Deep-pocketed parents are shelling out big bucks to make sure their kids are able to navigate one of life’s biggest hurdles — summer.
For about $300 an hour, experts will assist teens in managing their fun in the sun, all in an effort to help them craft that killer “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” essay and land a spot at a top college.
“In terms of writing his college essays, it was pretty much a slam-dunk,” said Marla Isackson, 57, of Tenafly, NJ, who hired “professional summer planner” Jill Tipograph to plan two trips for her son Josh, who now attends Yale.
“We made an investment in our child. It was important to us, and it was our priority.”
Josh spent two summers in China and used the experience to write the college essay that got him into the Ivy League school.
“When you apply to college, [they] look at a kid in his or her entirety in terms of interests and grades and standardized tests,” Isackson said. “The kids want to present themselves as a story.
“The fact that China was a part of his story, I think, made his story much more authentic and believable — who is this kid, what are his interests, what makes him tick,” she added.
Tipograph’s Midtown-based firm, Everything Summer, typically begins consulting with a kid in October for the following summer.
“The service is for parents that are discerning,” she said. “They seek guidance for their children so they can develop in the most appropriate manner, like a tutor or a specialist or a vocal coach.”
She said her goal is to help kids find themselves — and find a way to impress colleges.
She has advised teens to attend entrepreneur-training camps, work as interns, create service programs or try cultural experiences.
But Shawn Abbott, NYU’s dean of admissions, has doubts about the benefits of such a service.
“If one can’t figure out how to spend his/her summer in a meaningful way, I worry about what is in store for that person when they arrive on a college campus, when they will be faced with far more opportunities and choices that require independent thinking,” he said.