Admit officers, experts split on value of private admissions counselors

A 4.0 GPA, top scores on AP exams, community service awards, athletic talents — these may seem like the keys to getting into college, but in the game of admissions there are other players besides the applicants.

As a new round of high school seniors head into the college application process, they will provide a growing market forprivate college admissions counselors to help them prepare. Such counselors have become an increasing point of contention in the admissions process.

The practice of hiring outside assistance, however, has not always been mainstream, according to Barmak Nassirian, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

“Ten years ago it was an anomaly,” he said. “Today, I hear of it frequently.”

Admissions Dean Eric Furda said the influence of a counselor is not always apparent in applications submitted to the University.

“We don’t sit back and say this person was coached, but we may not have a cumulative effect within the application that all of the pieces are matching up,” he said.

Furda explained that essays whose quality exceeds that of the applicant’s academic records and recommendations are a sign that the student may have employed a counselor.

Alexandra Robbins, author of national bestseller The Overachievers; The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, said the counselors themselves are not necessarily qualified.

“Anybody can hang out a shingle and call himself a college counselor,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Robbins’ book follows high schoolers through the admissions process and includes details of a counselor who was only concerned with getting her clients into top-ranked universities.

“The counselor told me that she couldn’t have me follow [a student fictionally named] Julie because she didn’t believe Julie would get into a ‘good’ school and therefore Julie’s lower-tier result would bring bad publicity to the counselor,” Robbins wrote in an e-mail.

Not all counselors, however, work like Julie’s.

Michele Hernandez of Hernandez College Consulting said she does not associate with counselors who write portions of their clients’ essays or use other amoral practices.

“There are unethical people in every field,” she said. “There are always a couple who give the profession a bad name.”

Hernandez, a former teacher and admissions officer, said she focuses more on the “scholarship side than on the marketing side” when preparing her clients.

Nassirian said he has strong “misgivings” about counseling’s ability to give students who can afford the service an advantage over low-income students.

“When you have a cadre of paid mercenaries who come between the applicant and the institution and who advertise that they will further distort your projection of yourself, then that is not an edifying invention,” he said.

Unlike Nassirian, Hernandez believes admissions offices are to blame for the uneven playing field and counselors make the process more transparent for students.

“It’s like blaming accountants for the tax code of the United States,” she said. “The accountants are trying to help a complicated system.”

Concerning Penn, Furda said he believes that outside counseling is not necessary or effective, as families can ask for information directly from the admissions office.

“We’re giving that advice for free,” he said.

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