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For a price of up to $ 1.5 million, parents can purchase a five-year, college-based set of academic counseling services from the University of Ottawa. A New York City company called Ivy Coach.
The service begins in Grade 8 as students are guided in the choice of courses and out-of-school activities most likely to attract the interest of college admissions offices. They have to find a "singular hook," said Brian Taylor, chief executive of the company – a way to stand out when high marks, sports and community service are not enough.
Students receive intensive preparation for SAT or ACT, two "coachable exams," explained Taylor. They then receive an edition close to their college essays, much like a screenwriter could work with an agent or a studio executive.
And all this is legal. "Is it unfair? What can the privileged pay? "Mr. Taylor asked," Yes. But that's how the world works.
When the government unveiled Tuesday the federal indictments of dozens of parents, administrators and university coaches, it revealed a whole series of corrupt and illegal admission practices. But there is also a perfectly legal world of counseling and testing services at private universities, which is geared to parents who want to give their children a decisive advantage in the world of college admissions.
[[[[To learn more about the Department of Justice's largest pursuit of college admissions.]
Parents can pay $ 300 for a standard one-hour consultation with an admissions expert or donate tens of millions to schools, hoping to get special consideration for their child's application.
The revelations about these practices, which are usually whispered, may cause greater cynicism about American higher education at a time when admissions to elite colleges are already under the microscope, many schools facing inquiries into their admission and inheritance policies.
And they reveal how parents, up and down the income ladder, have become obsessed with college acceptance as a guarantee of the financial security of their children.
"Consultations in private colleges are almost like the Wild West," said Alexis Redding, visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who wrote about the "extreme pressure" that the college admissions race can exert. about students and their families.
Although many consultants adhere to the optional ethical guidelines established by national professional associations, others do not, she said.
The federal indictment "is not surprising for anyone who has studied the world about the major issues of private admissions or private consultations," said Professor Redding. "The size, the details and the celebrity are surprising."
[[[[Read the full list of people indicted here.]
With the many legal means of seeking preferential treatment for his offspring, ranging from big donations to expensive tutors, the Hollywood stars and nabobs of the cases named in Tuesday's indictment apparently had other ways to exercise an influence on the process.
But in recent years, the costs of securing special treatment for an application have exceeded the limits, even for the rich. A donation to an Ivy-rated school should be valued at $ 10 million or more to merit a truly special candidate beyond his merits, according to several experienced college admissions consultants.
Steven Mercer, a private consultant at a Santa Monica-based college, described $ 10 million as "a basic gift that may not even attract the attention of the admissions office."
He added, "Sometimes you have to go a little higher."
Mr. Taylor of Ivy Coach agreed that even after a $ 10 million donation, a student's candidacy would not be welcomed without "no questions asked".
"It's not guaranteed," he said.
The certainty seems to be what the parents were looking for when they hired William Singer, the consultant who pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. "I've created a guarantee," Singer said in a Boston court.
In interviews with federally registered parents, Mr. Singer described his premier booth services for technology titans, wealthy investors and other personalities attempting to lock a rare place in a popular school, such as Yale, Georgetown and the University. from Southern California. The court documents indicate that he promised to register them as athletes – with disks manufactured or embellished – and on the schools "V.I.P. lists."
"We are helping the richest families in the United States to educate their children," he told Gordon R. Caplan, co-chair of the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, in a recorded phone call in the United States. June 2018 by the authorities. Prosecutors said Caplan paid $ 75,000 to simulate his daughter's standardized test score.
According to court documents, Mr. Singer also allegedly promised parents that their children would get an ACT score in the 1930s, an SAT score equal to or greater than 1400 or a place in the water polo team of the same year. University of Southern California.
Law-abiding consultants can never offer a promise of admission to a specific school, said Ivy Coach's Taylor, regardless of the amount of their fees or the amount a parent is willing to give. "They warn you that they have links with admissions officers, it's a red flag," he said.
Ivy Coach students sign and submit their own applications, according to Taylor. He stated that the fact that Mr. Singer submits claims on behalf of his clients was "a mark of unscrupulousness in itself".
According to federal prosecutors, in some cases Singer and his parents had conspired to reduce the role of school counselors in the process, as they knew the students' real educational and athletic backgrounds.
The charges of unwanted behavior, with the exception of the violation of the law, are not uncommon in the world of high-priced admissions consultation. The importance of Ivy Coach's fees has made them put on the door of an industrial association.
Taylor described the association's decision as "non-American". "Who can say what is too much in America?", He said. "If someone wants to pay a fee you order, they have that right."
Professor Redding, of Harvard, is concerned that this week's focus on the issue casts a negative light on the entire college-based consulting sector, which she said had increased over the past few years. last years to control itself.
"There are a lot of good actors here who are eclipsed in a case like this," she said.
The research group IBISWorld estimates that the annual turnover of the sector in 2018 amounts to 1.9 billion dollars.
Stefanie Niles, president of the National Association for College Admissions, said the allegations were an "extreme response to the commodification of the college admissions process."
The growth in private counseling is due in part to the shortage of guidance counselors in public schools. During the 2015-2016 school year, each public school counselor was responsible for an average of 470 students, according to the group.
There is a wide range of prices on the ground. In Boca Raton, Florida, Naomi Steinberg runs an "upscale boutique" where the college planning process, which has been going on for years, often begins in grade 9 and can cost $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 to families.
"You are trying to make sense of a system that can not be understood," she said.
Mr. Mercer, a consultant from Santa Monica, works in the sector: he asks between $ 300 and $ 7,000, depending on the needs of the student and the beginning of his hiring process. Previously, he had worked at the admissions office of the University of Southern California and was shocked that the school was included in the federal indictment.
This week's charges are not the first time wealthy families have been accused of attempting to deceive an easily corruptible system. In 2011, prosecutors in Nassau County, New York State, unveiled a widespread fraud scandal, in which students from prestigious Long Island high schools paid their peers between $ 500 and $ 3,600 for pass the ACT and SAT exams.
In some communities, it is well known that physicians will submit, for a fee, documents documenting a learning disability that will give the student additional time to pass the SAT or ACT exam.
Although the extreme behavior described by federal prosecutors this week may cause concern among families who intend to abide by the rules, Mercer said his message to customers would remain the same: the brand name of a college is much less important than the right fit for a student.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged: "Such sums of money, these people and these schemes? It's not just a little bit. It's embarrassing for all of us on the ground. "
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