yes, obviously not the norm! But I’d love to know what $50k (or more) buys.
1 Like
I am not sure I’m following…what’s the questionable stuff? I was just talking about submitting an essay written by someone else…that likely wouldn’t be obvious.
I do expect that AOs eyeball the hourly commitments that applicants report in Activities. Generally, I see more students under report hours than over report.
1 Like
I’m laughing also at the “life changing moments” requirement. Because so many K-12 graders have had those already. let’s make up those profound stories and hope the AO’s don’t notice what the 5-16 year old has written. LOL.
2 Likes
If this…
means that they’re hiring people to compose essays for students, then I interpret their other services in a similar manner.
I take this to mean that PSC will create examples of nonprofit service and leadership that the student has “done.”
I interpret this as we will fake a resume for you and either get you a phony type of internship or list some internship experiences that seem plausible enough for you to get into college.
I think that they will either create fake competitions for their customers to win or just make up stuff that can be believable and post a “press release” with the competition results.
We have something ongoing that can tie into some interest that you have that we can include you on to act as though you’ve been doing research in high school for awhile.
Maybe I’m too cynical, but after seeing that ad, I don’t think I am. I think that this company is offering WAY more than essay-writing services.
8 Likes
Ivy Coach has an “ultimate” package which is over $1 million. It comes (or used to) with a guarantee of admission into one of your top three choices.
1 Like
I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that it offers more than essay guidance? 
2 Likes
Lol how much is that per word?
I really hope this little exposé thread doesn’t end up functioning as free advertising…
4 Likes
When holistic admissions go wrong…
4 Likes
Maybe it’s more like a rental. 
4 Likes
They are getting to amounts of money which would guarantee admission if the parents would simply donate the money to the college.
3 Likes
Sorry about the double post…
“I’ll never forget that day, in third grade, when I sent a note to Becky, saying ‘will u b my GF’, and she sent a note back saying ‘ewww no’. I realized then that life was unfair, and that love is an illusion. That is when I decided that, since I will never find love, I will throw myself into social justice. That is why, in 11th grade, I established a 501(c)(3) to help poor kids in Africa. We have already have 1,000 followers and 300,000 views on our Tiktok site, and we hope to get many more.”
15 Likes
@MWolf your grammar is too good for the job description above. The story is spot on however. You are a story telling guru.
1 Like
This is way more common than one would believe. I have seen this happen and it is effin unfair!
SAT and ACT are unfair but this holistic cheating is acceptable. No wonder so many ex-AOs end up doing this stuff.
And asking colleges to curb this process is the equivalent of asking poliicans to impose term limits!!
5 Likes
SAT - unfair
ACT - unfair
Essay requirements - unfair
Maybe a lottery is the way to go?
1 Like
For every college admission credential, parents with money can and do use their money to help their kids do better on it. This ranges from buying opportunities to achieve, to coaching and preparation, to outright cheating.
4 Likes
Unfortunately, this sort of thing is a fact of life. Life is unfair. I guess the good (?) news is that wealth is being concentrated in the hands of fewer & fewer families. This means that there will be fewer people with the financial means to keep these companies in business. As evidenced by the recent cheating scandal for which a couple Hollywood types were briefly jailed, the companies are not going to be held accountable. If only more people would just say no. But that won’t happen, right? Which is exactly why there’s a market for cheating.
2 Likes
Yes exactly. This company is far from being the only one. There are likely hundred like it.
It’s just that some (probably junior) HR/recruiter at the firm naively posted the truth. Even if they get investigated or prosecuted, the cheating won’t go away. Other firms that offer such services will simply be far more careful when posting job ads.
1 Like
A trend toward increasing wealth concentration may mean more business to the next tier down college admission consultants from the upper middle class parents worried that their kids will fall down the SES range instead of doing better than (or at least similarly to how) the parents did.
I agree that life is unfair, and those with money will have many advantages, far beyond getting a good K-12 education and other factors important in college admissions.
Paying someone to write a college essay is no different than HS kids paying for someone (whether local or internet based) to write their term papers (of course that’s not ok either).
Akil Bello and Jon Boeckenstedt both tweeted yesterday about this job ad. One of the replies on one of those threads mentioned that there are many artificial intelligence (AI) sites that can write essays for one as well.
I’ve been playing with some of those sites and it’s true…one can get a serviceable essay generated by a computer program if the user provides several sentences of an idea or essay outline. These sites don’t cost that much either, and many offer some type of free version/free trial period.
I don’t see the need at all for a college lottery because most colleges accept most applicants. And for many students, it’s more about their performance in college than the college they attend that most determines their futures.
1 Like