<p>Has anyone had experience with an admission consultant? And who in their right mind would pay $40,000 for this service?!</p>
<p>bumpp…</p>
<p>no, and plenty of rich people/asian and indian parents probably would.</p>
<p>Think Upper East Side.</p>
<p>I might goad my parents into getting one (lol lol lol), but even if my parents wanted it, there’s no way I’d let them pay $500, much less $40,000. Like I said in another topic, if you need to pay so much to get a spot, then you’re a waste of space there and you should let someone more qualified than you get in.</p>
<p>There have been many threads on this. One thing to keep in mind is that many people pay $40K per year for their children’s’ private schools. And another $15K for their summer activities. Not to mention tens of thousands for their nannies and tutors. The college counselor is just another fee to make sure they have covered every base for these affluent families.</p>
<p>Though I have to wonder how the counselors are doing in this economy, have to think many went the way of the house in the Hamptons or on the Vinyard.</p>
<p>Though kids are now getting in on the act. My son has a friend who is a brilliant writier and had her essay chosen as one of the best by adcom at their ivy who helps with essays for $100 and has made a ton this summer!</p>
<p>For those people who paid $40k for “package”, they will have a tough time after they get in.</p>
<p>Huh? Please explain.</p>
<p>$40k “fancy clothes” made you get in, after that, college will check everybody’s “muscle”.</p>
<p>Be “organic” !</p>
<p>They don’t get anyone in who is not fully qualified. Look at it this way, the top colleges reject nearly nine out of ten, five were fully qualified. The consultants help you jump off the page to be the one of that five chosen.</p>
<p>askq,</p>
<p>I understand where you are coming from. In the sink-or-swim environment that is Ivy League academics, a person who needs $40,000 in order to get their application to stand out just might sink.</p>
<p>I told my mom about programs like this, and she said, </p>
<p>—“Great, maybe you should see what they have to say. I think that your app is coming together, but another apinion can’t hurt.”</p>
<p>—“Mom, it costs like 30 grand and up!”</p>
<p>—“Forget it, that’s ridiculous!”</p>
<p>I picture some kids on that Bravo show called NYC Prep to use this, they seem filthy rich. I laugh at those commercials, then have to leave the room because I don’t understand how family memebers stand to watch <em>Real Housewives of ------</em> :P!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is the most erroneous description of ivy academics possible. Almost no one flunks out and 95 plus graduate in 4 years. There are few to no weeder classes. The median grade in the average ivy class is a b+ to A-. Grade inflation is a hallmark of the ivies. Harvard decided to stop it a bit recently when 75% of every class was graduating with honors.</p>
<p>Categorizing academics as simply grades and graduation rates is very short-sighted. It also encompasses internships, research assistantships, and influential spots in important clubs, socieites, and organizations. There is fierce competition for some of these things, and your competition is the best in the game.</p>
<p>Not to mention competition within the classroom.</p>
<p>Hillary2012,</p>
<pre><code>“fit in” is more important than “get in”.
“fish” need to find the “pond” where he/she belongs to, not too many “sharks” and not boring either. Enjoy “swimming” . 
</code></pre>
<p>Quite agreed.</p>
<p>Good luck with such arguements at Yale Law School.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>The committee had every bit of faith in me. And those are the people that matter.</p>
<p>That comment on grade inflation is very misguided. Data suggests that grade inflation occurs at all top schools that don’t have a science/engineering focus (at top schools w/out that focus students in the science/engineering programs tend to have lower GPA’s generally – so it’s a function of the discipline not the institution), not just the Ivy League. Within the Ivy League, there are slight differences as there are with other top schools in how much grade inflation there is. Brown has more than Penn, Georgetown has less than Yale, etc. But, this is not “inflation” – i.e. instructors lowering their grading standards because they happen to teach at an elite institution – it is a reflection of the quality of the work students are producing because they had the strongest academic credentials to begin with – that is what got them in. What there isn’t (for the most part) is GRADE DEFLATION - meaning a student is producing B+ work but I will give him a C+ so that we are giving fewer B+'s. That would be unfair to the students and not accurately reflect their abilities. Also, at elite schools because the overwhelming majority of students are bright and the differences between them are often too slight to be significant, giving some students A’s and others C’s when their work (particularly in subjective disciplines) is not that different from one another is intellectually dishonest and misleading to employers and graduate school admissions committees. </p>
<p>I had to comment because these kinds of remarks gets posted all the time and they come from ill-informed posters.</p>