What TIME Magazine (And Many Others) Have Wrong About Private College Admissions Counselors

Recently, TIME Magazine featured a story about the college admissions process and use of private, independent college admissions consultants and counselors—stating the industry is exponentially increasing an already large wealth divide at top colleges.

However, here is what they got wrong.

Conversely, private college admissions consultants and counselors, in numerous ways, are decreasing the gap and divide.

For as long as the Ivy League and other selective colleges have existed, the nation’s wealthiest have placed their children in the country’s most elite and expensive private high schools, provide private tutoring to their children, fund access to exclusive opportunities—and some even begin this at their child’s age of three—sending their children to private and selective pre-k and kindergarten programs.

Private schools, many considered “feeders to the ivies,” such as Exeter and Andover, have not only a wealth of student resources and opportunities not available at most public high schools, but many do not realize that they also have elite and exclusive college counseling staffs (many rivaling the size of college admissions offices) full of high school counselors that were previous deans, assistant deans, and admissions officers from Ivy League and other top colleges—providing these students with exclusive access to the nation’s best support and “secret insider insights” to the admissions practices at these colleges.

Unfortunately, for the remainder the student population, they cannot afford the steep $40,000 plus yearly tuition fees of these private schools.

Having worked with many students from these schools, I have learned that these counselors even offer these students dramatic editing, revisions, and feedback, along with overall application evaluations and markups that match those of the colleges—ensuring no mistakes or redflags are present on the applications—all insights not available to the general student population.

And the TIME article also fails to mention the category of Legacy Students and even “Development Students,” which are those students “pre-identified” before they apply for admissions from their families donating hundreds to millions of dollars to the institution or the potential to do so in the future, if the college accepts their child.

Then, for the remainder of students in less-resourced private and public high schools, there are hundreds of graduating seniors with access to very few counselors (and at many high schools none at all) that do not have the capacity to provide extensive one-on-one student support and attention, and many counselors facing these odds suggest students “not apply” to top colleges, as they do not have the capacity, knowledge, insights, and/or record of success to properly help for these rigorous, complex application—even if the student may have a real chance of acceptance.

So what does a student at these schools do? Not apply? Go through the stressful process unsupported?

This “gap of counseling support” at most schools led to the birth of the private, independent college admissions consultants and counselors—providing the remainder of the student population with access to the same “elite” college admissions officers as those students at top private high schools.

With private counselor prices averaging in just the thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of more students have excess to expert help, one-on-one assistance, and daily support through the entire process—giving these students a more fair and equal chance in the process.

Saying that, this is still far from accessible to lower income families, and even I agree the admissions process should not be that complex and income driven. However, that is the process we are all currently working with.

Having received my professional studies in higher education access and work in social innovation and social entrepreneurship at Penn and Wharton, The Ivy Institute was founded in the vision that all students should have access to the nation’s best, most elite help, which is why we offer pro-bono (free) services to deserving students, along with a privately funded counseling scholarship program to pay for students to receive private help.

However, what the author of the TIME article did get right is the shockingly record-low acceptance rates at the nation’s top colleges—now as low as 3% in the cases of Harvard and Stanford. And with this selectivity, very few (if any) seventeen or eighteen-year-old students are able to effectively navigate this process on their own.