College coaches can help kids make the grade

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Another criticism of college coaching services is that only the wealthiest families can afford them. But Michael London, co-founder and president of College Coach, the nation’s largest education counseling service, has found a way to expand the market.

His company is one of a small number offering a new employee benefit: help with a child’s college admissions. College Coach has taken on about 65 Fortune 500 corporate clients and is offering their employees workshops on such topics as selecting the right college, applications and financing. Employees also can access support services on the Web or by telephone.

“College counseling has an elitist label associated with it, and the nice thing is with corporations you can offer all employees equal access to these high-end educational services,” London said. “There will only ever be so many families that can afford this, so the company will grow faster in the corporate benefit sector because of the affordability issue, and a single company can work with 1,000 employees.”

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The price of individual educational counseling services has risen about 15 percent since 2000, according to the trade group's Sklarow, although a flood of new entrants into the industry has prevented fees from growing too dramatically, he said. But without regulation, almost anyone can set up shop in the field.

“I’m worried about families rushing out and paying thousands of dollars for these people if they don’t have the right background or breadth of experience,” Sklarow said. “It’s important to know how long a person you’re hiring has been in this business, and it’s also important to know how often the consultant is out in the field meeting admissions directors at colleges. That is, in part, what parents are paying for.”

Sklarow says he receives about 100 requests for membership in the trade group each month, mostly from applicants who lack proper training. He rejects about 90 percent. The organization requires counselors to have at least three years of experience in college admissions or high school counseling and to have visited at least 100 colleges.

“About a quarter of the calls I get are from people who say things like, ‘I got my daughter into Bryn Mawr, and now I want to do the same for other kids,’ and my response to them is, 'You didn’t help your daughter, she did it herself with hard work,'” Sklarow says. “It’s sort of like saying, ‘My daughter had strep throat, I nursed her through it and now I want to be a doctor for everybody.’”

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