Getting into an Ivy League college or other elite university requires hard work from the student, including obtaining top grades, scores, and excellent essays. But for some wealthy families, it takes a little more to tip the scales in their children’s favor: college counselors who can charge up to $750,000.
The rise of concierge college counselors comes as acceptance rates at top universities continue to shrink. Only about 3.5% of the nearly 60,000 annual applicants to Harvard’s 2027 class gained admission — down from about 16% in 1980. Likewise, other top schools have cut their acceptance rates to the low single digits.
“These are the 1% of the 1%,” said Christopher Rehm, founder and CEO of Command Education, which charges $750,000 for a six-year consulting package from its clients. “Their biggest priority is their children’s education and health — you can’t compare Harvard to a public school.”
He added: “They want all the resources available. These parents care a lot about who their children surround themselves with. They want good friends.”
Across the United States, thousands of high school seniors are now sending in their applications before general admissions deadlines, which typically fall in early January. But affluent families can begin preparing their children well before their senior or junior year, with some hiring counselors as early as middle school to begin honing their children’s passions and creating a compelling case for admissions teams at top colleges.
It’s more than just bragging rights for these parents, as having an Ivy League pedigree is seen as securing a foothold in an increasingly competitive world. It is possible that a high-end university degree will bear fruit in the future, according to a recent study conducted by economists at Harvard University Finding That graduates of Ivy League and similar schools are 60% more likely to have incomes among the top 1% than those who did not attend those colleges.
“For high-net-worth families, this is part of their generational wealth planning — to plan for their children’s futures,” said Adam Nguyen, founder of Ivy Link, a consulting firm that charges fees ranging from $150,000 to $500,000. “In the United States, we don’t have an aristocracy. It was about meritocracy and the way to achieve social status in the United States was based on education.”
Most American college students attend a school other than an Ivy League institution, with 99% of students choosing this route. The Pew Research Center found in 2017 that the majority of the country’s colleges and universities, about 1,300, accept the most students who apply.
Concierge College Consulting
Of course, the wealthy already have a chance to get into the Ivy League and other elite colleges. The so-called “Ivy plus” colleges—the eight Ivy League schools along with MIT, Stanford, Duke, and the University of Chicago—accept children from the top 1 percent in more than Double the rate Among any other income group score similarly on the SAT or ACT, economists at Harvard University found.
These benefits reflect the widening gap between the top 1% of US earners and other Americans over the past half-century, with wealth increasingly concentrated at the top and wage growth largely stagnant for the average worker. Although a host of factors have contributed to widening inequality, some experts say the high cost of higher education and the prevalence of outdated graduate school admissions have exacerbated the problem.
The dangers of attending highly competitive colleges were underscored by the Varsity Blues scandal, a national scheme engineered by the college counselor, Rick Singer, that ensnared wealthy celebrities and businessmen. Parents paid Singer to bribe college officials and find ways to cheat on tests, improving their children’s grades. The singer was sentenced to more than 3 years in prisonAnd many of his clients spent some time, too.
Today’s high-end college counselors say Affluent students need to work hard, and a large bank account alone is not enough to get into the Ivy League.
“We are so upfront that if they don’t do the work, it will be a waste of time and money,” said Reem, a Yale graduate. “We even get rid of students. I don’t care about wasting time and money.”
So what do these excellent consultants do? First, they often start working with students in middle school because colleges scrutinize an applicant’s history starting in ninth grade, which means kids need to show their focus and drive once they enter high school.
“To prepare, to have a strong foundation in ninth grade, you have to start the child very early to build their interest and passion,” noted Nguyen, a Columbia and Harvard alumnus who previously worked in Columbia’s admissions office.
“Every dollar was worth it.”
This means talking to a child and training him to develop his interests, as Reem points out that her team helped a young woman interested in fashion and beauty build her own YouTube channel and become an influencer in this field. Reem said the student was eventually accepted into two Ivy League universities and Stanford.
They are on call at all times, one parent who hired Rheem told CBS (who requested that her name not be revealed due to the sensitivity of hiring an expensive advisor) that she would text her driver’s education advisor at 11 p.m. and get Response within 5 minutes.
“Chris was able to help my son start his own business and was able to really help him develop his entrepreneurial skills,” the mother noted, adding that her son was accepted to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which is his top choice – while adding that her son now works. A younger high school aged child with Command Education as well.
“As you know, applying to college is the most stressful process for the whole family,” one parent said. “I can’t believe some of these acceptance rates.” But because their son got the top pick, “every dollar was worth it,” they added.
‘Parents are just nervous’
Not only do ultra-rich families worry about getting their children into good colleges, many middle-class families share these concerns, with the added stress of how to pay for an education that can hold you back. 90 thousand dollars annually Before financial aid.
But many families who hire college counselors pay much less, ranging from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars, for their fees. Most of them start in high school, not middle school, to prepare their children for the process.
“Parents are just stressed out,” said Michelle McEnany, founder of The College Spy and a former middle and high school counselor who charges anywhere from several hundred dollars to about $16,500 for various levels of counseling. “Most of my calls are from 11th graders or last-minute seniors” who need help finishing their applications.
Some of this concern comes from Generation For example, Boston University now accepts 14% of applicants, down from 54% in 2007.
“a lot of [colleges] “It’s become much more difficult to accept them. This may be where families come from when they have this anxiety,” McAne said.
Students in public schools
One challenge is that current seniors were in ninth grade during the first full year of the pandemic, and lost a lot of school and extracurricular time due to . Many have never had to write the kind of personal essay that is part of college applications.
What’s more, public schools in larger cities may have one guidance counselor serving hundreds of students, meaning they probably won’t know the kids as well as those in suburban schools, private schools or those who have been hired, she said.
Kerekes, as well as other counselors and parents, noted that having an outside expert can help avoid friction in family relationships during stressful times.
“Parents are concerned about making sure the kids are okay during this process,” Kerekes said. “It’s a very difficult time for them – they know the stakes are high, they have heavy course loads, and they have things to do other than college admissions. They feel like this is a mountain above normal responsibilities.”
In McAnaney’s experience, parents also turn to consultants to work with their children on a stressful task with deadlines that can’t be evaded. “They say, ‘We need your help to make sure they get this essay done on time,'” she added.
That was one motivation for mother Marcia Zellers, a marketing executive in Los Angeles, who said she felt conflicted about paying several hundred dollars to a college counselor for her daughter, who attended a public high school and is now a student at Cornell University. .
“I felt guilty because I was fueling the industrial process in college,” she noted. “But professionals, for something that was so affordable, why not try to get a little extra help? I don’t think parents should get too involved in this process because it’s a very stressful process and parents should do their best.” Sharing isn’t great anyway.”
Find a good fit
Parents and counselors of middle-class families also note that part of the work involves finding the right student — and it may not be from an Ivy League university. Meg Rosequist, 53, an attorney in Los Angeles, said she paid several thousand dollars for a counselor to help her son apply to colleges two years ago. He is now a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley.
“I liked him because his approach was, ‘There are a lot of good schools, let’s find a good fit,’” she said, adding that her son did not apply to any Ivy League colleges.
The counselor also helped at a time when her son, like other students, was adjusting to the closing of his high school, which also led to the end of some extracurricular activities. Ultimately, she noted, her son co-founded the Model United Nations program during the pandemic.
As for the 1%, it’s also about helping students find their passion, and perhaps a path in college that will carry them into their careers.
“It’s not just about grades and test scores, they’re a given,” Nguyen said. “A place like Columbia is looking for talent, niche, passion, and something that will help a student contribute to the school in a meaningful way.”
However, Nguyen pointed out that the advantage that wealthy students can have is not always fair. “In general, having resources definitely helps increase your odds of acceptance significantly,” he said. “So there’s no easy answer to that from where I stand.”
Getting into an Ivy League college is an aspiration for many high school students, but the path to acceptance is notoriously competitive and challenging. With acceptance rates often below 10%, the question remains – what does it take to secure a spot at these prestigious institutions? For some families, the answer comes in the form of hiring a college admissions advisor, who can provide guidance and support throughout the application process. In fact, some students and their families are willing to invest as much as $750,000 in these advisors, in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge in the admissions process. This raises the question of just what it takes to get into an Ivy League college and whether or not the investment in an advisor is truly worth it.