November 7, 2004
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Posted on Sun, Nov. 07, 2004
Families hire expert help in quest for elite colleges
Mercury News
Erica Klein, a senior at Palo Alto's Gunn High School, has her sights set on a prestigious Ivy League college back East.
And why not? She has an SAT score of nearly 1,500, dances hula, has written a novel and is a yearbook editor.
But competition for the Ivies is now so stiff that Erica and her parents worry about her chances for admission. And that's why they're glad they hired a $75-an-hour consultant last year to help Erica with test preparation, crafting admissions essays and more.
With more applicants vying for slots in the nation's top colleges -- and high school guidance counselors stretched thin -- more and more upper-middle-class families like the Kleins are turning to high-priced college admissions consultants in hopes of gaining an edge.
Clients say these consultants reduce the stress in a college admissions process that has become ulcer-inducing in its complexity and competitiveness. But critics, including high school educators and college admissions officers, caution that these professionals are adding to the growing pressure on adolescents to be superkids.
``Students are receiving the message that somehow they are not good enough on their own,'' said Anna Marie Porras, director of admission at Stanford University. If she suspects an application has been excessively packaged, Porras said, it can be a disadvantage because admissions officials feel they're not getting a real picture of the applicant.
Thirty years ago, college admissions consultants were virtually unheard of. But since the early 1990s, the market has taken off. Last year, some 6 percent of all high school graduates were relying on a paid consultant, according to the Independent Educational Consultants Association. In affluent suburban communities on both coasts, as many as 25 percent of high school graduates used the specialists. And the demand is likely to double over the next five years.
Some consultants dispense just a few hours of advice at a crucial time -- to help fill out an application or edit an essay. But like therapists, they prefer to see students weekly or monthly, beginning as early as freshman year in high school. Many say there's a long lead time involved in planning students' academic course loads and extracurricular activities, and grooming them for the SAT and other tests.
``Nobody walks in here off the streets'' looking for a quick fix in their senior year, said Mary Clarke, the Menlo Park consultant who works with Erica Klein.
Stephen Lau, a Cupertino semiconductor engineer, hired a consultant last year after learning that a friend's daughter had been denied admission to every Ivy League school she applied to -- despite graduating as class valedictorian and snagging an SAT score of 1560.
``My friend realized what they were missing,'' by not hiring a consultant, Lau said.
So at the beginning of his daughter's junior year at Monta Vista High School, Lau enrolled her at Insight College Prep Centers in Cupertino, where, among other things, she got suggestions for contests to enter and internships to pursue.
On average, families who use full-service consultants end up paying about $2,700, Independent Educational Consultants Association figures show. But it can cost much more. If a student sees the consultant one hour weekly for two years or more, that could run about $5,000. At the very high end, New York-based IvyWise charges more than $30,000 for its ``Platinum'' package.
Greater demand for a college education drives the market for these consultants. The number of high school graduates is nearing the record set in the 1970s. At the same time, today's teens aspire to college in far greater numbers than 30 years ago.
That breeds stiff competition for the nation's top colleges.
Fifty years ago, Stanford University offered admission to 62 percent of high school applicants. Twenty-five years ago, that figure had dropped to 26 percent, and last year, it had shrunk to 13 percent. Of the university's 19,000 freshman applicants, fewer than 2,500 were accepted.
It's odds like those that drive families into the arms of consultants.
The Klein family hired Mary Clarke in the middle of Erica's sophomore year. Erica began weekly hourlong sessions with Clarke to discuss which colleges would be the best fit for her, what courses she should take at Gunn and what extracurricular activities she should pursue.
``She suggested I stay in yearbook,'' Erica said. ``Apparently she thought I didn't have very much club activity.''
Erica began a grueling course of SAT preparation, with Clarke assigning about three hours of homework a week. Erica read grammar books and books on the Latin and Greek roots of words, and studied vocabulary from 600 homemade flash cards.
This fall, with college application deadlines looming, Erica's hourlong sessions were extended to two hours a week. Clarke suggested Erica write about her interest in hula on her admissions essays, and she is serving as Erica's editor on the essays.
The Klein family's initial motivation in hiring Clarke was to hand over the logistical nightmare of the college application process to someone else.
``I just thought it was overwhelming,'' said June Klein, referring to early admissions, the SAT IIs, Advanced Placement tests and other features of college admissions today that have upped the complexity.
Whether families such as the Kleins actually gain an edge by hiring a consultant is difficult to determine.
But Erica and her mother say Clarke has made the college admissions process less stressful by taking the planning and strategizing off their shoulders.
``I have a lot of friends who don't have counselors,'' Erica said. ``They're stressing a lot more.''
Critics, however, see consultants as representative of a troubling trend: the increasing pressure on high school students to ``package'' themselves for college admissions, choosing courses and activities in order to look good on a college application.
``These students are 15, 16 and 17 years old,'' said Porras, the director of admission at Stanford. ``If that isn't the time to explore things you're interested in just for the sake of it, I don't know when is.''
Erica's principal at Gunn High School said that, for whatever reason, students at high-achieving campuses such as Gunn feel too much pressure to get into the nation's top colleges.
``If they just would open their eyes to other possibilities, much of this pressure would go away,'' said Noreen Likins. ``There are more than 10 colleges in the U.S.''
