Ivy League architecture at Princeton University.
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At America’s top schools, including many in the Ivy League, acceptance rates are near record lows.
“College admissions are becoming more competitive, and there’s a lot of stress from families about the stakes and how to get in,” said Thomas Howell, founder of Forum Education, a New York-based tutoring company. he said.
For some families, enrolling a child in a top school is an investment, and there are few limits to how much they can spend on tutors, college counselors, and test prep.
“Top 20% or bust?”
Meanwhile, list prices at some private universities are approaching six figures a year, leading some students to choose cheaper public schools or alternative schools for their degrees. For those who are willing to pay for a four-year private college, there is often a feeling that it must be worth it.
“The value proposition of higher education is becoming polarized. Either you’re a top-notch school or you’re a real value proposition,” Howell said.
For this group of college applicants, it’s “the top 20 percent or the bottom,” he added.
As a result, so-called “Ivy Plus” universities are experiencing a record increase in the number of applicants, according to the Common Application report.
“Ivy Plus” generally includes the eight private universities that make up the Ivy League (Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Yale University), as well as the University of Chicago. , Duke University, and the University of Massachusetts. Technology and Stanford.
To gain admission to this elite group of schools, many families seek outside assistance.
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“The consensus is that college is only worth going to if it changes your life,” said Hafeez Lakhani, founder and president of Lakhani Coaching in New York.
“What hasn’t changed is people with huge amounts of wealth who are willing to invest $100,000 or more. That’s about 20% of our customers,” Lakhani said. “This might be the biggest thing they’ve spent on something other than a car.”
Lakhani Coaching clients spend an average of $58,000 on counseling, but some have spent as much as $800,000 over several years, Lakhani said.
At that price point, students “basically get a ‘SEAL team’ level tutor for almost every class,” he said. Lakhani equated academic support with the highest level of organization and execution that typifies the training of the Navy SEALs, the special operations force representing the sea, air and ground teams.
Lakhani charges $1,600 an hour for his services, the company’s highest rate, but families still often choose to work with him over less senior coaches there, some of whom pay about $290 an hour. It is said that there are some coaches who take it.
Even if they charged more, that dynamic wouldn’t change, he added.
Parents often say it’s “worth the investment,” he added. “The word investment keeps coming up.”
Christopher Lim, founder and CEO of university consulting firm Command Education.
Provided by: Christopher Lim
At Command Education in New York, counselors meet with students weekly starting in eighth or ninth grade. Families are charged $120,000 per year, which does not include test preparation for the Standard Admissions Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT). By graduation, they had spent about $500,000.
Command founder and CEO Christopher Lim said Command has 200 students worldwide, most of whom are on a first-come, first-served basis, but he doesn’t think it’s yielding the desired results. If they do, they will be turned away.
“At the end of the day, the results matter most,” he said.
“This is not your neighborhood tutor.”
Howell started Forum Education in New York City 10 years ago and said business has ballooned since the pandemic.
“Two things happened after the coronavirus outbreak: the normal learning environment was disrupted, and there was more time in the day for tutoring, and the need for it increased,” Howell said.
As demand increases, interest rates are also rising, reaching about 30% annually, he said.
His tutor currently charges up to $1,250 per hour for academic support, which does not include college counseling.
Howell explained that the majority of students attend private schools in New York City and have household incomes of more than $1.5 million. Last year, these families spent an average of about $38,000 on tutors, often in addition to college consultants.
“This isn’t your neighborhood tutor doing a side job,” Howell said. He said these academic tutors work full-time in the field and earn six-figure incomes, with two tutors on staff earning more than $1 million last year.
According to market research firm IbisWorld, the business of college counseling is growing year on year, in part due to growing concerns about college return on investment, making the cost of professional services worthwhile. In 2024, total revenue reached $3 billion.
“Incomplete meritocracy”
Of course, many high schools have tutors and counselors who serve the same purpose for free.
However, depending on the number of students in your class, it may be difficult to receive personalized advice about your college plans.
Additionally, the number of counselors available to students has steadily decreased over the past few years. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the national student-to-counselor ratio is currently 405 to 1.
Those who can afford outside help certainly have an advantage.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, children from families in the top 1% are more than twice as likely to attend an “Ivy+” college as children from middle-class families with comparable SAT or ACT scores. .
“Higher education is a flawed meritocracy,” Lakhani said.
But the wealthiest students from the country’s top private schools are primarily competing against each other as schools aim to build diverse classes.
“If you’re applying from a wealthy family, you’re competing against people in your own bucket,” Lakhani says.
Ironically, most people don’t want to admit it, even if they are lucky enough to receive personal help.
“Every parent wants to tell their child to take care of themselves,” Lim said.
Is it worth getting an Ivy League degree?
A study by Opportunity Insights, a nonpartisan nonprofit research group based at Harvard University, found that students who were waitlisted and ended up attending Ivy League schools compared to students who went to public universities instead. Estimated future income was compared.
Ultimately, a group of economists based at Harvard and Brown Universities found that attending an Ivy League college had a “statistically small effect” on income.
However, there are other benefits besides income.
For example, according to Opportunity Insights, attending a university in the “Ivy Plus” category rather than a highly selective public institution nearly doubles the chance of getting into an elite graduate school and triples the chance of working at a top company. Masu.
The Opportunity Insights report found that leadership positions are disproportionately held by graduates of a small number of highly selective private universities.
Additionally, the chances of a student ending up in the top 1% of the revenue share increase by 60%.
The researchers said, “Selected private universities function as a gateway to the upper class of society.”
“These universities currently admit students from high-income families at significantly higher rates than students from low-income families with comparable academic backgrounds, thereby perpetuating privilege,” they added.
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