What is the best way to engage with a college education consultant?
How clear are your goals? If you can articulate a vision for your future, you can ask a consultant about ways to execute on that vision.
If you have no particular goals or vision, you can ask how to solve that problem and then see if the consultant can offer something meaningful.
If you come to the conversation without having defined the problem to be solved, you are likely to get no more than a generic menu of services, and hopefully that will suit you.
Each consultant's has his/her desired method of engagement. That said, I prefer that perspective clients either email or call me after they have reviewed my website. I offer a free consultation with perspective cleints though the session is limited to a discussion about my services and how I work. During this session, I do not counsel, advise or discuss specific student issues since the focus of this session is for the perspective client and his/her family to decide if they would like to hire me and not for me to provide free consulting services.
Agreed with both of the above responses. Most independent educational consultants will offer a free phone consultation. We ask prospective clients to take advantage of that option with us, and we use that opportunity to explain our process. We tell prospective clients that if they agree with our approach, we would be happy to do an in-person consultation (for which we charge, but if they choose to work with us, we will credit that fee towards their package price). Bottom line is that most of us would be happy to speak with a prospective client before they make any decisions.