A college counselor said a parent offered him $1.5 million to deny service to their child’s classmates — highlighting the cut-throat battle for Ivy League admissions

By Jordan Hart | Sep 19, 2023, 4:53 AM EDT

It’s not enough for some ultra-wealthy parents to send their children exclusive high schools with just a hope that they’ll go on to Ivy League colleges.

Some parents are willing to pay nearly $1 million to try to ensure an acceptance letter to Harvard or Princeton.

Christopher Rim, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Command Education, charges parents $750,000 for six years of his company’s college counseling services, Bloomberg reported.

One particular parent from New York’s Trinity School offered Rim $1.5 million to take on their child exclusively — and deny his services to the student’s classmates, Rim said.

It happens “quite a lot,” Rim told Insider.

“A lot of families ask, ‘Chris can we buy out every single seat?’ It’s a little bit overwhelming,” Rim said.

It’s not a request Command Education honors as the company often sticks with clients for years — starting in seventh or eighth grade for some. According to Rim, these wealthy parents don’t give a second thought to spending six figures per year on their child’s education.

His fee is more than the average starter home, but Rim says Command Education isn’t the priciest firm in the industry. And, some parents offer even more in the hopes of securing their child’s admission to an Ivy League school.

Most of them, Rim told Insider, spend 12 years paying $60,000 or more for private school tuition, so spending $750,000 for their seventh grader to be ready for Harvard or Yale is a “no brainer.”

Full-time employees at Command Education are on duty to provide mentorship, tutoring, and send texts reminding students to turn in their math homework.

But Rim doesn’t guarantee admission to an Ivy. Acceptance rates for Ivy Day 2023 were at record lows, New York Post reported. Both Harvard and Columbia accepted less than 4% of applicants for the graduating class of 2027.

Competitiveness comes from students vying for spots in the same handful of prestigious schools that include Ivies like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton — and others like Stanford and MIT.

Rim said Command Education often sells out of its less than 200 slots for clients.

Originally published on Business Insider on Sep 19, 2023