There are several ridiculously expensive IECs, but they self select only students they are pretty sure they can place in one of the student’s top choices. And I agree with whoever said they likely have an out clause for students that do not maintain their grades, ECs courseload, etc.
Among the way overpriced college consulting and tutoring companies are places like IvyWise and Ivy Coach. Or if you are the owner of one like Ivy Bound, you can decide to run for president!! (He registered to be on the NH primary ballot)
Great news there are colleges and universities that are great for kids that just want to learn and don’t care about straight As. I’m not kidding, and I’m probably not saying this well. D22 is a self-taught kid in lots of areas. Didn’t have straight As because she didn’t always see the value in homework. Deep thinker, good writer, “joy to have in class,” etc. She had a LOT of good fit academic options for college–all name brand schools. But not the Ivy+ of the world. I still remember sitting in an AO presentation, when someone asked “which would you prefer … the hardest classes or straight As?” And of course the answer is always “both.” The AO acknowledged that, then paused and said, “but if we had to pick … we would rather that the student sought out the most challenging courses.” These schools exist.
One great example is Reed (bot the school referenced above). The focus there is all on learning. The students don’t even see their grades. Sounds like that would be great for your kid.
I have been reading about command education for a while too. The top schools have become very competitive and say they use many parameters holistically to select their students.
So the gist is - are the so called “Holistic admissions” being gamed? . Is it really working?
Honestly, I have no idea. I listened to this article earlier in the day, glad to see it brought up here. Instilled further happiness we didn’t have the funds to pay for these top rank schools or play these silly games. And somehow my high stat state flagship recent college grad is working next to an ivy grad making 6 figures. Go figure.
But on this note, there is a great quote in the article on this topic. At the end of the day, who knows how this would look from school to school on the individual level. But I highly doubt the average SES of students at these high end schools would be substantially different.
Canh Oxelson, executive director of college counseling at Horace Mann, who formerly worked in admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, notes there’s a particular irony to a consultant working with the most financially advantaged teenagers. “Of course the IEC is going to accept that family as a client. They know as well as I do the kid’s going to get in no matter what. The kid could draw circles on a piece of paper for an essay and they’re still getting in. I’m amazed at the families who do it. I think, Why did you do that? I guess if you have that much money, it’s not a big deal.”
I think this is what I find so baffling about it. I admit that I haven’t read the article since the idea seems silly to me. Still I would think with that sort of wealth, your kid will be fine no matter where they attend college so why spend all that money on this service? Is the prestige really that big of a deal? Your kid is going to be just fine if you can afford to help them to that degree, and I would think the kid would feel better about themselves in the end if they did the work themselves rather being handheld in order to remember to submit their math homework. Plus kids need to make mistakes and forget to hand in assignments and maybe even screw some things up royally in order to become resilient and learn how to avoid those mistakes the next time (or at least that is what I think).
On the other hand, it is less than the average kitchen remodel apparently according to another thread, right? And considerably less than 4 years of tuition at my kids’ boarding schools so maybe 120K it is not as breathtaking an amount as it seems to me. It is just that I think most families will get a lot more joy and bang for their buck in the long run by spending their money on either of those two things (kitchens and k-12 education) than out of a college consultant. But obviously your mileage may vary.
Yes, I am sure they know those details, but they absolutely do not share them. They use them , I presume , to give accurate “chancing”(and it was very accurate), but exactly how they chance is not revealed. And, ours and the “competitors” near us do not channel certain kids to certain elites–if the top group of kids all apply to almost same elites too bad. What I meant by saying the GC is not tons different than CC info is that as far as “packaging” , ie info such as how to describe ECs, or which ECs could work for certain interests, or essay tips --none of that is anything close to what the article indicates that this Rim fellow provides.
Yes, private school counselors have a lower student ratio, so letter wrting and LOR reading is likely better, and the essay proofreading may be more than publics: that is an advantage and I fully acknowledge that. None of what they provide is witihin the realm of what Rim claims to do. That was my point; apologies if it was not clear.
There is a tremendous long-term cost when parents buy their kids’ “success”. Kids know when they have achieved something owing to their own efforts, and also when their parents have gift-wrapped “achievement” for them.
I just laugh at the texting 15 mins b4 class - are you turning in the assignment? What if they didn’t do it - then what.
My kids turned in their assignments - 99% of the time - and it didn’t cost me anything.
On the other hand, these kids with these “reminders” - will they be with them in the workforce too. Hey, don’t forget to send that presentation to your boss!!
I mean, if that’s really what they do, that’s ridiculous.
I didn’t raid this story yet, but I have read about him before. He literally has had a parent offer him a million dollars to not only work with her kid, but to decline working with his classmates. Some people have more money than anything else….
The consultants aren’t claiming to be life coaches or to improve the kids character. They have a specific goal to improve college outcomes and apparently achieve that goal.
My son and I listened to the article. I don’t want to be friends with these parents who are so competitive that they plot/ manipulate ways to get their kids into these schools and I am way too cheap to ever pay a consultant to get my kid into a college. At the end of the day, you can go to community college, work like hell, network, hustle and land the same opportunity an ivy league kid gets. Ask me why I’m so sure? Because I am proof of what that community college kid can do.
I’ve seen far more than a few situations where parents have overindulged their kids with high-priced consultants, artificially-enhanced ECs and non-profits, and legacy/donor $$$. These kids seem almost embarrassed about their college matriculation “success” compared to kids who succeeded on their own (albeit with a good dose of old-fashioned parental love and support). The kids’ peers know the real deal as well, and openly talk about it.
I never said it was a good thing.
But another poster just posted a Forbes article claiming 50% of the top college students used paid consultants, so it is not going away. The consultants claim the test optional environment has increased the demand for their services, since the non-test parts of the application are more easily subject to coaching
In the world of the ultra wealthy (and the wealth adjacent) it is all a matter of degree. Something like this consultant is pretty in your face but it is just an extreme example of how far parents might go to ensure their kids’ success. On a smaller scale there is attending a prestigious private school, access to club sports, private coaching, enrichment summer camps, SAT tutoring – the list goes on. These kind of advantages also help kids access top schools - it is rarely just parental love and support that gets the job done when you are talking about colleges at the upper echelon.
where they estimate that perhaps 50-70% of high achieving applicants use consultants to help with the college admissions process.
But this could mean some simply got help with crafting their list, or help with a resume, or help/review of essays (just look at how many students get help with essays here on cc). And before one points out that the help here is free, a recent survey of IECs showed that 79% offer pro bono help, and the mean (not average) hourly rate was $230. For the “comprehensive” package, including an average of 2 years and 30+ hours of service, The average rate for college consulting was $6304 (it varied by region). And 25% of families are middle, working or lower SES (not sure how that was discerned). And the most typical student is a public HS student attending a large suburban school.
Ah! But you’re looking at college as simply a place to gain an education. But that’s not the society we live in. A degree from Harvard provides more than an education - it provides social cachet, and membership in an elite group. And that’s what many of these parents are going for.
Additionally, if their kids are aiming for certain very high paying career paths that are open only to graduates of a very small group of schools, that’s another reason for parents to do everything they can to get their kids inside that club.