When Nadim Muzayyin was applying to business school, he felt what he lacked most was confidence. He had the resume, having risen the ranks at a venture capital firm, and was finishing his mandatory military service in Singapore. But his sights were set on attending an Ivy League-level business school—and he was willing to shoulder a $250,000 toll to do so.
So, what’s an extra few thousand of dollars to give him a better chance at getting into a top school?
That’s what Crimson Education promises: a near-guaranteed opportunity to get into top colleges like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, if students and their parents are willing (and able) to invest.
The college admissions consulting company offers a variety of services to help students crack the college admissions code—one that’s only gotten more complicated over the years. Graduate admissions consulting starts at $15k. For prospective undergraduates, at least $30k is needed. However, many families spend much more for additional services like conducting academic research, building a passion project, or acing standardized tests.
Ideally, parents should start preparing their child for the Ivy Leagues as early as age 11 so they can build out hobbies and life skills, Jamie Beaton, Crimson Education’s co-founder and CEO told Fortune. He says his company has been recently valued at nearly $600 million by venture capital firms.
Wealthier families are often generational alumni of Ivy Leagues, so they know how the process works, Beaton said. So, Crimson aims to help those new to top schools take advantage of the career-altering potential of a prestigious degree.
“Crimson is this powerful enabler,” Beaton added. “That means that even if you don't have any of that support, you can come to us, and you can invest a fairly modest sum and get all this coaching you need to actually take the advantage that some of these elite folks have and actually get an even better, frankly, training experience.”
‘I don’t know anyone who got into Harvard without help’
Eunice Chon was in her final year of high school and had conceded that attending a top college was out of her reach. Living in Macon, GA, her guidance counselor told her that her school didn’t tend to send students out of state, so she shouldn’t have high hopes for Harvard.
Beaton had a different opinion. Crimson paired Chon with an admissions counselor to help better craft her application, and lo and behold, she got in. But, she said, Crimson didn’t do “anything revolutionary. They weren’t doing magic.” Instead, they just helped her understand what schools were looking for: having a story that is compelling and unique—and one that sells.
“It’s basically a game that you have to crack,” she added.
Chon was given a full scholarship to Crimson’s services, but she said she now understands why people would pay to receive that support.
“I don’t know anyone who got into Harvard without help,” she said.
Indeed, college admissions consulting firms are nothing new. There are dozens of organizations that charge upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for their secret recipe and insider knowledge of the college admissions process.
In fact, Larry Summers, who led Harvard from 2001 to 2006, calls admissions counseling “ubiquitous” and believes it seems appropriate for services to be expanded further to international applicants.
Summers, who also served as U.S. Treasury Secretary and director of the National Economic Council, is a Crimson Education advisor—and it’s not the first time he’s worked with Beaton. When Beaton was an undergraduate at Harvard, Summers served as his thesis advisor. Today, he calls him a “force of nature.”
“I've never known anyone who devoted as much effort to their post-college education as Jamie. He seems to have a degree in almost every field,” Summers tells Fortune.
Beaton graduated from Harvard in 2016 and in less than a decade, has accumulated eight graduate degrees, including an MBA from Stanford, a PhD from Oxford, and a JD from Yale.
Born in New Zealand and raised by a single mom, he is now on a mission to transform the world of education, one student at a time. He tells Fortune that he simply wants more people to have access to the same life-changing education experience—and that starts with understanding how the complicated admissions process works.
Crimson also has its own online high school, the Crimson Global Academy, where students can take advanced courses that their school may lack or simply build out skills that can help them ultimately get their careers off the ground.
While the company is seeking to be a “powerful enabler” for students, its services largely remain catered to the niche audience who can afford it. Full scholarships for Crimson services are provided to just 6% of total students served, and 18% receive partial funding. For comparison, 55% of Harvard undergraduates receive need-based scholarships.
The best schools or bust
The cost of Crimson’s services could foot the bill of an entire degree at some state schools, yet, many students see a top-tier school as their only option.
And Beaton agrees. Crimson’s website prides itself on getting hundreds of students into prestigious schools, with 98% of students getting into one of their top 5 college choices. Crimson students’ success getting into Harvard is over 6x the school’s overall acceptance rate. Stanford applicants have over 8x better rate and Columbia is over 9x.
Besides UC Berkeley and UCLA, no public schools are advertised, but the reality is, Beaton said, the best of the best schools are the only ones worth considering. He points to the fact that a number of institutions charge similar tuition of the Ivy Leagues—yet have differing levels of prestige and student success.
“My goal was if I didn't get into the top three, I wouldn't have gone and done my MBA. I probably would have stayed in Singapore and started a business,” Muzayyin said.
While Beaton admits a top-only mindset is “brutal,” he said it makes him sick to the stomach to think about the number of students who take thousands of dollars out in loans to get a degree that may not even lead to a much higher salary.
Close to 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt, with the borrower owing $37,853, according to the Education Data Initiative. Forty-two percent of those who borrow money to go to college are still in debt 20 years later.
In the end, are those graduating with ritzy college degrees getting more bang for their buck? Yes and no. Top schools like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have the highest percentages of Fortune 1000 C-suite executives among their MBA alumni. Still, a staggering 70% of those leaders obtained their degree from a non-top business school.
Whether or not an Ivy League education will actually result in teenagers going on to become the next Jamie Dimon, parents are buying into that dream—and oftentimes making sacrifices to afford the huge costs.
John Key served as prime minister of New Zealand for eight years between 2008 and 2016 and now serves as a Crimson advisor and investor.
“I go to events for Crimson in New Zealand,” he said. “I wouldn't necessarily actually describe them as anywhere near the most wealthy New Zealanders, or even in the top third of the wealthy New Zealanders—they're often reasonably, believe it or not, reasonably middle income, but they've massively prioritized their child going to one of these schools.”
He said that for New Zealanders, for example, who are eager to go to a top U.S. school, it’s important to follow the proven track record of success. Many families, he adds, are willing to help make that a reality for their children, even if that means they have to pass on a family vacation or kitchen remodeling.
“In the end, education is a liberator, and it's a long-term pathway to prosperity,” Key said.
