Growing up, I was always a little embarrassed that my mom helped high school seniors get into college as a private college counselor. I was never embarrassed by her day job as a high school counselor on Long Island, where she helped her students gain admission to highly selective colleges for a salary.

Good Private College Counselors Help Students’ Dreams Come True

I suppose I was embarrassed by her booming private business for a couple of reasons: (1) I was aware that many people looked down upon private college counselors, and (2) I didn’t want anyone to think that she had a hand in my gaining admission to a highly selective college when that time came around.

Now, can I say with certainty that she didn’t have a hand in this despite my not allowing her to review my applications and essays? Of course not, because I grew up hearing about the ins and outs of the elite college admissions process during breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. It was ingrained in my DNA. But I tell you now — and this is meant in support of private college counselors and their kids everywhere — that insecure teenager was wrong to be embarrassed.

The Birth and Rise of Ivy Coach, An American Story

In the years since I was a kid, our family business, Ivy Coach, has taken off from my mom’s moonlighting side gig into the world’s premier private college counseling business. It’s a business that I’m immensely proud of. My mom is at the top of her field, and the firm she founded, Ivy Coach, has become a brand name with clients worldwide.

Some years ago, my mom helped a student expelled from West Point under the then-“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy gain admission to Stanford despite deficient grades. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, this made me very happy. It also makes me very happy that Ivy Coach works pro bono with many of America’s veterans each year to help them gain admission to the colleges of their dreams.

Good Private College Counselors Should Be Proud to Be in the Profession

To all qualified and good private college counselors everywhere (yes, there are bad ones, like in any profession) — you should be proud to have created successful American businesses and to be in the profession of helping make students’ dreams come true. You should be proud to be entrepreneurs pursuing your American dreams. Sure, you charge a fee for your expertise, but lawyers, plumbers, and dentists do, too.

To any high school counselor or college admissions officer who criticizes a private college counselor for charging a fee for their expert work, I dare to say this spirit is anti-American. It is against small businesses, the very building blocks of our nation. It belies the economic principles of supply and demand. It is against the American narrative, as I understand it. To any high school counselor or college admissions officer who criticizes a private college counselor for providing feedback on college essays, you don’t know how to write well because good writing is about rewriting — even for the most successful writers among us.

Private College Counselors Requires a Different Skillset

The fact is, there aren’t enough high school counselors with expertise in the highly selective college admissions process to go around. Heck, through no fault of their own, many school counselors are not even trained in the admissions process. They instead receive training in crisis intervention and case management for home-instructed students. Likewise, many former college admissions officers do not fully understand the admissions process from the other side of the desk. Just because they could admit students doesn’t mean they know how to beat that system at its own game. At Ivy Coach, we train our former admissions officers to beat an unfair system at an unfair game — fairly and ethically.

After all, there is a need for good private college counselors. It’s why people seek them out year after year. The good ones relieve stress and help fix mistakes that can negatively impact a student’s case for admission. It’s why, at Ivy Coach, we always get the siblings. We usually get the cousins. But we rarely get the friends. Because parents don’t want to acknowledge their children had help earning admission to the college of their dreams. And that’s ok!

So, to any high school counselor or admissions officer who looks down on private college counselors (and there are many of you), you’ve got that right. But so too does my mom and all of the former admissions officers turned private college counselors at Ivy Coach — as well as all of the good private college counselors around the country — to be proud to be in the profession.