lower. We Are Glad We Did Not.
We found Solomon Admissions Consulting through an online search. The reviews were strong, their team appeared experienced, and we ultimately decided to make a significant investment in their services to help our daughter navigate admissions to highly selective colleges. Unfortunately, our experience was disappointing. Our concerns actually began with the initial sales call. Rather than starting with our daughter’s interests, strengths, goals, or what she hoped to accomplish, the conversation quickly focused on weaknesses in her academic record and what Solomon could not “work miracles” with. We were realistic about how unpredictable admission to highly selective schools is. We were not looking for promises. But we did expect experienced counselors who would objectively assess our daughter, help her present the strongest version of herself, and support her confidence through an already stressful process. Our daughter was a very strong student with excellent test scores, rigorous academics, significant leadership, and accomplished extracurriculars. She was not a perfect candidate, and we knew the most selective schools would be reaches. What surprised us was how consistently skeptical Solomon seemed about her prospects at schools in the Top 20. We were also disappointed with the staffing. During the sales process, we were told we would receive a senior-level advisor and specifically discussed wanting someone with experience relevant to one of our daughter’s top-choice schools. Our initial advisor was kind and helpful, but relatively new to Solomon and did not have the specific experience we had requested. Given the amount we were paying, this did not feel consistent with what we believed we had purchased. We eventually requested a change and were assigned another advisor with more relevant experience. Again, the advisor was pleasant and provided some useful guidance. However, the overall philosophy remained extremely conservative. The college list Solomon recommended leaned heavily toward schools well below the level our daughter wanted to pursue. They are perfectly good schools, but we did not feel we needed to spend this kind of money to build that list. This became the central frustration with our experience. We were not paying a premium consulting firm to tell us that highly selective colleges are difficult to get into. We already knew that. We wanted experienced help determining how to give our daughter her best possible shot at the schools she aspired to attend while also building a sensible, balanced list. Ultimately, we disagreed with Solomon’s assessment and developed much of the final college strategy ourselves. We deliberately did not share Solomon’s pessimistic assessment with our daughter because we felt it would unnecessarily undermine her confidence during an already stressful process. She ultimately applied to several highly selective schools despite Solomon’s reservations. She was deferred by one extremely selective university and accepted by another Top 20 university that she was thrilled to attend. She is now a freshman there. That outcome obviously makes us very happy. But it also reinforced our concern that Solomon had significantly underestimated her candidacy. One final disappointment was how the relationship ended. After our daughter received her acceptance, there was a brief congratulatory message and mention of a follow-up conversation, but it never happened. We never heard from the advisor again. As parents who had made a substantial financial investment and spent months working through this process with the firm, the lack of any real closure was surprising. Overall, I would describe our experience as mixed to somewhat negative. There were helpful people and useful moments along the way, and I would not tell another family categorically not to use Solomon. But I would strongly recommend that parents remain actively involved, question recommendations that do not seem consistent with their child’s abilities or aspirations, and make sure they understand exactly what level of advisor they are getting before signing up. College admissions at this level is an incredibly difficult and uncertain process. Families hire expensive consultants because they want expertise and perspective they cannot easily provide themselves. That expertise should help students realistically pursue their potential, not make them afraid to try. We have another child who will eventually go through the college admissions process. Based on this experience, we will not be using Solomon again.