Canadian parents are paying consultants to help get their kids into top universities | Canada Voices

Luisa Cabral’s teenage son was determined to get into one of Canada’s top engineering programs. But juggling interviews, essays and other supplementals proved to be a challenge, and Ms. Cabral felt he needed support beyond what his school guidance counsellor could provide.

She hired a university admissions consultant, who worked closely with her son during his Grade 12 year. The consultant helped him choose which schools to apply to, provided feedback on essay drafts and kept him on track to meet deadlines.

“Many of these applications are so multifaceted, it’s important to have a plan ahead of time to put your best application forward because they’re quite labour-intensive,” said Ms. Cabral, a Toronto realtor.

She estimated that she spent about $1,500 on the consultant, considering it a good investment in her son’s future. He’s since been accepted to multiple universities, including one of his top choices. He’s still waiting to hear back from one more.

As the bar continues to rise for admission into competitive postsecondary programs such as engineering, business and medical science, other Canadian parents are taking the same approach as Ms. Cabral, hiring educational consultants to help their teens through the application process in hopes it will help them stand out to university admissions departments.

“Something we hear a lot is ‘What actually matters in the application process? Should my student be investing this much time in all the things they’re engaged in?’” said Teo Salgado, principal consultant at admissions consultancy VerveSmith in Toronto.

For some of Canada’s most prestigious university programs, mid-90s grades are not enough

Once, good grades would all but guarantee students admission to a top program or school. But “the landscape has changed,” said Helen Filipe, executive director of Azul Education Services in Toronto. (Ms. Filipe worked with Ms. Cabral’s son.)

Grades for high-school graduates entering Ontario universities have climbed over the past decade. The entering average of first-year university students in the province, across all schools and programs, was 88 per cent in 2021, up from 82 per cent in 2011, according to the Council of Ontario Universities.

But universities have found high marks aren’t a reliable indicator of students’ capabilities, Ms. Filipe said. Admissions departments have added interviews, portfolio submissions, personal essays, and personality or ethics quizzes. Extracurriculars and volunteering can also factor in.

High-school guidance counsellors often don’t have the capacity to help students with such involved applications, especially with an increasing number applying to multiple programs or schools, said Joel Nicholson, co-founder and chief executive officer of academic consulting business Youthfully.

Dana Hicks, a financial adviser in Delhi, Ont., said that was part of what motivated her to spend $65 on a one-hour Zoom meeting with a consultant for her daughter Sophie. They helped her to choose between universities she’d been accepted to, and also look for scholarships.

A college or university degree still matters, but acquiring the right skills is just as important

Admissions coaches may work one-on-one with students to help them select schools or find scholarships. Some provide group workshops or individual coaching on specific aspects of applications, such as writing samples, interviews and the Casper test, a situational judgment assessment tool used by some programs.

Many consultants do in-depth work with students over months or years to develop application strategies for competitive programs, including considering which strengths and achievements to showcase in their application documents, and preparing for supplementals.

Mr. Nicholson said most students can benefit from working with a coach beginning in Grade 10 or 11, “rather than just rushing to put together a cohesive application in November or December of Grade 12.”

He said Youthfully has found each student requires at least 10 hours of coaching support to be properly prepared. The company offers coaching packages starting at $1,500 and scaling up based on the number of applications.

Mr. Salgado said VerveSmith offers hourly sessions, or full programs at a flat rate of $5,500, working with the same student for a year or multiple years, and applications to schools in Canada, the United States and Europe.

With competitive programs, he said, starting as early as Grade 9 or 10 offers advantages. But a student’s intention and effort ultimately matter more than how long they work with a consultant, he added.

How this 27-year-old data science grad can use effective networking to land his dream job

Ms. Filipe’s average program is $1,500 and covers three applications; she said it will equip students to handle additional applications on their own. For those wanting help with numerous applications or out-of-province schools, her higher-tier programs scale up to $3,000.

Youthfully has developed an artificial-intelligence platform as its lowest-cost offering for families, a monthly subscription that costs about as much as a phone bill, and is working with some high schools to make it available to their students to “level the playing field,” Mr. Nicholson said.

Mr. Salgado advised parents to look for consultants who are members of professional organizations that set ethical guidelines for the sector. He also cautioned against coaches who “emphasize prestige” or promise admission to certain schools.

Coaches or consultants shouldn’t be putting together the student’s application, Mr. Nicholson said. Youthfully developed a method modelled on executive coaching that’s been certified by an international body, the Center for Credentialing & Education, and its employees are certified coaches.

“We’re not writing the essay for the child,” he said. “We take a holistic approach – at least we’re giving the kid the best shot, for sure, but at the same time we believe they’re going through a training program to help them be more self-aware, skilled-up individuals.”

Canadian campuses are mostly female. What are men doing instead?

Elizabeth Dhuey, a professor at the University of Toronto whose research focuses on the economics of education, said she questions whether working with a consultant is necessary. Having been involved in admissions at U of T, she said the supplementals aren’t quite as difficult, or as important, as parents and students may think.

She said parents likely feel pressure to help get their kids into a top school to give them an edge in the job market. But while research has demonstrated that an individual’s field of study affects their long-term labour-market outcomes, there’s “pretty much no evidence in Canada that shows what university you go to matters.”

Ms. Filipe agreed parents and students are both becoming increasingly stressed about getting into top universities, and said she thinks consuming social media about the postsecondary educational landscape in the U.S. plays a role. But part of her work with students is helping them find the right school – and that isn’t necessarily the biggest name.

“All [Canadian] universities have to meet a certain curriculum under ministry guidelines. There are great professors everywhere,” she said.

When Ms. Hicks and her daughter met with their consultant, it helped her daughter realize that a small school where she could get to know her professors would align better with her career goals and personality.

She ultimately went into the biomedicine program at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., where she could also qualify for larger scholarships and have more relevant co-op opportunities.

“I would never have thought of that. I was more like, ‘Who’s got a better program, who’s got a better reputation?’” Ms. Hicks said. But she added that her daughter, 18 and heading into her second year this fall, is thriving.

“She found her tribe, she’s playing hockey on their team, she’s deeply involved in university life.”