Rick Singer roams free while the warped system he exploited has worsened during the pandemic. The country’s most sought-after college admissions fixer pled guilty to crimes so unprecedented he incited a “national fear” that the system is rigged to favor the rich. Though he faced 65 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines for masterminding the largest conspiracy to influence undergraduate admission, Singer has no scheduled sentencing hearing and will likely receive a token punishment for betraying his celebrity clients: a little jail time and a fine.
The pandemic prompted two thirds of the nation’s colleges and universities to stop requiring SAT and ACT test scores, no doubt increasing demand for shady college consultants, ghost-written application essays and puffed up activities lists. Financially battered colleges, forced to attract more students able to pay full tuition, are giving even greater advantage to the wealthy, leaving fewer spots for those with financial need. Parents at all income levels feel pressured to step up their game to get their kids into college.
Public school students Madelyn Watson, Lily Taylor, Cassandra Hsiao on their way to Baylor, Stanford … [+]
Jamie E.P. Ostmann
“The system is failing—and creating further economic disparities in a nation already rife with them,” Angel B. Pérez, chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, wrote in Inside Higher Ed.
Lost in an unregulated marketplace of pre-college tutoring, coaching and consulting, families encounter a wide range of vendors—PTA moms, billion-dollar corporations, charlatans, consultants catering to the whims of multimillionaires—and, occasionally, excellent, honest professionals with first-rate skills.
Consultants charge anywhere from $85 to $1,000 an hour with the median around $160. Packages cost on average, $850 to $10,000 according to the Independent Educational Consultants Association and can reach as high as $16,000 for four-day application boot camps or $1 million for concierge services. The industry has grown to nearly $2 billion, with 10,000 people working full-time, and as many as 15,000 part-timers, a number that has quadrupled since 2005, according to the Independent Educational Consultants Association. And that doesn’t include the estimated 5,000 who practice outside the bounds of professional associations.
To find honest consultants who can maximize returns on investment, hire coaches committed to finding colleges tailored to an applicant’s qualifications and the family’s financial need. Find the right financial fit before considering anything else, including geography, status, reputation, and the college’s rank on US News Best Colleges list.
· Ask a lot of questions. Does the consultant understand the student’s financial need and can identify colleges able to meet that need? Has the consultant visited colleges on the list? Do they know the admission staff? If they say they do but can’t provide names they may not have the network they claim.
· Make sure consultants thoroughly understand and can explain how colleges award financial aid. Consultants should identify exceptional schools that want applicants enough to discount tuition to recruit them as standouts in the pool.
· Avoid consultants who don’t conduct free pre-interviews. If they don’t ask basic questions about the applicant’s grades, test scores, academic strengths, challenges, passions, interests and social/emotional depth, look elsewhere.
· Look for quality, not hype. Demand evidence to support claims like “highly qualified professionals” and “100-point score increases” and clients routinely admitted “to top colleges” and “Ivy League schools.”
· Build a list with three categories: safety colleges that will certainly admit, match colleges where chances are good, and dream colleges that are a long shot.
· A consultant’s price doesn’t necessarily correlate with quality. Corporate chains hire overworked, inexpensive counselors with questionable experience, then charge families premium prices. To avoid paying chains for middling advice, look outside the box.
· Ask high school counselors for the names of recent graduates admitted to the colleges on the applicant’s list, then call parents of those students to ask what strategies and consultants they used. Consider hiring students at the colleges the applicant wants to attend as low-cost-low-stress coaches.
· Many high school English teachers will assign Common App essays and then help students revise them the summer before senior year. Some schools offer inexpensive after-school and summer classes to write college essays. Ask an English teacher or principal to organize those classes if they’re not offered.
· Look for local nonprofits with free or low-cost admissions counseling. One of the largest, the National College Attainment Network connects families with resources.
Even when forced to pay to play, families can play to win. Find out why Pay-To-Play Admissions Is A Scandal – and SOP.
