your higher calling

Busy lifestyles have spawned them.More than 4,100 institutions of higherlearning have made them possible.Nearly 16 million students have cre-ated a demand for them. And now youcan take advantage of today’s ever-growing need for college admis-sions/financial aid consulting servicesby throwing your hat—or shall we saymortarboard?—into this interesting

and rewarding arena. Today’s college planning con-

sultants—used interchangeablyin this book with educationalconsultants or college admis-sions/financial aid consulting

professionals—offer a wide array of valuableservices to students and their parents. Forinstance, they help steer students during theirhigh school days to the academic, extracur-ricular and athletic pursuits that will increasetheir chances of being admitted to the col-lege(s) of their choice. They help them wadethrough the mounds of paperwork neces-sary to apply for both admission and finan-cial aid, and they make sure the forms aresubmitted on time. They also specialize inhelping at-risk students, learning-disabledstudents and other nontraditional students

achieve their highest po-tential. In extreme cas-

es, they may evenhelp save lives, which

may sound dramaticuntil you consider that

placing at-risk young peo-ple firmly on the path tocollege success truly canhelp them avoid making

bad lifestyle choices thatcould negatively impactthe rest of their lives.

Head Of The ClassAccording to the Inde-

pendent Educational Con-sultants Association (IECA),

some of the best and most ca-pable educational consultants

come from the ranks of thecountry’s experienced academic

advisors and counselors, who gainhands-on experience at both publicand private universities, colleges,

Entrepreneur Magazine’s

College Planning Consultant

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Chapter 1

Your Higher Calling

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Chapter 1

Your Higher Calling

and secondary and elementary schools.(Or at any rate, they have the easiest timemaking the transition to educational con-sulting, given their background, says MarkSklarow, executive director of the IECA.See “Background Check” below for moreinformation.) In addition, they often havetitles like certified educational planner(CEP) or licensed educational psycholo-gist, as well as an alphabet soup of oth-er prestigious academic letters after theirnames, including Ph.D., MBA, M.A., Ed.D.(Doctor of Education), and Ed.M. (Masterof Education). On the financial aid side,some consultants are even CPAs or cre-dentialed financial planners.

Both this experience and educational back-ground is important for someone who wish-es to hang out a shingle as an educational

consultant, because frankly, the college ad-missions field in general and the financialaid consulting industry in particular bothhave a rather unsavory reputation. The pop-ular press frequently warns the public aboutshady consultants who gleefully scam un-suspecting families of limited means whoare desperate to find the best college and/oraid package. They report that consultantscharge ridiculous fees, up to and includingan exorbitant percentage of the financialaid package. They’ve also written abouthow some unscrupulous consultants “guar-antee” that they can get a child a full rideat a competitive university, then slink away,retainer fee in hand, leaving the student andhis parents high and dry.

Then there are the dabblers, or the peo-ple whom Santa Fe, New Mexico, educa-

There’s a prevailing notion that private school, high school and collegecounselors make the best educational consultants because they have spent somuch time with kids, have read studentsʼ files, are familiar with standardizedtests and so on. But according to Mark Sklarow, executive director of the Inde-pendent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), a counseling backgroundisnʼt mandatory to be successful in this field.

“In my experience, counselors have the easiest time making the transition[from education to educational consulting],” he says. “They definitely get theone-on-one stuff. But although they understand the administrative part of coun-seling, they usually lack small-business skills. Also, they usually only knowtheir own school or college and the surrounding area but usually not muchbeyond that. In addition, they usually donʼt see the learning-disabled kids orthe ones who donʼt know what they want out of life. So they have a steeplearning curve just like someone who doesnʼt come from academic counseling.”

Conversely, Sklarow says that some of the other people who come to IECA,including everyone from lawyers to real estate agents, understand the small-business picture but lack the hands-on academic piece of the consulting pie.So whatʼs an aspiring educational consultant to do? To begin with, look for amentor who will allow you to work with him or her to learn the ropes. Then joinan organization like IECA, the Higher Education Consultants Association or theNational Association for College Admission Counseling. Youʼll find more infor-mation about these groups in Chapter 7.

Background Check

tional consultant Whitney Laughlin refersto as the “Mommy Corps.” These are the as-piring consultants who come by theirknowledge of the college applicationprocess from having shepherded an off-spring or two through the experience, andmay even have succeeded in getting saidchildren admitted to a prominent universi-ty. They figure that having navigated thechoppy waters of college admission suc-cessfully, they have the right stuff to turntheir knowledge into a thriving career. Insome cases, they have degrees themselves,although more often than not, those de-grees are in fields other than education orcounseling.

But what the dabblers usually don’t haveis insider knowledge of a wide variety of col-lege campuses the way professional coun-selors do. They don’t know the right peopleat the university level to contact for insightand information. They also don’t have ex-perience dealing with complex personalitiesand figuring out how to match kids to theinstitution where they’ll thrive and grow.In short, they’re trying to build a businesswithout paying their dues—and that can bea real handicap when it comes to running

a successful educational consultancy.“The college admission process may seem

intuitive, but it’s based on a cumulativeprocess of experience that includes visitingcolleges; going to conferences, seminars andworkshops; and knowing enough about var-ious colleges to help students pick the rightone,” Sklarow says. “The person who says,‘I got my daughter into Bryn Mawr, and itwas so much fun that I can’t wait to helpothers get into college, too,’ won’t haveenough knowledge to connect the right kidto the right college. You have to go out andvisit 40 or 60 colleges, so when you meet akid, you have an aha moment and recognizethat he seems like a Penn State kid, for ex-ample, rather than a Temple kid.”

Getting An EducationDon’t get us wrong. Our point here isn’t

to discourage you from pursuing a careerin educational consulting if you don’t havedecades of academic counseling experience.It is possible to build a career in this fieldif you have the drive and determination, awillingness to invest time in professionaldevelopment, and a commitment to excel-lence. But there’s no question that peoplewith previous admissions experience havean edge, and that it will take a lot of workto develop the knowledge and contactsyou’ll need to do the job right if you don’thave that experience. And as Sklarow pointsout, you’ll also have to travel extensively tovisit college campuses and get to knowwhat they offer, and it usually will be atyour own expense. Universities generallypay expenses only for experienced con-sultants, since they’re the ones who aremost likely to make successful placementsat their institutions.

Whether you’re a relative neophyte oran experienced counselor, this book willprovide you with the tools and insight you’llneed to launch a college admissions and fi-nancial aid consulting business. In the



1.3

Fun FactThe SAT was intro-

duced in 1926 to measurethe academic achieve-ments of college-bound

students. Although the name hasundergone numerous changesover the years (the acronym oncestood for Scholastic AchievementTest), the College Board says theinitials don’t stand for anythinganymore. However, the PrincetonReview irreverently says SATstands for “Stupid, Annoying Test.”

chapters ahead, we’ll cover all the businessbasics, from establishing your company asa legal entity to outfitting a home office,handling the finances, promoting your serv-ices and so on. We’ll assume you alreadyhave the basic knowledge you need tohelp young students realize their dreamof attending the university of their choice.If you do need assistance with how to coun-sel eager young students, make collegeplacements, advise about financial aid pack-ages, or otherwise run the educational con-sulting side of the business, you’ll find ithelpful to join an organization like IECA.You can also check out the professional de-velopment opportunities discussed at lengthin Chapter 7.

Class Picture In the meantime, before we delve into

the nuts and bolts of running your ownhomebased college planning business, a lit-tle background on this industry is helpful.

The IECA estimates that in the UnitedStates, there are only about 2,000 educa-tional consultants, 500 of whom belong toits organization. This is strictly a guess, be-cause not everyone who provides educa-tional consulting services chooses to join aprofessional membership association like

IECA. But using that figure as a benchmark,that works out to about one consultant per8,000 students (based on a student popula-tion of nearly 16 million). What’s more, IECAsays that some states—including Idaho andOklahoma—do not yet have even a singleeducational consultant among their ranks.

Even the federal government doesn’ttrack educational consultants as a special-ized group. The closest thing to a classifi-cation for this group of professionals canbe found in the Occupational OutlookHandbook, 2006-2007 Edition (U.S. De-partment of Labor). The handbook has a“Counselor” category with a subcategorythat includes educational, vocational andschool counselors who work primarily inelementary schools, secondary schools, col-leges and universities. It’s reasonable to as-sume that the 248,000 individuals in thatcategory are primarily employed by variousorganizations and schools. The rather vague“Counselors, all other” category, whichnumbers 25,000 people, is more likely tobe where the independent consultants re-side—but no one really knows for sure!

What is known is that the Department ofLabor says that overall employment forcounselors in general is expected to growfaster than average through 2014. So theopportunities for an enterprising consultantlike yourself to forge a meaningful careerdoing something you love appear verybright indeed.

History 101 Just as statistics on who’s who in edu-

cational consulting are as scarce as under-grads in the library during spring break, sois historical data about the profession. Asmight be expected, we know far moreabout the genesis of education in Americathan we know about the practice of ad-missions consulting. The first institution ofhigher learning in the United States actual-ly predates the Union by nearly a century

Chapter 1

Your Higher Calling

1.4

Stat FactIn 2005, there were

27,468 public highschools in the United

States. The top three schools in2005, according to Newsweek’s“100 Best High Schools in Ameri-ca” list, were Jefferson County,Irondale, Alabama; the Interna-tional Academy, Bloomfield Hills,Michigan; and Stanton CollegePrep, Jacksonville, Florida.



1.5

and a half. Harvard College, which is the old-est school of Harvard University, was found-ed in 1636, a mere 16 years after the Pilgrimslanded at Plymouth Rock, and opened itsdoors to just nine students. Seven years lat-er, the first scholarship in history was award-ed at Harvard thanks to the largess of a pri-vate donor, Lady Anne Radcliffe Mowlson.

Fast-forward to the 20th century. It’s be-lieved that educational consultants havebeen around in one form or another fordecades, but it wasn’t until the 1950s, withthe advent of SAT test-preparation classes,that the career truly began to gain mo-mentum, mostly because parents started re-alizing that there was a way they could givetheir kids an edge. One of the earliest con-sulting programs—if not the earliest—wasestablished in 1968 by Howard Greene,M.A., M.Ed., who still consults with schoolsand colleges today. Sklarow of the IECAsays that the nouveau riche fueled that ear-ly demand for educational consultants be-cause they were interested in sending theiroffspring to boarding school but didn’tknow where to turn for insider information.As a result, members-only golf clubs andother places where the privileged gatheredbecame the arenas where information about

how to get into the most elite schools—orwho could help—was exchanged.

It wasn’t long before those who offeredboarding school admissions advice realizedthat offering college admissions counselingcould be far more lucrative. After all, therewere about 3,000 students in private board-ing schools at the time vs. 1 million collegestudents. So while the shift from consultingfor boarding schools to colleges devel-oped slowly, Sklarow’s theory is that thefield really took off when educational con-sultants stopped apologizing about theirlivelihood and started focusing on educat-ing parents and students on how they couldhelp them get into the college best suitedto their talents and academic abilities.

Sklarow says, “We’d see people stand upat conferences and meetings and say, ‘I’man educational consultant—I know, I’m sor-ry about that.’ But the fact is, ‘our’ kids aremore likely to graduate and to go to privateuniversities. As a result there’s been a fun-damental shift in attitude about the pro-fession, and in particular, our impact hasbeen dramatic at small liberal arts colleges.An awful lot of kids [who go there] haveworked with IECA members.”

Today, those kids’ parents are no longerjust the wealthy and privileged. Over-whelmingly, they’re suburban profession-als who want to make sure they find thebest possible educational environment andfinancial assistance for their budding schol-ars. And Sklarow predicts that there’s yetanother market starting to percolate rightnow. “The next big trend will developwithin the next 10 years or less among themiddle class in both urban and suburbanareas,” he says. “They will have more of aneed to know about financial aid than ever,which means there will be a greater needfor consultants to help them.”

Steven Antonoff, an educational con-sultant in Denver, says another trend todayis consultants helping clients choose

Fun FactThe first public high

school in the UnitedStates (now called Eng-lish High School) was

founded in Boston in the winterof 1821 and was open to anyboy aged 12 or older who couldpass the entrance exam. Thiswas a revolutionary idea for itstime, because advanced learningpreviously had been open onlyto the wealthy.

schools. “There is a great demand for con-sultants who know the process to get Jun-ior through the college application experi-ence, but it’s important to be knowledgeableabout college environments and how Juniorwill fit in,” he says. “Good consultants areboth process- and knowledge-oriented.”

Who Needs You?You’ll find most of your clientele are

likely to come from the following demo-graphics: ● Busy parents who have neither the timenor the energy to do all the legwork nec-essary to find the right college for their kids● Parents who value time more than mon-ey and would rather spend what free timethey have on personal and/or family pur-suits and pay someone to pore over collegecatalogs or applications for them ● Parents who want/need their kids to havemore personal attention than is usually avail-able from high school counselors. “Schoolcounselors are so overworked,” Sklarow says.“On average, today’s counselors have an av-erage of 600 kids to counsel, or up to 1,000or more in schools in large cities like Los An-geles. They’re often dealing with drugs andalcohol, crisis intervention, and even lunch-

room duty, so college counseling usually isa really low priority.”● Parents who know other people who useeducational consultants and feel their kid(s)will be at a disadvantage if they don’t usea consultant● People who are overwhelmed by or im-patient with the application process (so muchpaperwork, so little time!). This is especial-ly true when it comes to financial aid, whichof course must be reapplied for every year. ● Parents who are anxiety-ridden aboutgetting their kids into the “best” schools.“It used to be simple: If a kid’s SAT scoreswere good, she would go to Penn,” saysSklarow. “If the SAT scores were lower,that same kid would go to Temple. Now,almost the entire senior year is given overto college anxiety.” ● People who perceive educational con-sultants as insiders (which of course you willbe once you establish the right contacts) andas a result are in the best position to helpthem make the wisest collegial decisions

So how can you serve these diverse au-diences well? To begin with, you’ll need tomake the college circuit in person to gleanas much insight as possible about local uni-versities, Ivy League schools, Big 10 and oth-er nationally known schools, or all of these,depending on your personal interests andyour clients’ choices. Because there are morethan 4,000 colleges and universities in theUnited States and only one you, you maywish to follow the lead of educational con-sultants who choose to specialize in partic-ular fields or offer specialized services. Forinstance, there are counselors who focus onIvy League placements, others who counsellearning disabled (LD) or at-risk kids, andstill others who place athletes or performingarts students. Also, you’ll need to get someeducation yourself, both as a business own-er and as a student of educational consult-ing. We’ll help you with both in subsequentchapters of this book.

Chapter 1

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Smart TipWhen visiting college

campuses, be sure tobring along a journal in

which you can note your impres-sions about the campus as wellas details about the academic andsocial environment, athletics,housing and other characteristics.Once you’ve visited several col-leges, they all start to look alike,so having notes on each one willbe very helpful later.



1.7

On The Money You’re no doubt wondering whether the

financial rewards of being an educationalconsultant are worth the significant effortsnecessary to establish your business, con-sidering all the traveling, fact-finding, stu-dent meetings, office administration, andother tasks you’ll be doing. The short an-swer is: Yes, eventually. Like most busi-ness startups, there’s a learning curve anda corresponding earnings lag. That’s whythe entrepreneurs we spoke to for thisbook say that if you’re contemplating es-tablishing a college admissions and financialaid consulting business, you might wantto make it a sideline rather than full-timepursuit in the beginning.

“We typically tell new consultants that theyare likely to have a net loss in the first yearbecause of the learning, traveling, campustours and office equipment they’ll need,”Sklarow says. “They can expect to breakeven or earn up to $15,000 in the secondyear, then be making a real salary in thethird. The caution is: It all depends upon

how effective you are in the marketing andpromotion of your business.”

“Since you won’t make money rightaway, you should keep your day job,” addsSteven Antonoff. “The sole exception is ifyou happen to be someone who doesn’tneed an immediate income or you’re notincome-dependent because there’s a sec-ond breadwinner in your family.”

Here’s the scoop from IECA on howmuch you can earn once you get that aca-demic ball rolling:

The average rate charged by educationalconsultants is $140 an hour, with a rangeof about $75 to $300. Sklarow says about athird of consultants charge by the hour. Theaverage package cost for a college place-ment (typically starting in 10th or 11th gradethrough college enrollment) is $3,200, witha range of $750 to $7,500. There are ex-ceptions to this rule, of course—we’veheard of one consultant who charges (andgets) $30,000—but the only typical excep-tion to this rule nationally is in New Eng-land, where the average is just under $4,000.

● Harvard University

● Princeton University

● Yale University

● University of Pennsylvania

● Duke University

● Stanford University

● California Institute of Technology

● Massachusetts Institute of Technology

● Columbia University

● Dartmouth College

● Washington University in St. Louis

● Northwestern University

● Cornell University

● Johns Hopkins University

● Brown University

● University of Chicago

● Rice University

● University of Notre Dame

● Vanderbilt University

● Emory University

● University of California-Berkeley

● Carnegie Mellon University

● Georgetown University

● University of Virginia

● University of California-Los Angeles

● University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

America’s Top Colleges

Source: U.S. News & World Report, “America’s Best Colleges 2006”

So let’s do some math. If you have 10paying customers who choose your $3,200package, your gross annual income wouldbe $32,000. Or if you counseled 25 kids ayear—which is entirely feasible by yourthird year—you would earn $80,000 a year.

Conversely, if you counsel 10 hours aweek at $150 an hour, your annual incomefor a 45-week year would be $67,500 (theother seven weeks would be set aside forvacation and travel to campuses). So asyou can tell, there is some serious moneyto be made once your business is up andrunning. The trick is to make it throughthose lean and hungry early years.

Voices Of ExperienceIn the chapters that follow, you’ll learn

everything you need to know to launchyour new college admissions and finan-cial aid consulting business. But perhapswhat may prove in the long run to beeven more valuable to you is the inputand views of the experienced educationalconsultants who agreed to be interviewedfor this book. You’ll find their insight andcomments interspersed throughout thebook. In addition, these entrepreneurs

have agreed to serve as a resource for youif you ever have general questions per-taining to your new career. These entre-preneurs include: ● Steven R. Antonoff, Ph.D., CEP, AntonoffAssociates, Denver: This published authorhas been an educational consultant since1981 and assists approximately 100 stu-dents annually with their college decisions.(One of his books, College Match: A Blue-print for Choosing the Best School for You[Octameron Associates], will be of partic-ular interest to aspiring educational con-sultants like you, since it focuses on howto make good decisions when matchingstudents to universities.) Previously heserved as Dean of Students, then as Deanof Admission and Financial Aid, at the Uni-versity of Denver, where he also earnedhis Ph.D. in psychology and human com-munications studies. He also holds an M.A.degree in education from the Universityof Denver and a B.S. in psychology fromthe University of Colorado. In addition toconsulting, Antonoff serves as the IECA’sDean of Education and Training Programs,teaches online college consulting courses

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1.8

Beware!Never counsel

for free, even whenthe students are dis-advantaged, says Santa Fe, NewMexico, consultant WhitneyLaughlin. Requiring students topay something invests them inthe counseling process andmakes them take it more seri-ously. If the person is very poor,Laughlin recommends bartering.For instance, she has had herhouse cleaned and has acceptedartwork and jewelry as payment.

Smart TipA useful reference

book you should haveon your desk is The Best

361 Colleges: The Smart Student’sGuide to Colleges (Princeton Re-view). It’s a compilation of com-ments from 110,000 college stu-dents on everything from collegeclasses to social activities, and in-cludes information about admis-sions and financial aid. It’s updat-ed annually so the 411 is alwaysfresh.



1.9

through the UCLA Extension certificate pro-gram, and does a lot of public speaking. ● Joan Bress, LCSW, CEP, College ResourceAssociates, Worcester, Massachusetts: Bresshas more than 20 years’ experience as aneducator and LCSW (licensed clinical so-cial worker), with a specialty in adoles-cent development and family therapy.Since establishing her consulting practicein 1999, she has worked with studentswith many interests, although performingarts is an area of particular interest to her.She is an oft-published writer of articleson college issues for both local and na-tional publications, and she often presents

college prep seminars and workshops forstudents, parents and teachers. She holdsan MSW (Master of Social Work) degreefrom Simmons College School of SocialWork in Boston, an M.A. in Romance lan-guages from Boston University, and a B.A.degree in Spanish literature from the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania. ● James C. Heryer, M.A., CEP, College Guid-ance and Placement, Kansas City, Missouri:This certified educational planner has beena college consultant since 1989. Formerlyhe was director of college placement at the

Pembroke Hill School, Kansas City, and asa result has long-standing associations withnumerous college admissions personnel.He has a bachelor’s degree in business ad-ministration and economics from the Uni-versity of Redlands in California and a mas-ter’s degree in history from the Universityof Missouri-Kansas City. ● Charlotte Klaar, CEP, College Consult-ing Services, Brunswick, Maryland: A self-employed educational consultant since1995, Klaar holds a B.A. degree from theUniversity of the State of New York and amaster’s in interdisciplinary science stud-ies from Johns Hopkins University. She iscurrently in a Ph.D. program in generalpsychology with an emphasis on familypsychology at William Paterson College inWayne, New Jersey, and also has a teach-ing certificate on the graduate level fromthe same institution. In addition to runningtwo separate educational consulting prac-tices, one in Maryland and one in Massa-chusetts, she shares her knowledge of theconsulting profession by teaching classes inthe UCLA Extension certificate program incollege counseling. ● Whitney Laughlin, Ed.D., WhitneyLaughlin Ed.D. Educational Consultant,Victoria, British Columbia, and Santa Fe,New Mexico: Laughlin began her educationalcareer in 1971 as an ESL and Spanish teacherin a Mayan village in Yucatan, Mexico. Sincethen, she has had an eclectic career in edu-cation, ranging from director of admissionsand financial aid to college counselor. Shealso is the director and founder of CollegeHorizons Program, a summer pre-graduate-school program for Native American col-lege students. She earned an Ed.D. degreein educational administration and nonprof-it management from the University of Cal-ifornia at Berkeley, an Ed.M. degree in ad-ministration, planning and social policy fromHarvard Graduate School of Education, andan M.A. in Spanish and women’s studies

Fun FactThe SAT test-prepara-

tion business is a $310million-a-year industry,according to Eduventures,

an education market researchfirm. And that number could risesince the SAT underwent exten-sive revisions in 2005. The nail-biting college entrance exam isnow 45 minutes longer than be-fore and has a maximum possiblescore of 2400, up from 1600.

from Goddard College in Plainfield, Ver-mont. Over the course of her 25 years ineducation, she has visited about 500 col-lege campuses. She founded her consult-ing business in 1996. ● W. Judge Mason, M.A., Judge Mason Ed-ucational Consultant, Sedona, Arizona: Aself-employed educational consultant since2001, Mason holds a bachelor’s degree inphilosophy from Yale and master’s degreesin East Asian studies from Harvard and inEnglish from Wayne State University in De-troit. He has decades of educational expe-rience, ranging from teaching at Interna-tional Christian University in Japan toserving as dean of students, academic deanand college counselor at various educationalinstitutions. He is a founding member of theSouthwest Boarding Schools and Western

Boarding Schools, and a member of thegoverning board of the IECA. ● Sarah Soule, Sarah Soule & Associates,Burlington, Vermont: Soule has more than20 years’ experience working with collegeapplicants, early in her career as the coor-dinator of group travels for the Northern Ver-mont Consortium of Colleges (for which shealso served as president) and now as direc-tor of school, college and community rela-tions at Vermont Commons School in SouthBurlington, Vermont. She was named Ad-missions Counselor of the Year in 1997 bythe New England Association of College Ad-missions Counselors and founded her part-time consulting business in 2003. She is agraduate of Johnson State College in John-son, Vermont, with a B.A. in English, andholds a certification in elementary education.

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your higher calling

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