College Admissions Consulting Contracts: What Families Should Check Before Signing

The interview tells you how a firm talks. The written agreement tells you what happens when the work changes, when someone wants out, and who owns the sentences.

This page is a paper review. It is general information for families, not legal advice. It does not interpret whether any clause is enforceable and it does not advise you on any individual agreement. If a term will decide a dispute, have someone qualified for that review read the document.

This is not a list of interview questions. Those live in questions to ask before hiring a college admissions consultant. It is not a scorecard. That is the consultant comparison scorecard. It is not how to choose a firm. That is how to choose a college admissions consultant.

Ivy Ready uses written agreements. Apply every check on this page to Ivy Ready's paper too.

Quick navigation

What the paper has to do that the call cannot
A term-by-term review table
Before you sign
Deliverables and who does the work
Essay language and file ownership
Ending, pausing, and refunds
When the scope changes
A realistic family scenario
Related reads

What the paper has to do that the call cannot

A warm call can agree on "we will be there through applications." That sentence does not say how many meetings, who attends, what happens if the assigned advisor leaves, or whether the firm may rewrite the student's draft.

If a promise mattered enough to hear out loud, it belongs in the document. If it is not in the document, treat it as a hope.

You do not need to renegotiate every sentence. You do need the terms that decide the engagement when it gets uncomfortable, including the price.

A term-by-term review table

Use this as a reading order, not as a score. This table on the website is not a form you can fill in. Copy it into your own notes if you want to mark a term found, needing clarification, or not applicable. Write the actual clause in the third column, or write "not found." Not every contract uses every limit below.

Term to find	What you are looking for	What the paper actually says
Scope and deliverables	Named outputs (list, meetings, reads), not "full support"
Service period and limits	Start and end, and any cap on schools, meetings, or draft reads. Whether supplements, scholarship questions, deferral or waitlist work, and final-choice support are included or excluded
Who performs the work	Named role or named person, and what happens if that person changes
Advisor change	How a replacement is chosen, whether the family has input, what happens to a pending deadline, and whether you keep access to work already done
Access and communication	Meeting format, ordinary response expectations, lead time you must give, deadline-week arrangements, cancellation or rescheduling, and who receives student or parent updates
Student presence	Whether the student must attend, and what is allowed without them
Essay and file ownership	Who may draft, who may edit, who keeps the text if you leave
Confidentiality and records	Who can see drafts and records, what may be shared with a parent, school, or subcontractor, whether publicity or a case study needs consent, and how you get your work when service ends
End and pause	How either side stops, notice, unused meetings
Unused work and changed priorities	What happens to unused hours, meetings, or deposits after early completion, a pause, a smaller scope, or extra schools. This page does not promise a refund.
Price and payment	The total package fee or hourly rate, the quantity of work that price includes, payment or deposit or installment dates, costs billed separately, and how an additional charge must be approved
School records	The firm does not replace school-controlled transcripts, school reports, or the counselor recommendation

Resolve any missing term that matters to your decision before you sign. One missing material term can be enough to pause. Ask for that term in writing. That request is ordinary.

Before you sign

Check that the material written terms match the conversation, that any material item still open has been clarified in writing, and that the student and family understand the arrangement. Keep a copy.

Deliverables and who does the work

"Comprehensive" is not a deliverable. A deliverable is something you could check off: a written list with reasons, a set number of essay reads, a recommendation plan, a meeting cadence.

Look for the person who will sit with the student. A firm that sells a senior name and staffs a junior associate should say so. If the paper is silent on who does the work, or on a substitution rule, ask for that commitment to be added to the written agreement. Do not treat an unwritten interview promise as settled.

Look for the student's required role. If the agreement allows parent-only sessions to produce student-facing essays or emails, that is a scope problem, not a scheduling convenience.

Essay language and file ownership

The dangerous clause is the one that lets the firm supply replacement sentences and still call the essay the student's. The useful clause says the student remains the author, the firm may ask questions and mark problems, and the family may leave with the student's own drafts.

Ask where files live if the engagement ends. A family should not lose the student's working drafts because a portal belonged only to the firm.

The question is whether the paper matches the work you think you bought. Caseload and who sits in the room belong in the paper when they are part of the agreement.

Ending, pausing, and refunds

People end consulting engagements because the fit is wrong, the student will not attend, or the family situation changes. The paper should say how that happens.

Look for notice, what happens to unused meetings, and whether unused fees are credited, forfeited, or discussed case by case. This page will not tell you which of those is "fair" in your state. It will tell you not to sign a document that is silent.

Look for a pause option if the student gets sick or a parent loses work. Silence here is how a family keeps paying for meetings nobody can use.

Do not hunt for a public dollar figure on this site. In the agreement itself, check the starting fee or rate, what that price includes, when payment is due, and how an additional charge is approved. Then look for what would change that price: extra schools, extra drafts, a new sibling, or a missed-session rule.

When the scope changes

The engagement you start in August is not the engagement you have in November. A new early-decision plan, a late testing choice, or a second-child add-on should have a written change rule.

A clean rule names what is inside the original scope and what requires a new written add-on. A vague rule says "additional services as needed" and leaves the invoice to later goodwill.

If the firm will also talk to the school counselor, the paper should say the firm does not send school-controlled forms and does not write the school recommendation.

A realistic family scenario

The Chens like a consultant after two calls. The proposal says "complete application support through submission" and names a monthly meeting. It does not name who writes comments on essays, what happens if the assigned advisor leaves, or how to stop in December.

They send a short email: please add the assigned advisor, a student-must-attend line, an end-notice rule, and a sentence that the student owns the draft language. The firm adds three of the four. The Chens decide the missing advisor-name line is acceptable because the firm writes the substitution rule instead.

A different family signs the original paragraph because the call felt trustworthy. In October the advisor changes and the new person begins rewriting openings. The paper does not forbid it. That is a paper failure, not a surprise personality clash.

This is still not a review of your document. If you want a conversation about what a written scope should contain before you sign anyone's agreement, including Ivy Ready's, we can do that without turning the call into a close.

Talk through what a consulting agreement should cover