The path to the nation’s most selective colleges is crowded with entrepreneurs—independent consultants, test-preparation companies, and publishers of a zillion guides. They peddle information and insight, along with strategies for unlocking coveted gates. Recently, Howard Yaruss decided to join them.
Mr. Yaruss is the founder of the Application Project Inc., which sells copies of successful applications to Ivy League colleges. Want to browse applications submitted by 21 members of Brown University’s 2009-10 freshman class? You can buy access to them for $19.99 on the company’s Web site, WeGotIn.net. For the same price, you can see applications filed by 14 members of the 2009-10 freshman class at Columbia University. Or you can buy both sets for $34.99.
It’s all in the name of transparency, says Mr. Yaruss, who touts his new service a way to show students what successful applications look like—and what admissions officers look for when they evaluate them. Seeing how accepted applicants presented themselves, he says, can help high-school students, especially those who lack affluence, college savvy, and knowledgeable counselors.
“It’s the one remaining part of the process that’s shrouded in mystery,” Mr. Yaruss says. “Students spend thousands of dollars preparing for the SAT. We’re offering this for the cost of a trade paperback.”
Copies of the applications contain the entire response to each question, including essay and short-answer prompts. Personal data— names, addresses, and social-security numbers—are removed. The company obtains the copies directly from students, who are asked to submit their application via their college e-mail accounts as proof of their enrollment. So far, the company’s database of applications includes only Brown and Columbia, but Mr. Yaruss plans to expand it to all Ivy League institutions, as well as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2011.
Mr. Yaruss, 52, earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown and later became a lawyer. He worked in the financial-services industry for nearly two decades before starting the Application Project last year. The company has advertised on U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings Web site , and through Facebook and Google. Since WeGotIn.net went live earlier this fall, traffic has been “excellent,” says Mr. Yaruss, but he declines to disclose the total number of customers. After all, this is a business.
One can only assume that this business will grow. In some circles (like Manhattan, where Mr. Yaruss is based), fretting about Ivy League colleges is a fever, and people are always seeking a cure. A tip, a clue—anything that might help raise the odds of getting an acceptance letter—is always in demand. What Mr. Yaruss promises is a peek behind the complex curtain of holistic admissions reviews.
The catch, of course, is that an accepted student’s application is only a document, which may or may not reveal the why of any student’s acceptance. It’s not like a winning lottery ticket or a mathematical equation, in which the numbers must line up exactly. Studying an application might tell you some things, but not others, like the applicant’s family background and income, the number of other students who applied from his or her high school or home state, the probing question he or she asked (or didn’t) during an admissions interview, or whether his or her unique talents and interests were in demand at a given college in a given year—or a 100 other factors.
That’s why a few admissions counselors who saw the WeGotIn.net on Thursday could only scoff. “An application out of context has no value, and it’s disingenuous at best to imply that it does,” said Willard M. Dix, an independent counselor in Chicago who works with low-income students. “But there’s a sucker born every minute. Sites like this clearly know that.”
Alice Kleeman, a college counselor at Menlo-Atherton High School, in California, calls the service “revolting.” She suspects that the site might cause students to think they have no chance if they happen to lack the academic records, personal experiences, and writing abilities of students who were accepted.
Ms. Kleeman also thinks there’s a high likelihood of abuse. “Even if students have the integrity not to simply lift responses from these apps, the site could also have the potential of causing students to believe they should submit something just like these apps, rather than their own authentic app,” Ms. Kleeman says. “I would hate to see my students spending money for something like this.”
Mr. Yaruss, who says he has already encountered some “hostility” in the admissions realm, suspects more criticism will come. But he’s been pleased by the response from the people whose help he needs most—college students. He has solicited their applications by contacting them through Facebook. His pitch: sharing them would help other students who aspire to attend elite colleges.
But the company also provides a financial incentive. Each student who shared his or her application was paid (two received $100, and the others received less), which seems only fair. Why shouldn’t students make a little money on this venture, too?
21 Responses to For Sale: Successful Ivy League Applications—Only $19.99
11147066 - October 15, 2010 at 8:22 am
I can not think of a better choice of words than Ms. Kleeman’s, “revolting.” This enterprise is blatantly exploitative. Furthermore, I find it equally revolting that admitted students agreed to sell their applications to this service. In fact, I would add that it says much about the supposedly rigorous and selective admissions process at these “selective” schools, Students screened so carefully for the prize of admission to these institutions turn out to be among those who are willing to participate in this deceptive game, for a price!
The admissions deans of these universities might wish to comment on this irony. At the very least they should issue a statement that they will be vigilant in assuring that materials learned from these applications which appear, albeit in a modified form, will be viewed with suspicion and cause those applicants consulting them to be rejected.
Emily
sharonmurphy - October 15, 2010 at 9:45 am
Why should we be surprised? The past decade alone provides ample evidence that lying and cheating are practiced, condoned and even encouraged at the highest levels. Voting is rigged and the Supreme Court endorses it. Financial institutions rig their books and their CEOs are rarely prosecuted. A President lies us into war and doesn’t even get his hands slapped. Would-be students have learned to do whatever it takes, dishonest of not, to get what they and their equally conniving parents want. And college admissions officers do what it takes to fill their freshman classes, while professors are expected to do what it takes to retain students, even if that means lowering standards. Now that’s revolting.
dvacchi - October 15, 2010 at 10:00 am
sharonmurphy has overreacted a little bit to this (If you review the facts Bush, while not very intelligent, didn’t lie us into war, he just got us into the wars and we all wet along in th name of patriotism)- but it is sad that Mr. Yarus would develop this busiess, particularly in light of the fact that he’s a product of Brown, which is clearly exploitative as 11147066 points out.
The greater question is, why there is a market for this, as clearly Yarus is one of legions exploiting here. The greater questions might be is the application process the most rigorous event during undergraduate tenure at an Ivy and why are highly selective non-Ivys not singled out as well? With some highly questionable thinkers and graduates (as the hysterical sharonmurphy points out) like GW Bush, why are the Ivys still revered? Because they can afford to be exclusive/selective?
swilli01 - October 15, 2010 at 10:18 am
No… Bush lied…
dank48 - October 15, 2010 at 10:31 am
The “selective” schools under discussion are the ruling class’s means of protecting their young from having to interact with commoners at large, vulgar state schools. Why would anyone expect morality, ethics, decency, integrity, or honesty from this system?
Corruption is corruption, and corruption leads only to more corruption. Mr. Yarus seems to have learned his lessons well.
lasaunders - October 15, 2010 at 10:33 am
Perhaps admissions departments could be more transparent about how they make their decisions. Clearly there is a market for this service because the admissions process is kept hidden.
d10011 - October 15, 2010 at 5:05 pm
People pay thousands of dollars for high priced consultants to help their kids write just one essay- where are the complaints about that? I think this wegotin.net site is really amazing, giving applicants who don’t come from families with lots of financial resources a chance in a hyper competitive process. The application has all the info in it- the scores, the short essays, etc… being able to see the type of person the school is looking for I would think is enormously helpful. I got into Columbia- if I had had the chance when I was applying I would definitely have wanted to see these apps! I can’t believe no one has done this before- it seems like a project that has a real social good.
_perplexed_ - October 15, 2010 at 5:44 pm
“…it seems like a project that has a real social good.”
This is a real social good? No wonder the country is falling apart and all most folks can think to do is grab what they can when a piece falls their way…
And if d10011 thinks I don’t have “complaints” about essay pay-to-write consultants Columbia has another sin to confess.
yaruss - October 15, 2010 at 7:04 pm
The goal of the service is to shed light on the one key component of the admissions process that remains shrouded in secrecy. By doing this, we hope to level the playing field for admissions to selective schools for students from families with modest means.
Privileged students have access to all sorts of resources – money for courses aimed at increasing their SAT scores, assistance in school to help them get better grades, and a network that will help them present themselves in the best possible way. Others, such as myself growing up, have none of this. By shedding light on the application process, we hope to, in some small way, narrow the advantages that come with a privileged background.
Seeing these completed applications will merely give them a sense of how the questions were answered successfully in the past, i.e., how much to write, the tone of voice, what subjects are appropriate, etc. These are the things on which privileged students receive all sorts of expert advice. I am very saddened that people have such trouble with helping students who cannot afford thousands of dollars for other types of assistance.
willardmdix - October 15, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Horse doody, Mr. Yaruss. You’re in it to make money from privileged kids and families who will do anything, it seems, to find that elusive “edge” that will get them to the gold ring. Selling “real” applications does nothing to shed light on anything except your bank account. Your crocodile tears for the poor avail you nothing, in my estimation.
An application out of context, as I said above, is meaningless. Colleges look at the whole pool of applicants, assess what their needs are for the year (quarterbacks, opera singers, mathematics geniuses, students of color, etc.) and then put a class together over time. What might have been a perfect fit last year may be literally yesterday’s news this year. Providing a complete successful application is really promoting the illusion of an easy way to college. You’re selling snake oil, sir, and I only wish that people weren’t desperate enough to buy what you’re offering.
afountain - October 16, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Let’s get this straight – Mr. Yaruss pays each college student $100 or less for his or her intellectual property, and then makes $19-$35 PER DOWNLOAD of that property? I agree with Ms. Kleeman in the Chronicle who called this business “revolting.” High school students would be better off reading essays for FREE on any number of real college websites:
http://admissions.tufts.edu/?pid=195
http://www.jhu.edu/admis/apply/essays.html
http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/essays.htm
http://www.hamilton.edu/magazine/alumni-review-fall-2003/essays-that-worked
http://my.hamilton.edu/magazine/alumni-review-summer-2008/more-essays-that-worked
suedeoasis - October 17, 2010 at 5:45 am
Sounds like an excellent idea to me, merely responding to market forces. I shall make enquiries and see if I can use the same idea in my part of the world!
amnirov - October 17, 2010 at 10:28 am
Fair’s fair. There’s no reason why this sort of material shouldn’t be publicly available. If the idea is called “revolting” it’s only by someone who fears that a lot of students who clearly should not have any hope at all will be truthed while still on her watch. Wake up. If your precious little snowflake does not have “the academic records, personal experiences, and writing abilities of students who were accepted,” then your precious little snowflake isn’t getting in. The Ivy League is for elite students only. And that’s how it should be.
cartesian - October 17, 2010 at 11:31 am
“Perhaps admissions departments could be more transparent about how they make their decisions. Clearly there is a market for this service because the admissions process is kept hidden.”
To be honest, any experienced college counselor (and anyone who went to a top-notch high school where many people get into great schools) can tell you how to get into a top-notch college (let’s define that as Ivy League + top 25 liberal arts colleges + Ivy equivalents like Chicago, Georgetown, MIT, Stanford, and CalTech).
1. Be in the top 10% of your graduating class. Accomplish this by taking a wide variety of challenging courses.
2. Have 1-2 extracurricular activities in which you took leadership roles and, ideally, championed some significant improvement on the organization. Even better, start your own organization that has some meaningful purpose.
3. Have excellent letters of recommendation. Get these by consistently impressing your teachers from the beginning of your high school career. Talk to them after class. Take a genuine interest in your coursework.
4. (And this is the most important part): Through your extracurricular activities, electives, and professed favorite classes, create a coherent narrative that culminates in your attending the school to which you are applying. This means doing research on the specific school, so that you can articulate why that school’s culture and academic focus fits you. Are you a politics nerd? Did you participate in student government and maybe even volunteer for your local congressperson’s campaign? Did you take government electives and score well on the relevant AP exams? Georgetown would be a great choice for you.
5. Of course, do well on standardized tests and present a polished, professional application.
That’s about it, folks. Of course, having legacy/family money can help, but people really overestimate the extent to which these factors prevent others from getting in. There are relatively few people getting legacy spots, so just don’t worry about that.
Finally, remember how many hundreds of wonderful colleges and universities this country has. I am at a top 10 PhD program and my cohort comes from Georgetown, Cornell, Bard, and the University of Wyoming, to name a few. There are many paths to the top of your personal mountain.
knarnie - October 18, 2010 at 12:52 am
The best schools with the best faculty try to admit the best students, so it seems a little sad that not-so-smart students are trying to get in without really being genuinely the right stuff.
jsummer - October 18, 2010 at 9:58 am
When we teach our students, we often use examples of the good and the bad. One of the first pieces of advice that I received when a new faculty member was to offer to sit on an NSF review panel. Why – so that I could see what makes a good (and a bad) proposal. Why should we not also do the same thing with applications? I believe that it would be educational and informative for the schools themselves to expose portions of successful and unsuccessful applications with explanations for why different things worked. This, of course, presupposes that there is actual method to the madness.
bmljenny - October 18, 2010 at 10:16 am
The only thing I find surprising about this is how affordable the applications are given the incredible prices for anything else college-prep related.
richie_rich - October 18, 2010 at 11:44 am
Imagine that. Colleges that encourage applicants from students with little or no chance of admission to react with contempt when those students act in kind with another service.
If you are an admission staffer and don’t tell a student the probability of admission based on some key factors you have no, I repeat no, moral ground to critisize. Colleges want to be selective but don’t want students to game the system. Really?
weilunion - October 18, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Another parasite looking for a host. See how they work in the for-profit level.
Danny Weil
http://www.truth-out.org/neoliberalism-and-for-profit-predatory-educational-industry-you-cant-regulate-a-criminal-enterprise6
Truthout.com
These peddlers of despair do nothing but fleece students in an effort, as Dank says, for the ruling class to continue to profit. Like vultures they lie in wait for our most vulnerable students, many who will never work under this economy.
Danny Weil
gahnett - October 19, 2010 at 6:18 pm
I think the idea is good but making it a for-profit venture is distasteful.
Why don’t the parents of college entrants encourage their kids to post the applications anonymously somewhere for free?
As for applications out of context…well, it is what it is and if one accepts it for what it is, one can decide whatever the benefits are. The more you see, I’m sure one can begin to figure out underlying patterns to mimic for their own applications.
yaruss - November 5, 2010 at 10:50 am
Press Release:
WEGOTIN.NET ANNOUNCES ALL PROFITS WILL BE DONATED TO COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS
WeGotIn.Net, a web-based service which offers copies of actual, accepted applications to Ivy League colleges, is pleased to announce a policy that will further the mission for which it was founded – to help level the playing field for admission to selective colleges. Under the new policy, 100% of WeGotIn.Net’s profits will be donated to scholarship funds at the colleges for which it sells applications.
Howard Yaruss, the site’s founder, stated, “The primary motivation for starting WeGotIn.Net was to shed light on the college application process and, in doing so, help students from less privileged backgrounds – specifically the ones without a network of friends, family and advisors who are familiar with selective college admissions. This new policy will promote that goal.” He also noted that the company will also be looking at other steps it can take to help level the playing field for admissions.
Additionally, access to the applications will continue to be offered at no charge to students who cannot afford the $19.99 fee.