For the admission consulting, the biggest thing is the essays. Kids grew up in US shouldn't need someone else to write the essays for them. The key is to decide what to write. For that, you can find an independent consultant who charges a hourly fee, commonly $100 a hour in Bay area. 5-6 hours is usually enough to get the essays done.
Honestly, my dd12 is a fantastic writer. She's had teachers, since 2nd grade, telling me that she writes better than they do. For her, I guess that I don't worry about the essay writing. I was just providing an alternate view that this is more about class than it is ethnicity in my opinion. It would be interesting to see how two ability matched kids who prepped via something like Princeton Review vs. independent study fared in terms of gains in test scores on college admission tests.
