EDUCATION...MISSION ADMISSION

The pressure to gain acceptance to select schools makes parents turn to pricey consultants who can write college essays and script interviews

In the summer of 2006, Kabir S Bedi graduated from school in Delhi and scored high marks in his CBSE class XII examinations. Like many Indian students, he had set aside his extracurriculars in the years leading up to his board exam, making him a less attractive applicant for the top Ivy Schools in the United States. For help in creating a well-rounded application that would enable his admission into his dream school, the University of Pennsylvania, he approached Eduabroad consulting services. On their recommendation he took a gap year, retook his SAT, attended a private college in Delhi where he would get credits he could transfer to his undergraduate degree, and revived his extracurricular activities: played polo, learnt fencing, worked at an AIDS NGO and took Shiamak Davar’s dance lessons. In May 2011, Bedi graduated Magna Cum Laude at UPenn and has recently started working with Ernst & Young in Washington DC. Thousands of applicants across India aspiring to an international education approach college consulting services who promise to mould them into well-rounded, over-achieving, model students. Now ubiquitous, consultants perform a host of services — everything from writing the clients’ college essays from scratch to encouraging extracurricular activities and even coaching students for interviews. Increasingly, a well-heeled group of parents is willing to pay the sky to better their children’s chances at admission; ranging from Rs 10,000 to 15,000 for a single meeting to Rs 35,000 for a full package of services. Pratiba Jain of Eduabroad, a consulting service based in Mumbai, feels that the business of education consulting — in particular preparing children for foreign education — has grown multifold in the past few years. “My own firm, has grown more than 40 per cent each year in the last two to three years,” says Jain. However, numerous firms indulge in questionable practices and this has encouraged the alumni of reputed colleges in the UK and US to start consulting services upon returning to India. Having been through the admissions process themselves, these students claim inside knowledge of the admissions process. Two recent graduates from the University of Oxford, Amay Ruia and Gayeti Singh, started Varsity Consulting in Mumbai and Delhi, in a bid to provide an alternative to the run of the mill consulting services. “Since there are more students going abroad now, there are a higher number of education consultants. In the UK alone, the number of Indian students has doubled in the last decade,” says Ruia. “However, there is a dearth of quality education consultancies that offer a more focused and personalised approach.” R² Admissions Consulting is another consultancy based in Mumbai started by recent college alumni, Georgetown graduate Roisin Pelley and Russel Mason, an alumni of Harvard University. Being American nationals who graduated from top-tier universities and with experience in admissions offices, they saw an opportunity to offer their experience to others with the same aspirations. While there are viable alternatives being created, it is often difficult for the uninitiated to know whom they can trust to guide them through this crucial decision. While choosing a college is a critical decision in a student’s academic and professional life, a consulting service can sometimes actually be detrimental to the process. The aggressive practices of consultants have received an uneasy response both from American colleges and high school teachers. “In a truly international school that is preparing students for college, there must be a college counsellor within the school,” says Michael J Thomson, director at Mercedes-Benz International School in Pune. “The advice that students receive is then neutral; there is no vested interests. Up to 60 North American colleges come to Pune through places like the Council of International Schools — they advertise their schools and interview candidates.” This, he points out, allows students to have a direct relationship with the admissions officer with no middleman intervening.
• (NEHA THIRANI TOICREST 5N1111)