In an address to the alumni class officers this weekend, Class of 1959 President Howard Greene said none of them would have been accepted to Dartmouth in today's competitive college admissions environment.
Greene, an educational consultant from Westport, Conn., has made a career out of helping aspiring college students cut through the hype to find the right college and gain admittance.
Greene was recently featured in an article in The New York Times, which described how he helped a Wilton, Conn., girl gain admittance to Dartmouth.
The article shook the college counseling industry because it questioned whether counselors are enabling students to manipulate the college admissions process.
Ben Mason, a Burlington, Vt., college counselor who recently went to a trade-meeting in Arizona, said the whole industry is aware of the article that featured Greene.
"Everybody was talking about it," he said.
The girl Greene helped, Elizabeth Morgan, acted on Greene's advice in order to get into the best college possible.
She transferred to Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school upon Green's recommendation, according to the article.
"During a third visit to Dartmouth, Elizabeth followed Mr. Greene's advice and visited the school's biology department, to demonstrate her initiative and interest," the article states.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Greene said he advised Morgan to stress her interest in science, because it would make her more attractive to the admissions office.
"She didn't know as a female [interest in science] is very special," he said.
Greene sent a letter to Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg, the article states. Morgan will be attending Dartmouth Fall term.
Greene said he was not entirely pleased with the article.
"It was fantastic press, but it bothered me," he said. "It made [Greene's firm] sound like some kind of broker, and we are not."
Rather, Greene said his business mostly involves helping students find a college where they will be happy.
"We've been immensely busy," he said. "People have put all their faith in higher education."
"They think it is the one way to have a future," he said.
Greene remains skeptical of the importance of an Ivy League education, even though he attended Dartmouth, Yale Law School and Harvard University and worked as an admissions officer at Princeton University.
Greene said too many people in the U.S. are interested in attending too few schools. Some people who would better fit in elsewhere get caught up in the quest for Ivy.
More than one-third of students with Scholastic Achievement Test scores above 700 are enrolled in 10 colleges, he said.
"The Ivy League has become mythic," he said. "The names have taken such enormous clout. People think it opens doors."
"But it is not a guarantee of anything," he said.
Greene said the obsession with selective colleges may increase in the future.
"It is self-fulfilling in that a disproportionately high number of students apply to a small band of top universities," he said.
Green, who has interviewed "zillions" of undergraduates, said attending a select institution creates unique problems, because students tend to expect too much.
"The more mythic the institution, the more an individual student puts the blame on himself," he said.
Greene, who charges up to $2,500 for his advice and has been featured on three major television networks, Cable News Network and National Public Radio, is currently negotiating with ABC and the Fox network, where he may become an official "college correspondent."
Greene's firm has offices in Connecticut, New York City and London, and he sees clients from around the world.
The firm also conducts workshops with corporations, where he advises employees "from the mail room on up" about higher education options for their children.
Greene said he is partial to television appearances because he can spread his message to people different from his normal clientele.
"I like it because you can reach a broader range of people," he said.
Greene is currently writing a new book called "The Select," which will examine the student experience at elite colleges.
Greene has already published "Scaling the Ivy Wall," a guide to admission to select colleges; "Beyond the Ivy Wall," a guide to graduate schools and careers; and "Scaling the Ivy Wall in the 90s," a revision of his first book.
