It also helps explain the missing middle class at many elite schools-the poor get special consideration; the rich use consultants. The middle class cant afford the consultants to polish their kids but do not get special consideration.
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Many recruited athletes use consultants who specialize in recruiting but I donāt have any data/estimates of the percentage.
ETA: I would also assume the majority of international applicants used a consultant (at least the full pay students).
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AH ok. I see what youāre saying. (Though itās not higher than the % of e.g. domestic applicants, males, females, etc)
190 clients = $23mm in annual revenues. And that doesnāt count the $250k/2 week clients, random hourly gigs at $1500/hour, etc. He has 41 employees.
So, humming indeed.
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There are plenty of people we know (
) whose family income is in this range, and who live in expensive neighborhoods, and drive fancy cars, etc. BUT I know no one who would spend this kind of money simply to get their kid admitted. Some wouldnāt pay that amount to send their kids to college.
I agree with those aboveā¦this guy has figured out a legal version of Varsity Blues.
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Hence the missing middle /Upper middle class. My guess is those using paid consultants are comfortably above $500k
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Maybe. They would have to be to have this kind of discretionary incomeā¦and that is what it is.
Our kids had HS friends who used paid consultants, but it was for assistance with helping the kid identify realistic colleges and get the applications done well. It was to find someone who claimed to get their kids into top colleges for a price. And the costs were not nearly as high as this place charges.
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Well paid employees!
I will say that none of this is unprecedented. Anthony Green was charging $1,000-$1,500/hr for test prep a decade ago. An SAT tutor who charges $1,500 an hour explains what everyone does wrong preparing for the test
Steven Ma reportedly charged college counseling fees up to $2M (w/ a guarantee). This company will guarantee to get your student into their dream college ā for a price
Charges from IvyWise can reportedly go over $100K (and that was in 2017): For Parents Willing to Pay Thousands, College Counselors Promise to Make Ivy League Dreams a Reality
Exactly. A recent IECA survey showed $175/hr was average (higher on the coasts of course)
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Me neither - and heās blowing smoke up (not being truthful) or those you know arenāt this audience which would certainly apply to wealthy people I know (I donāt think theyād ever consider a college counselorā¦they ask me).
In some ways, if he is this successful, heād be dumb to advertise it in a news article - because any attention to this kind of stuff can only have a bad end result for his industry.
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The anecdote about the woman who couldnāt talk to her close friends she vacations with about college applications for fear of giving away an advantage was just sad. I canāt imagine living my life that way.
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I donāt doubt the veracity of his claims.
College counselors donāt do things like this, this is more like bespoke parenting 
āWe are texting students, I think itās like 15 minutes before their math class, to make sure they are turning in their homework,ā says Rim, who in interviews is soft-spoken, polite, and confident, occasionally dropping into the demeanor of a start-up bro.
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From the article is sounds like the āmentorsā actively ārideā the students - he mentioned that they call them before math class, for example, to ensure that theyāre turning in their homework. I assume they pester them about preparing for tests and monitor their grades along the way (I wonder if they drop students whose grades start to get too low?).
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Good question. Iām guessing if they donāt feel they can hit the high targetā¦then yes. Like a private school can sayā¦they can say āwe canāt continue to meet your needsā.
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Thatās what I thinkā¦And he can clearly afford to be picky. They may even have a clause in their contract that says something like āour services will only continue as long as the student maintains or increases his/her current GPA and agrees to something something somethingā so that their pool of applicants remains āeliteā and competitive.
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Iāve been reading about this guy and his company for a while with amusement - he certainly has figured out how to get the news media writing about him (Forbes, the New York Post, now New York Magazineā¦). I canāt decide whether he is a complete con man or whether there actually are a lot of ultra-wealthy people who are happy to pay a fortune for his services. I mean, are there really a lot of ultra high net worth individuals who believe that a bunch of kids in their 20s, whose only credential is an Ivy League degree, have figured out the secret sauce to college admissions? Why not at least hire an experienced former admissions officer or counselor? Iāve hired and worked with a lot of recent graduates from highly selective colleges, and while many of them were nice and smart kids, I wouldnāt have entrusted them with S24ās college process.
S24 attends a private school where a lot of families are wealthy and well-connected - similar to the supposed Command Education customers described in the article. While some of these families do hire consultants to help with the college process (especially essays), I donāt know of anyone who hired anyone before junior year, or who spent anywhere near this amount of money. And it is certainly not true, as the article claims, that families donāt talk to each other about the college process in an attempt to conceal their secrets. But then, maybe Iām just naive and everyone around me is financing Christopher Rimās lavish lifestyle.
I canāt imagine that Yale is proud of this particular alum!
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Many parents in our area who use high end private college consultants sign up their kids in freshman year of HS so a proper profile and narrative can be built. Junior year is too late to craft a comprehensive narrative.
The article is correct. People in our circle know whoās using a consultant (or can make a very good guess), but they donāt reveal details and itās considered impolite to ask.
I assume many of Commandās employees are indeed ex-AOs. Thatās a big selling point for theses firms.
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I suppose that even in the same geographic area different schools have different cultures. Our experience has been different. In S24ās junior year, there was some discussion about college counselors among the circle of parents I know, and some parents exchanged names and recommendations. However, many families (including ours) ended up not hiring anyone because we felt that an external counselor might get in the way of the schoolās own counseling team.
That is true of many expensive college counseling firms but Command Education is different. Their whole spiel is that they provide high school kids with ānear peersā - recent college graduates who are close to them in age and can relate to them. If you look at their website, their āmentorsā are young adults whose only experience seems to be that they graduated from a top school.
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Education is lost. ( Disclaimer: I know this sounds obnoxious, but believe me we have struggled w this kid.) My kid is freaking SMART. School has always been his thing. But heās young and heās had other challenges so heās not perfect on paper. Yet his IQ is 144, heās self-taught everything from literature to philosophy to politics and much more ā¦ and has combed through scholarly articles. Teachers from high school comment that itās a āgiftā to teach him and he adds so much depth to their classes. Unfortunately (or not?) we could never get him to āplay the game,ā to get a competitive edge over the kids who have been intent and focused on mastering their plan. They memorize and study PSATS, so they out nudge for NMSF. They perfect SAT/ACTs, theyāve figured out how to be robots in the classroom. Not all, but MANY. So relative to my kid, many of those I described will be admitted to top schools. Aside from being inequitable and unfair, what comes next for these kids? They feel so much pressure to stay on their achievement track - how are colleges going to nurture these young minds?!!
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Thatās a common stereotype, but just as unfair IMO as anyone characterizing your kid with his own unique abilities through their lens. There are plenty of kids who are both academically gifted and excel at testing.
Do you know kids who swim or run track or play basketball, etc for hours after school and on weekends? Do you believe they are pressured to stay on their tracks or do you think they are really into it, are naturally gifted, and drive themselves?
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Why is that inequitable or unfair? If you know the criteria the school uses, you can try to meet that criteria or not, your choice.
Nothing wrong with opting out and accepting the tradeoffs
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