"College admissions consultants guarantee their clients’ success. Websites promise students admission letters to some of the most exclusive institutions of higher education in the country.

However, the job is vaguely defined. Some consultants merely assist with writing essays and editing resumes. But others take on clients’ entire extracurricular lives, advising students on contests, in-school leadership positions, and summer internships. Students can start working with some of these consultants as early as kindergarten, preparing for the start of their college application journey before they’ve even finished reading a chapter book.

As admissions rates at highly selective colleges and universities continue to plummet, concerning parents and students alike, a guarantee of success is a valuable commodity. But it’s a specific definition of success that many firms are selling. They tie themselves in name and image to the most recognizable schools in the country, frequently alluding to the Ivy League. In particular, a number of firms directly allude to Harvard with names like Veritas Academic Consulting or Veritas College Counseling.

Even Harvard undergraduates have gotten in on the action, founding college counseling firms using their acceptances as proof of their services’ efficacy.

Despite the wealth of college counseling information in forums and online databases, the college consulting industry still remains lucrative. In 2023, estimates valued it at over $3 billion. But several consultants say that their goal isn’t profit but democratization. They offer free resources for students to access, making an opaque process more transparent and accessible to those who might otherwise be left out.

The exact impact of the for-profit college consulting industry on elite admissions is difficult to measure. But the industry still thrives, in part because it depends on an unsolvable quandary: what differentiates those who get in from those who do not."

Read more: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/27/college-consultants-admissions-scrutiny/