Millennial Builds Multimillion-Dollar College Admissions Business After 200 Rejections

Christopher Rim, a millennial, faced rejection from over 200 job applications after graduating from college, including top firms. However, this setback turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Rim has since built a multimillion-dollar business by helping wealthy families secure admissions for their children into prestigious Ivy League universities.

Rim's company, Command Education, charges families six-figure fees to guide their children through the competitive college admissions process. Over the past five years, 94% of his clients have been accepted into their top three college choices. Rim's success story began when he was a public high school student in New Jersey, where he was told he would never be accepted into an Ivy League institution. Despite this, Rim applied to Yale University and was the only student from his school to get in, despite having a lower GPA than his peers.

During his time at Yale, Rim started charging high schoolers $50 to edit their admissions essays and advise them on how to strengthen their resumes. After his first two clients were accepted into MIT and Stanford, he realized he had a knack for this and founded Command Education in 2015. However, Rim still wasn't sure if this was the key to his post-grad career. He applied to over 200 jobs senior year, but got none. Instead of letting the rejection defeat him, Rim used it as motivation to help others reach their dream college.

Command Education has since guided over 1,500 students into top-tier schools, with acceptance rates that soar far above the national average. Rim's average fee and high demand would put his company's revenue in the millions. Rim believes that his services aren't making the college admissions process less equitable, but rather helping young people find their true calling. He says that he is not helping his students take a spot away from a middle-class or lower-income family student, but rather helping wealthy families compete against other wealthy families.

Rim's success story highlights the growing price and competition to get into college. Over the last decade, colleges have only gotten more selective in the students they accept, not because schools have gotten much smaller in size, but because more students are applying. At the same time, college is only getting more expensive. Rim believes that it's about finding students' passions and interests, and not just about getting into a top-ranked school. He says that he will never tell a student to join a specific club or activity because he thinks that's what colleges want, but rather to do what they want.