I'm sure there are some individuals doing work for Kaplan that are fine consultants and can give good advice. I'm also sure that these are a minority. Unless you get to see the consultant's personal resume, and you're allowed to interview the consultant for free, I would be skeptical about their advice. If Kaplan dictates the consultant's advice, then that's WAY too cookie cutter. I wouldn't pay Kaplan to review my app unless I had no other choice.
Better choices, in my opinion, include:
- anybody who is on an adcom or who has been on an adcom in the last 5 years
- a premed advisor with a good reputation - meaning, recently-admitted med school students appreciate his/her advice
- a med student, particularly an older med student, who knows the recipe but can see beyond it
- a chem or bio undergrad department advisor who has seen bazillions of premeds and can thus compare you to your (local) competition
- any good writer who reads the newspaper every day and loves to argue.
- a highly educated preacher or public speaker. (I got a former Catholic priest with a PhD in political science to read my PS and tell me where I'm not making the sale.)
- Iserson's Guide and the MSAR, read cover-to-cover.
Your family members, unless they are in one or more of the above categories, are probably not good consultants. Strangers on SDN, like me, are probably not good consultants.
People on SDN recommend individual consultants as well, but I have no opinion on that.
Best of luck to you.
Sorry.... 
But you need to graduate from med school & I need to retire, in order to avoid a conflict of interest.
