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What It's Like to Be a College Admissions Coach for Wealthy Families - Business Insider

Hafeez Lakhani with his family
Hafeez Lakhani with his family.
Hafeez Lakhani

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  • Hafeez Lakhani runs elite college admissions firm Lakhani Coaching that he started eight years ago.
  • His clients pay on average $35,000 for his services, which involve test prep and application help.
  • He often has to tell clients they can't cheat the system and has people fly to NY to work with him.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Hafeez Lakhani, 38, who runs elite college admissions firm Lakhani Coaching, described his clients as "the 0.1% of the 1%" — which sometimes even includes Saudi royalty. 

Families spend on average $35,000 with the firm, he told Insider, in the hopes of angling for a prime college perch. Each year, he said the company works with around 100 of the world's wealthiest teenagers.

Lakhani himself ended up at Yale as an undergraduate after securing a perfect score on the SAT and ACT. He segued into tutoring for SATs as a result, while also spending summers working as a camp counselor. 

After graduation, he opted for a trading career on Wall Street before quickly ditching the field to pivot back to his passion: education. Lakhani formally established his company eight years ago.

The company's focus is on finessing high-flying students in three areas: academics, or raw grades, problem-solving ability, like how to approach challenges, and character, otherwise their personality and interests. Each program is customized to a student's specific needs, and includes tasks for them to pursue as well as regular one-on-one coaching by the firm's squad of tutors, either remotely or in person.

This is what a typical day for Lakhani, who lives in Brooklyn Heights, NY, but whose clients span the world, is like.

The morning is his best chance for a little family time.

Hafeez Lakhani with his son
Lakhani with his son.
Hafeez Lakhani

Lakhani and his wife, Ginger, who worked for many years in the contemporary art world, have three kids under five — two daughters and a son. Before other people's offspring monopolize his attention, Lakhani can have some quality time with his own.

His workday usually starts around 11 a.m. with some remote coaching sessions.

Hafeez Lakhani with his coaching clients
Lakhani with his coaching client.
Hafeez Lakhani

The last year has seen many businesses migrate to Zoom , but Lakhani has been working that way from the outset — around one third of his clients live outside America. He'll usually conduct coaching sessions after school local time, so key locations for his morning schedule include Singapore, Kazakhstan, Milan, and London.

If it's a new client, that session will be an induction or discovery call, with both parents and the teen together. "I absolutely want the student to do 90% of the talking — and I'll politely shush a parent who wants to keep on talking," he said. Lakhani listens to the student's wants and needs before prepping a customized program for them.

Parents have asked him how to hack the system. He's always refused.

A photo Lakhani took while on a work assignment in Berlin
A photo Lakhani took while on a work assignment in Berlin.
Lakhani Coaching

The Varsity Blues scandal looms large over his business now. No wonder, then, that Lakhani is unflinching about the integrity of his process. 

For wealthy families — those who can "throw money at any problem," he said — it's a new experience for both parent and child to experience meritocracy. "We get the students to care, and we get the parents to calm down," he said. "Neither of those is easy."

Take the young woman in Europe, a working actress and model, who had her heart set on attending UPenn. She was smart but busy, jetting around the continent for shoots and auditions while prepping for her SATs. 

"They're a skill, like playing baseball, so it's not like you can succeed at them just by studying all night for one night," Lakhani said.

A family member took him aside as she was struggling to squeeze prep time in between gigs. "They said, 'How strictly do they police someone else going in and taking the test for her?'" he said. Lakhani ensured they didn't cheat, and instead focused on helping the daughter find time to study. She eventually landed her goal offer, UPenn, albeit after taking her SATs three or four times.

Lunchtime is a chance to catch up on admin tasks.

Lakhani Coaching at James Beard FoundaBon Chefs and Champagne Gala
Lakhani Coaching at James Beard FoundaBon Chefs and Champagne Gala.
Lakhani Coaching

Lakhani Coaching has a dozen-strong, "Mission Impossible"-like roster of coaches, each deployed as needed per a student's specific wants.

In between morning and afternoon coaching sessions, Lakhani might be trying to recruit someone new for that reason — he said he just sourced a professor at Pomona and State Department alum who's now on his team specifically to support a kid with an interest in buffing their Polish.

Come the midday lull, billing is a focus, too. He doesn't sell packages but rather charges hourly, lawyer-style, with fees ranging from $260 for a junior member of the team to $1,000 for Lakhani himself. 

"It's intentional," he said. "Other educational consultants who offer 'unlimited' hours in a package? That's a terrible sign. I was sent a college essay that another consultant had seen, and it just had three comments on it. When you work hourly, it's about getting the student inspired and setting their pen on fire."

In pre-pandemic times, the afternoon might be a chance to move from virtual to in-person coaching.

Hafeez Lakhani with a client
Lakhani with a client.
Lakhani Coaching

Often, he's meeting with local, New York-based kids or with families so keen to hire Lakhani, they'll fly to him. 

Take the prominent, Florida-based physician who brought his wife and son, then in seventh grade, up for an in-person, goal-setting meeting. The parents had brought an iPad, too, and asked if they could record the two-hour session. They later told him they'd watched it over four times to prime them to support their son.

Top of his class and hard-working, their son was eyeing Stanford, Yale, or similar. Lakhani was thrilled that the parents were tapping him for input at such an early stage — typically he'll be hired later, a couple of years or so before graduation. 

With this boy, Hafeez emphasized character, or developing standout qualities unrelated to his academics. "It's the most difficult thing for people to get their head round, but think of, say, Harvard as a dinner table with a limited number of seats," Lakhani said. "If there's one seat left, what makes your child the most interesting person to deserve that last spot? What does he add to the conversation?"

Since then, he's shepherded this boy to go deeper into his interest in debate and politics. Horrified by the governor's attempts to stymie a law that allowed former felons to vote, he was spurred to act — but Lakhani didn't simply suggest a pricey, paid-for internship. Write letters to your local congresspeople and ask to intern with them, he said — one agreed, impressed by the young man's drive and passion. This was far more résumé-boosting than his folks simply calling in a favor from a friend, Lakhani said.

He can help most, but not all, kids secure a place at their dream college.

Hafeez Lakhani at the Greenwich Polo Club sponsorship
Lakhani at the Greenwich Polo Club sponsorship.
Lakhani Coaching

East Coast-based kids can commonly be wealthy legacies — folks whose families have attended one college, perhaps for generations, and donated generously over the years. Both scenarios prime the teen for acceptance. 

It doesn't guarantee it, of course, and teens might rebel against such expectations. "The student is the one driving the bus," Lakhani said.

A young man he recently worked with, both of whose parents were Ivy alums, didn't want to attend either of their alma maters — Cornell was his goal. The problem, Lakhani said, was the kid's privileged position, a straight-A student at a Manhattan Private School. 

Lakhani separates kids across America into buckets, encouraging parents to understand that their son or daughter is competing against a small set of peers, not every applicant. The most competitive bucket, of course, is Chapin, Spence, and company, the ultimate elite educational level, where most parents are keen for their kids to enter the Ivies. 

Thanks to Lakhani, this young man secured a spot at Cornell, albeit with a wrinkle: automatic transfer as a sophomore, which required him to attend college elsewhere as a freshman and maintain a 3.0 GPA.

The afternoon might also include time spent on Lakhani Scholars, his new nonprofit aimed at broadening access to top-tier education.

Hafeez Lakhani with a client
Lakhani with a client.
Lakhani Coaching

Lakhani said he grew up in the middle class in Florida and secured his Yale place without the help of tutors. Mindful of this, he was determined to offer his expertise to underprivileged kids, too, first taking on an annual scholar to coach before spinning off the concept into a standalone 501(c)(3) to which other clients can, and do, donate.

His first such scholar, in 2018, was Lisa David, who'd immigrated to Atlanta from Liberia five years earlier. She spoke no English on arrival and lived in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of HIV/AIDS in the country. 

Lakhani circulated the newly launched opportunity to low income schools, targeting their guidance counselors — the person who suggested Lisa apply, and even chased up by phone to confirm receipt of that application by Lakhani and his team. Via the program, she was accepted early decision to George Washington University, the first person in her family to ever go to college. The program has broadened to three scholars for 2020, and Lakhani is focused on expanding even further.

He tries to wrap all meetings up by 8 p.m., though that isn't always possible.

Hafeez Lakhani at the office
Lakhani at the office.
Lakhani Coaching

As his coaching business has matured, Lakhani watched alums of his program graduate and consider business school or other postgrad programs, so naturally, he expanded to cater to them. Prepping MBA candidates now accounts for 15 to 20% of his business.

"We've raised someone's GMAT scores as much as 350 points," he said. That might involve meetings after work rather than after school, of course — West Coast-based high school clients can often request meetings at 7 p.m. or later.

He devised a solution to ensure that his schedule wasn't packed until midnight: He now accepts coaching appointments two Saturdays each month. 

Many high-powered parents, keen to participate in kickoff or follow-up meetings, are thankful for that flexibility. "If a meeting starts at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. on a weekday and we need their full attention, they're not quite game for that," he said.

A few emails at day's end, and he's ready to start all over again tomorrow — well, once he's had some more family time.

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