My Life and Times

Posted on Thu, Dec. 23, 2004
EDUCATIONAdvisors to college-bound kids receive high grades, high feesAs competition for top colleges intensifies each year, students increasingly turn to high-priced consultants for help.BY MATTHEW I. PINZURmpinzur@herald.com
Applying to college seemed so much easier when Camilo Bernal went to Florida State University in the 1970s. As he sat through a college admissions seminar last March with his teenage son, Nicholas, he realized they were in trouble.
''All these forms, all these terms that I didn't know what they meant,'' Bernal said. ``We really didn't understand the whole process.''
Like a growing number of families, the Bernals turned to the burgeoning industry of private consultants who charge hundreds or thousands of dollars to shepherd students and their families through college enrollment and make their résumés more attractive.
As more students apply for the same number of spots, the high grades and test scores that looked so impressive a decade ago are increasingly humdrum, and eager students are desperate for other ways to stand out.
The most basic consultants provide test preparation, a timeline for applications and help with finding financial aid.
The Bernals turned to The College Partnership, which charges $1,500 to $1,700 for unlimited e-mail and telephone access to its team of coaches, as well as test-preparation materials and an extensive Internet site with details on colleges and universities.
''Any question I have, they've been able to give me an answer or refer me to someone who could,'' said Nicholas, a senior in the International Baccalaureate program at Coral Reef Senior High, 10101 SW 152nd St. in Miami.
More posh consultants -- some of whom charge more than a year's tuition at the nation's most selective private colleges -- spend dozens of hours coaching students on everything from selecting classes to founding community service organizations.
''When an education consultant works with a student, she becomes a parent, a friend and a guidance counselor,'' said Judi Robinovitz, whose Palm Beach County firm is among the most sought after in Florida. ``It's like working with a personal trainer.''
She charges $3,600 and up to help students select classes, prepare for tests, choose extracurricular activities and generally smooth the path from diploma to dorm room.
THE EXTRA MILE
When a recent client expressed interest in hotel management, Robinovitz helped arrange a summer internship at one of London's top hotels, and she is now a student in Cornell's well-respected hospitality program.
''Had we not been in that mode of exploring avenues that could lead to a career for her as early as her junior year, I don't think any of this would have come to fruition,'' Robinovitz said.
In an environment where top schools routinely reject 60 percent to 70 percent of applicants, the consultants push students to use their natural abilities and interests in remarkable ways -- ways that catch the eyes of admissions officers.
''Nowadays, so many kids have the grades and test scores to be considered for the top schools that they're looking at other things,'' said Katherine Cohen, who runs IvyWise, a New York education consulting firm. ``It's the soft measure, the intangible factors, that get weighed very heavily in the process.''
One of her clients was a star student who took five advanced placement classes as a junior. But Cohen worried that her application would look too much like classmates'.
The girl was an avid writer and poet, so Cohen encouraged her to found the school's first literary magazine and enter dozens of writing contests that would publish her work. Instead of just volunteering with children at a hospital, she urged the girl to teach them to write poetry and essays and publish the work in a hospital newsletter.
When Cohen found out the girl was also writing a novel, she showed the first few chapters to her own literary agent. The girl ended up with a two-book deal for $400,000 and acceptance to Harvard.
''She had the innate ability,'' said Cohen, a former Yale admissions officer who has written two books on the subject. ``We made her stand out.''
Tuition at Harvard is $27,448. Cohen charges $33,000 for her most intensive package, which includes 100 hours of counseling over a teen's junior and senior years of high school.
Her record, though, is just as rich: 85 percent of her clients were admitted to their first-choice school, and 100 percent to one of their top two choices.
''Just because you sent your son or daughter to that great private school and they got mainly A's doesn't mean your son or daughter is going to go to Harvard,'' said Cohen, whose firm also prepares students for graduate school, prep school and even exclusive Manhattan nursery schools.
Services like hers carry a stigma, though, especially among those whose opinion matters most: college admissions directors.
''Admissions people are very uncomfortable with packaging a candidate because it makes a student into someone they're really not,'' said Edward Gillis, admissions director at the University of Miami.
As impressive as Cohen's results sound, he said most applicants are admitted to one of their top two choices anyway. ''There's no secret handshake in this business,'' he said. ``I don't think it will change where a student is admitted to college at all.''
Nonetheless, the consultant business is booming. There are probably around 1,000 full-time education consultants, according to Mark Sklarow, executive director of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, and he estimated that 7 percent of high school graduates hired one this year.
''That is a number that's probably pretty close to doubled in the last five years,'' he said. ``Our projection is it will double again in the next five.''
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
Unlike high school counselors, who may be responsible for advising hundreds of students, high-end consultants such as Robinovitz and Cohen usually limit themselves to a few dozen students per year.
''In the public schools, we are spread very, very thin,'' said Robert Roddy, who handles about 840 seniors and at least as many juniors and sophomores as the college advisor at Michael Krop Senior High, 1410 NE 215th St. in North Miami Beach. ``I don't have the time to give the type of personal attention that some of the students need.''
When Nicholas Bernal finished his application essay, for example, he e-mailed it to The College Partnership and received a reply with some tips on restructuring it.
''I feel that the logic behind having a counselor with regard to navigating the maze from high school to college makes a lot of sense,'' said Ed Doody, president of the for-profit partnership, based in Colorado.
His company hosts 3,600 free seminars a year, introducing parents and teens to the application process.
The meeting sold the Bernals. The program helped Nicholas boost his SAT score 120 points, and he has already been accepted to Florida State and the University of Georgia.
Younger brother Gabriel, a sophomore at Coral Reef, has already signed up.
''He's not as motivated as Nicholas because he's only in 10th grade,'' said father Camilo. ``We signed up as an investment in the future.''
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