Inside the Admissions Office: Advice from Former Admissions Officers

If you’re looking for a resource illustrating how the meritocracy has been twisted into a caste system, this podcast is for you! The consultants definitely seem knowledgeable about how to make bright and hardworking normal teenagers from the top 1% (or, more likely, 0.5%) into products elite colleges will like. Pro tips such as how to get a great letter of recommendation from the guidance counselor at your private prep school are precious. If you have the money for elite colleges that offer no merit aid, plus for consultants like these, you’re at the right place. Listen and be impressed with how they can turn your 16-18 year old kid into an ambitious leader with burning, erudite, and altruistic passions—on paper, at least. Of course, armed with these lessons, absolutely nothing is stopping the rest of us from similarly mapping out our kids’ high school careers and ensuring their general teenage interests and talents are connected with laser-precision focus to activities at, for example, a Wharton School summer program or a nonprofit they establish. Such efforts might pay off with some good merit aid at less selective schools. Or, if you’re lower income, apply the lessons here as best you can in hopes your child will benefit from the generous need-based scholarships that elite schools offer in order to justify the outrageous tax expenditures their endowments cost us wage slaves as they focus mostly on the children of the elite. Like NYU business professor Scott Galloway says, top colleges have become luxury brands with artificial exclusivity. This is a game. Listen and learn how to play or, better yet, who you might want to hire to walk you through it.

These fake interviews between a human and a robot script hurt to listen to. This is not a good look for InGenius. Please bring back an actual host and let us hear a real conversation.

Be perfect in every way, know exactly what you want to study, create a brand out of your teenager. There, now you can avoid the host’s saccharine call center voice because I summed it up for you.

Amazing episode answering questions that ALL students in search of a passion project have!! So appreciate your hard work!