These Parents Are Willing to Pay Up to $15,000 to Get Their Kids Into High School

cawacko said:
I'm sorry for continuing to respond to this, this isn't out of malice but true intrigue. In San Francisco, outside of Lowell, we don't have the elite merit based public schools a place like NYC does. So everyone sends their kids to private school. At least within my circle of acquaintances, where you're going to send your kid to school comes up a lot in discussions including are you using a consultant or anything else to try and help.

Being SF, it's not uncommon to hear a fair amount of anti-Trump rhetoric in these types of conversations as well. But never have I heard anyone say Barron Trump went to private school.

Where does that come from? My wife often asks how my brain works. I'm asking you the same question here.
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Trump claims to be an anti-elitest, private school is the epitome of elitism. I know, I went to them until I could make my own choice.
 
Matt Dillon said:
Would not need it. That's a bit of a racket there.
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It is not a question of need, but rather want. A good pre-school feeds into good schools, which feed into... on and on.

It all seems a little intense to me. Teaching a four year old to be bilingual, or to read and write, just seems too intense. But there are other people willing to pay big money for it to happen.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
It's far more important that the teacher / professor knows their shit inside and out and can convey that to the students, particularly gradual (no, I didn't misspell that) students, than it is that the school have cutting edge 'stuff' and technology.
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By the time you are getting a PhD, it is not so much about being taught "shit" by teachers, as doing your own research and learning something that no one knew before.
 
Walt said:
By the time you are getting a PhD, it is not so much about being taught "shit" by teachers, as doing your own research and learning something that no one knew before.
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Or, just writing a half-assed dissertation / thesis like "Doctor" Jill Biden did...
 
archives said:
Look at the Trojans, sneak by ND, beat Oregon, take care of business, little help from Penn State, and who knows
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Just finished watching the Niners lose. That sucked.

Yeah, huge win yesterday. We needed that as a program. The Coliseum was rocking there were a massive number of recruits there.

That said, I'm not getting ahead of myself. For starters we haven't won in South Bend since 2011 (I went two years ago and they just spanked us).

I'm hopeful but my expectations weren't high at the start of the year and I haven't deviated from that.

(As an aside, pretty crazy Penn State was like one play away from the National Title game and Pre season #2 and fired their coach 7 games into the season.)
 
cawacko said:
Just finished watching the Niners lose. That sucked.

Yeah, huge win yesterday. We needed that as a program. The Coliseum was rocking there were a massive number of recruits there.

That said, I'm not getting ahead of myself. For starters we haven't won in South Bend since 2011 (I went two years ago and they just spanked us).

I'm hopeful but my expectations weren't high at the start of the year and I haven't deviated from that.

(As an aside, pretty crazy Penn State was like one play away from the National Title game and Pre season #2 and fired their coach 7 games into the season.)
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That’s not showing optimism, expectations not being high. Not saying they are going to make the conference playoffs, don’t think they can minus an OSU Indiana upset, but not as remote an idea as it was in August

Been to South Bend twice, but not in a decade, I liked it, first time I was there no video screens, no piped in music, no elaborate scoreboards, one announcer, old fashion football, people were focused on the game. Last time they had added one TV screen, but the band was still the only music

Penn State has shown they aren’t very good, and Oregon may have been severely over rated, neither team has really beaten anyone of significance
 
archives said:
That’s not showing optimism, expectations not being high. Not saying they are going to make the conference playoffs, don’t think they can minus an OSU Indiana upset, but not as remote an idea as it was in August

Been to South Bend twice, but not in a decade, I liked it, first time I was there no video screens, no piped in music, no elaborate scoreboards, one announcer, old fashion football, people were focused on the game. Last time they had added one TV screen, but the band was still the only music

Penn State has shown they aren’t very good, and Oregon may have been severely over rated, neither team has really beaten anyone of significance
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I've been to four games in South Bend. We're 1 - 3. I remember vividly my first time on campus and seeing these long lines outside the stadium. I thought they were people in line for drinks. Instead they waiting to go into chapel to pray. I was like "we don't stand a chance".

And yes, many games today sound like you're at a rave event with a DJ. Notre Dame is old school and doesn't do that and I'm a fan for that.

Outside of Ohio State, and even they aren't unbeatable, there are no dominant teams. I think N.I.L. and the transfer portal have changed the game in that regard. You're right, with Penn State falling apart Oregon hasn't beaten anyone. And we're the only ranked team remaining on their schedule.
 
cawacko said:
I've been to four games in South Bend. We're 1 - 3. I remember vividly my first time on campus and seeing these long lines outside the stadium. I thought they were people in line for drinks. Instead they waiting to go into chapel to pray. I was like "we don't stand a chance".

And yes, many games today sound like you're at a rave event with a DJ. Notre Dame is old school and doesn't do that and I'm a fan for that.

Outside of Ohio State, and even they aren't unbeatable, there are no dominant teams. I think N.I.L. and the transfer portal have changed the game in that regard. You're right, with Penn State falling apart Oregon hasn't beaten anyone. And we're the only ranked team remaining on their schedule.
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Ah, no, Indiana is for real, and the dominance by the SEC teams proves money still talks.

Have you notice the high percentage of transfers on the dozen or so dominate teams that were coming from traditional but now less successful programs. The established path of recruiting freshman to build a program is antiquated, Clemson is proving that, now every year is free agency. Don’t be surprised if you see some players playing four and five years with four or five different teams

As I’ve been prophesying, a decade from now there will be one super conference of say sixteen teams, and if there is one private school, which is doubtful, it will be ND.
 
archives said:
Ah, no, Indiana is for real, and the dominance by the SEC teams proves money still talks.

Have you notice the high percentage of transfers on the dozen or so dominate teams that were coming from traditional but now less successful programs. The established path of recruiting freshman to build a program is antiquated, Clemson is proving that, now every year is free agency. Don’t be surprised if you see some players playing four and five years with four or five different teams

As I’ve been prophesying, a decade from now there will be one super conference of say sixteen teams, and if there is one private school, which is doubtful, it will be ND.
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In 2024, one SEC team made the 4 team playoff and lost in the semi-final. Washington - Michigan was the National Championship. Last year one SEC team (Texas, who is a newby) was the only SEC team in the Final Four and the championship game was two non SEC teams. The SEC isn't going anywhere but they're strength lied in part to paying players under the table. That advantage is now gone.

These crazy transfer rules, like you said kids playing for three or even four schools, makes it difficult to build cohesion. And yes, everyone is essentially a free agent every year. Some call it player empowerment but I don't think it's a good thing.

If there's one conference and essentially everyone makes the playoffs... I don't think there's demand for that.
 
hilarious that Cawacko the "moderate" chastised Veruca for taking his thread off topic and proceeds to yammer about college football. I believe there is a sports section on JPP just for that if I am not mistaken
 
cawacko said:
I have friend's who have paid thousands for consultants like this. On one hand it's mind blowing, but at the same time we'll do anything for our kids. Since this board is dominated by Boomers, I'm guessing most of you didn't see anything like this growing up.



These Parents Are Willing to Pay Up to $15,000 to Get Their Kids Into High School​


Getting into high school—private and public—is more competitive than ever. Parents are paying up.​


There are the parents who want to know what the “magic number” is to donate to guarantee admission. The moms who ask whether a friend-of-a-friend should put in a good word. The dads who call shortly before decisions are released asking, What will it take to get the deal done? The parents whose behavior was so crass that Los Angeles school consultant Sandy Eiges added a clause in her contract stating that the use of profanity could terminate their working relationship.

All this is to get eighth graders into high school.

“I don’t mince words,” said Eiges, owner and founder of L.A. School Scout, which guides families through K-12 school admissions. “That’s part of what they’re paying me for—to get them through this successfully.” Eiges wouldn’t disclose her fee but said that consultants in L.A. typically charge between $5,000 and $10,000 for their services. That is on top of annual school tuition that can range from $25,000 to $50,000, she said.

Getting into high school has become a brutal competition for many families. Across the country, school choice for public and private institutions has surged amid expanded access to vouchers, educational savings accounts and Covid-era learning loss. There are a large number of high school options there to fill that gap, but the systems and admissions are difficult to navigate–not to mention competitive. Freaked-out parents are paying up.

New York City is widely considered the most competitive and confusing market. This week, middle schoolers received random lottery numbers that determine their priority in public school admissions. The system includes four different types of schools: the lottery schools, charter schools, specialized schools that require a test, and then arts schools that require an audition. Private schools are a whole other story.

Consultants are charging accordingly, with fees of more than $200 per hour for a la carte services or between $5,000 to $15,000 for someone to manage the entire application process. That unlimited access includes a curated list of “best-fit” schools, interview preparation for the parents and students, essay guidance and deadline management.

“Navigating high-school admissions can feel as overwhelming as college admissions,” said Whitney Shashou, founder and CEO of Admit NY, which creates bespoke plans for clients and offers tutoring for high-school entrance exams. Packages at Admit NY typically range from the low thousands to the mid-teens, depending on the student’s age and the level of support, Shashou said.

For parents interested in private school, clients should expect to pay between 10% to 25% of the child’s annual tuition for the firm’s services, she said.

Laurie and Stephen McCarthy hired Brooklyn-based schools consultant Joyce Szuflita to guide them through high school admissions for their son Thomas in fall 2023. Laurie said she could have spent six months trying to figure out the best options, but within two hours Szuflita gave them “the real scoop in real time,” pointing out schools that “weren’t on our radar.” They paid $560 for a two-hour Zoom and left the meeting with 15-20 schools to investigate.

“It was money well spent,” Laurie McCarthy said. Their son ended up at a Catholic school, Regis High School.

Test prep has also become bespoke. Nicholas LaPoma, founder of the Long Island-based test prep company Curvebreakers, said that when he started as a test prep tutor during law school in Manhattan in 2011, it was “straightforward.” They taught strategies, evaluated their students’ weaknesses over several weeks and then focused on where to improve.

Now testing software and AI offers targeted diagnostics in minutes after taking a practice test online. The contrast LaPoma sees between then and now is stark.

Said LaPoma, “We knew it was important then, but it didn’t seem to be the wild pressure cooker situation it is now.”

After Covid, Amy Seeley’s Cleveland test-prep business went “all in on eighth graders” and expanded to Cincinnati, which has a “booming high-school admissions test-prep business.”

Covid was an eye-opening experience for a lot of parents, she said, and independent schools received a surge of interest. Seeley has seen a rise in her firm’s high-school business, which prepared about 100 students in 2020 and now has nearly 400. Another boon to the business: Families that live in cities like New York, where test-prep tutors can charge an average of $200 per session, realized they can hire Seeley’s firm, which charges $100 no matter where the client is based and holds virtual tutoring sessions.

The number of students who use vouchers, public funds to subsidize private schools, increased by 25% nationwide between 2024 to 2025, according to EdChoice, an education advocacy organization. And the number of students who registered for the private-school entrance exam known as the ISEE (aka, the Independent School Entrance Exam) increased 8.6% from the 2023-2024 school year to 2024-2025, according to Mike Flanagan, the chief executive of E3n, an organization that provides data insights to independent schools. He added, registrations across the ISEE and SSAT (the Secondary School Admission Test), another entrance exam, have increased 2.2% over the past five years.

The only involvement Tina Singh had in her daughter’s private high-school search last year was to interview educational consultants and hire one.

“I’m very judgemental and my Indian-mom brain is conditioned to want rank, prestige and status,” said Singh, of Mercer Island, Wash., a wealthy Seattle suburb known for quality public schools, adding those weren’t important factors for her daughter. “I knew having an independent person guiding the process would lead to our daughter getting what she wanted.”

Singh paid $3,000 for her daughter Roop to have unlimited access to Christy Haven, owner of Mindful Education Consulting in Mercer Island. Roop attended public middle school but wanted to switch to private high school to ensure she’d be “in an environment where people around her were serious students.”

Roop applied to two schools and was accepted to both.

“We had peace in the household and that is worth more than the money we spent,” Singh said.

Consultants train parents on how to authentically boast about a child’s academics and social-emotional health. “What you say about your child should match what teachers are going to say,” said Haven, who charges $3,000 for unlimited access to her, or $300 per hour. “If you don’t, schools either think you don’t know your kid or you’re lying.”

They also help their kids write their admissions essays, though they say they simply help them “find their voice,” not write the essays.

The hardest part, consultants say, is ridding parents of the notion they must get their kid into a “name-brand” school. Shashou said parents increasingly viewed high school as setting their kids up “on the right path for school—and for life.”

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Completely asinine.
 
cawacko said:
In 2024, one SEC team made the 4 team playoff and lost in the semi-final. Washington - Michigan was the National Championship. Last year one SEC team (Texas, who is a newby) was the only SEC team in the Final Four and the championship game was two non SEC teams. The SEC isn't going anywhere but they're strength lied in part to paying players under the table. That advantage is now gone.

These crazy transfer rules, like you said kids playing for three or even four schools, makes it difficult to build cohesion. And yes, everyone is essentially a free agent every year. Some call it player empowerment but I don't think it's a good thing.

If there's one conference and essentially everyone makes the playoffs... I don't think there's demand for that.
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I don’t know, if the playoff teams were announced tomorrow they would easily dominate the selections, and the more NIL evolves and cost the schools more, they and the very top of the Big 10 will ascend

What makes you think there will still be a playoff other than within the league itself. And it will sell, majority of those SEC teams are their State’s team, there will be an audience
 
archives said:
I don’t know, if the playoff teams were announced tomorrow they would easily dominate the selections, and the more NIL evolves and cost the schools more, they and the very top of the Big 10 will ascend

What makes you think there will still be a playoff other than within the league itself. And it will sell, majority of those SEC teams are their State’s team, there will be an audience
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If they expand the playoff field (which these idiots are trying to do) and make the number of teams who can qualify smaller, I don't think the sport will have the same level of interest at a certain point.
 
cawacko said:
If they expand the playoff field (which these idiots are trying to do) and make the number of teams who can qualify smaller, I don't think the sport will have the same level of interest at a certain point.
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Perhaps, but they will draw a substantial audience, and unless the NFL moves into Saturdays, it will be the only game in town
 
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