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... Sooner or later, every parent asks Christopher Rim the same question: What will it take to get my kid into Harvard or Yale?
His answer: $750,000.
That's Rim's going rate for advice on landing a coveted spot in the Ivy League for students who want to start college prep in the 7th grade. The price is more than twice what it can cost to actually attend one of those eight elite schools.
But, for those who can pay, Rim and his team at New York-based Command Education will serve as a sort of white-glove college concierge service " "mentors" who will groom an overachiever, prod a slacker, finetune a B+ here or an A- there, curate extracurriculars and otherwise buff a high-school CV to a high Princetonian gloss.
Elite universities have long been stocked with children of the rich. But as admissions mania spirals " only about 3% of applicants get into Harvard these days " the ultra-wealthy are taking the win-at-all-costs gamesmanship to five-star heights. Enter a new wave of luxury college consulting services that all but guarantee its clients will get into one of their dream schools. All-inclusive packages " sometimes costing well into the six figures " can start prepping kids before they even enter high school.
"These are very savvy business people and families " money is no object for our clients,'' Rim, 28, said. "Frankly, if they never have a job or go to college, they're going to live better than most people. What we're doing is building motivation for students that have every resource."
It's hardly news that wealthy parents try to buy every edge for their kids. But the new class of high-end consultants " think McKinsey & Co. for 17-year-old clients " is more evidence of the lengths to which people will go to gain access to elite institutions (the Varsity Blues admissions scandal showed how, for some, that can include breaking the law.)
Murky Process
The backdrop for all of this, of course, is the age-old anxiety about getting into an elite school. The college application process has gotten even murkier in recent years, as acceptance rates plummet and parents search for anything that can give their kids an advantage. ...
