Fit in College Admissions Counseling

We love a good snickerdoodle cookie. Who doesn’t (photo credit: Visitor7).

Fit matters in college admissions counseling.

When you go into a small, family owned and operated bakery, you can bet that Ma and Pa behind the counter want you to make a purchase. Maybe they want you to buy the fresh cheesecake — whether you’re hungry for a cheesecake or not. Or maybe they want you to take home some snickerdoodle cookies. And while Ivy Coach is also a family owned and operated business with wonderful folks who work alongside us, we don’t share the philosophy of Ma and Pa at the bakery. In fact, we never want anyone to work with us as clients unless they really want to work with us. Read that sentence again. It makes sense even if you think it makes absolutely no sense.

If we’re not the right fit for a potential client, we’ll tell them. And, frankly, if they think about it, they should find it refreshing.

We want people who want us, who know the value-add Ivy Coach brings to helping students earn admission to the colleges of their dream. We won’t convince. We won’t sell. We won’t even — not once — follow up after a free consultation unless that person contacts us. And if during a free consultation we decide that a particular parent or student wouldn’t be much fun to work with (e.g., if they’re too demanding, unkind, have unreasonable expectations, etc.), we’ll suggest, “We’re not the right fit.” Sometimes this surprises parents…”What do you mean you’re not the right fit? I am a potential client! Convince me.” That’s right. We have the right to work with the folks whom we so choose and it is our longstanding policy at Ivy Coach, one that dates back to the early years of Bill Clinton’s presidency and one that has served us well, to only work with nice people, to only work with people we enjoy.

So while we realize saying that we’re not the right fit may rub some folks the wrong way, think about it this way: we’re not asking for your money. We’re not trying to sway you to work with us. We’re saying go elsewhere, where you might be able to find a better fit — which we have every right to suggest even if it is unusual. There’s an expression out there in the universe that the customer is always right. It’s not so. Often times, the customer, the client, is not right and they think they can do anything or say anything to a business to get the business to submit to their every wish. But they are wrong to think so.