College planning consultant
Families pay college consultants for calm sequencing of a process that terrifies them: applications, essays, deadlines, financial aid, and the money mechanics of actually paying. The advice-heavy parts are human work. The rules-heavy parts (aid appeals, 529 withdrawal rules, missed education credits) are exactly what engines do well.
This blueprint pairs your judgment with engine-backed rules work, including two recoveries most consultants never offer: financial-aid appeal letters and missed education-credit checks worth up to $2,500 per student per year.
The job
The consulting core: school-list strategy, application timelines, and essay development, where the engine gives structured admissions-coach feedback on drafts and you supply the human judgment about what story the student should tell.
The rules core: when an aid offer comes in low, you run the appeal screen (job loss, medical costs, special circumstances) and generate a citation-backed appeal letter. When parents ask how to pay, the 529 checker handles withdrawal and rollover rules, and the credit-recovery check looks back across open amendment years for education credits the family never claimed. Those concrete dollar findings are what turn a consulting fee into an easy yes.
Who it suits
Former admissions staff, school counselors, teachers, and parents who ran the gauntlet recently and got organized about it.
Startup cost and tools
| What | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Engine calls per family | ~$2–$8 | Essay reviews ($0.25 each), appeal screen ($0.50) and letter ($5.00), 529/credit checks ($0.50 each) |
| Payment + scheduling | $0–$45/mo | Standard stack |
Engine prices are the live public catalog prices, the same sheet agents pay. No subscription is required to use them.
The licensing question
Independent educational consulting is unlicensed; the credibility bar is set by professional-association ethics (IECA, HECA), the useful one being: no guarantees of admission, ever. On the money side, stay in information territory: the engines report rules and math, and families make their own filings. FAFSA itself is free to file, and you must never imply otherwise; if a family wants someone to prepare tax amendments for the recovered credits, that’s their tax preparer’s job, working from your engine’s findings.
How the engine does the heavy lifting
Essay feedback, aid-appeal screening and letters, 529 withdrawal/rollover rules, and missed-credit recovery math across the open amendment window.
/api/edu/essay$0.25College admissions essay review — admissions-coach feedback/api/aid/appeal-check$0.50Financial-aid appeal screen — lane routing with statutes (deterministic, $0.50)/api/aid/appeal-letter$5.00Financial-aid appeal letter — citation-backed, ready to send ($5.00)/api/tax/529-check$0.50529 withdrawal & rollover checker (K-12/credentialing/Roth/nonqualified + CA traps)/api/tax/aotc-recovery$0.50Missed AOTC recovery — open-window 1040-X screen (up to $2,500/yr)Your first customer in 30 days
- Run the missed-credit check for three families you know with current or recent college students. A concrete "you may have left $2,500 on the table" finding markets the whole practice.
- Package three tiers: essay-cycle only, full application season, and application-plus-money (appeals, 529, credits).
- Write the no-guarantees line into your agreement and your site.
- Book spring families now: juniors’ parents start searching in March, and aid appeals spike when offers land.
Hand this to your assistant
This blueprint has a machine-readable page with the current endpoints, prices, and setup steps. Paste this into Claude, ChatGPT, or any assistant that can fetch a URL:
Machine page: https://pulse.theaslangroupllc.com/fieldguide/college-planning-consultant.json
Start this one
The engines are pay-per-call, no subscription. Agents pay per call over x402 (USDC on Base or Solana). If you're a human, get a starter key: it takes about a minute, includes a $0.25 trial balance, and tops up by card (Stripe) or USDC. No crypto wallet required. Prefer email? Write to info@theaslangroupllc.com with the subject "Starter key: college-planning-consultant" and we'll provision one by hand, usually the same day.
The Field Guide book, with all 75 blueprints expanded, is in progress. The hub is free either way.