Thinking about a college admissions advisor

Did anyone read this essay in yesterday's NYT?

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/i-said-wed-never-hire-a-college-admissions-adviser-then-we-did/

I kinda know how that mom feels. Yes, there's tons of information out there, like Naviance, and advisers are for rich, highly competitive, Ivy-oriented families - not me. But the process is so daunting for a broke -ish, single mom. Plus, I checked out Wellesley's alternate net-cost calculator, also in the NYT, and discovered that Wellesley estimates they'd grant us (as in free, not a loan) $45,000 (if my kid got in, of course). I'd never have known that Wellesley, out of all the good colleges with decent financial aid, actually has amazing financial aid and I probably wouldn't have looked into it. But a college adviser maybe would have steered us there.

Wellesley was a leader in creating a sensible net-cost calculator. More here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/upshot/a-simpler-financial-aid-calculator-spreads.html?rref=upshot