'GETTING IN:

You don’t have to write an essay, submit letters of recommendation, or take tough exams. There are no deadlines, worries, or pressure. Just fill out a simple form and we’ll get things going. Then you’ll...'

Some freshmen will find more than roommates, textbooks and course catalogues waiting for them at college this fall.

They'll also find a personal coach.

A 7-year-old San Francisco firm called InsideTrack has carved out a flourishing business providing executive-style coaching to college students throughout the country.

Created by the founders of SCORE Educational Centers, InsideTrack has coached more than 75,000 students at campuses including Northeastern University in Boston, Chapman University in Southern California and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Its 130 coaches hold weekly sessions by phone or in person with their student clients. They offer encouragement when things seem tough; they help students manage their time and set priorities; they let them know about campus resources or share tips about how to approach a professor for help.



The company's revenue shot up from $7.9 million in 2005-06 to $12 million in 2006-07, a big enough jump to land it in Inc. magazine's forthcoming annual list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in America.

"We provide guidance, structure, positive reinforcement, accountability," said CEO Alan Tripp, who together with Kai Drekmeier founded both SCORE and InsideTrack. "Some people say college is a time to see if you can work by yourself without guidance. At InsideTrack, we don't see it that way. Most people benefit greatly from structure and positive reinforcement. But you get much more guidance and reinforcement (as a manager) at a company like General Electric than the average 18-year-old entering college."

InsideTrack has found an unusual niche. Although there are countless SAT tutors, private guidance counselors and other businesses aimed at helping kids get into college, there are relatively few for-profit enterprises geared to helping students once they are in college.

The company markets its services not to individual students and their families, but to college administrators who are looking for ways to increase the number of freshmen who ultimately graduate. [Get it? The firm specializes in schools whose low graduation rates threaten government grants, income flow, and ultimately the very existence of the institutions. They're desperate to retain the many hopelessly college-unready among their students ... UD wonders just how the system works, you know? What do you suppose some of those coaches actually do for these students? All the incentives are in the direction of the coaches keeping the students in school, passing classes... If the coaches don't do this, they don't get paid; they lose their client... What are the coaches doing to get these people through?]

It's an area where many schools could use help. Only 57 percent of students at four-year colleges manage to graduate within six years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

"The graduation figures haven't changed over time, but universities are paying a lot more attention to this because the federal and state governments are starting to tie funding into retention," said Alan Seidman, director of the Center for the Study of College Student Retention in New Hampshire.



Many students who fail to graduate drop out during or soon after their first year of college - the time period that InsideTrack has targeted for coaching.

Tripp said he came up with the idea by combining the positive reinforcement practices he'd seen at SCORE with the techniques of executive coaching.

The company typically charges colleges a fee of $800 to $1,400 per student for coaching. [Keep this sort of thing in mind the next time you wonder why college is so expensive.]

Some schools have turned to InsideTrack for help with populations of working-class students who struggle to balance jobs and classes, and who are sometimes unprepared for the academic demands and cultural expectations of college.

"I worked with a single mother who, the first time I called her, was at the Boston Public Library trying to find scholarships," said Meaghan Joyce, InsideTrack's director for Northeastern University.

"She had no idea how to start. She had no idea how she would be paying for school. She had significant fears about going back to school based on her high school experience. Writing was a real fear for her, since she'd never really been taught it before."

Joyce helped connect the student with a financial aid adviser at the university. She also put her in touch with its writing center.

She encouraged her to take a required writing class during her first semester, when Joyce would be available for coaching support, rather than put it off until later. She helped her set weekly goals for completing course work and term papers.

That student completed her courses and re-enrolled for a second year.

"Probably the biggest take-away for her was having that time (during coaching sessions) to reflect on what needed to happen that week," Joyce said. [Notice that what Joyce is doing to earn her money is exactly what the on-campus student assistance office is supposed to be doing. Why the duplication?]




Some other schools have used InsideTrack to work with students taking online courses. The Academy of Art University started using InsideTrack for online students this summer and recently expanded its scope to regular students.

Jourdain McClure, 26, is a systems administrator in Roseville, near Sacramento, who was given a coach when he started taking online filmmaking classes at the Academy of Art.

"If you're not a self-disciplined person, online learning is probably the worst thing for you since you don't have to log in, and it's really easy not to," McClure said. [Uh, so why not take a real-time class instead? And notice what this guy needs coaching for -- an online course in filmmaking... You don't even need to show up... You can access the course material whenever you feel like it... Does the coach stand next to him and press McClure's finger down on the ENTER key?]

"That's where InsideTrack comes in. You have a success coach who's like an angel at your side, to support you and listen to you. I'm online - I don't see students. I don't physically have teachers. But no matter what, I can tell my coach how things are going. I'm very confident I'm not alone."



Some observers question whether InsideTrack's function could be filled less expensively by existing on-campus services such as counseling centers or academic advisers.

"There are many ways of going about these things," said Seidman, who was not familiar with the details of InsideTrack's program. "If I were the director of a (campus) counseling center, I'd say, 'Hey, we're here, we want students to take advantage of us. Maybe we need to get out a little more.' "

However, administrators at Chapman University in Orange County say their spending on InsideTrack has been clearly worthwhile.

Chapman started using InsideTrack in a pilot program in 2002. The college provided coaching to 120 freshmen, and identified a similar control group that did not receive coaching. More of the coached students made the dean's list and returned for their sophomore year; fewer of the coached students landed on academic probation or withdrew from a course. [Chapman needs to look more closely at precisely the sorts of assistance the coached students received. Only it's so not going to do that. That'd be like asking Auburn to look into the details of its football players' coursework...]

"On every metric we identified - credits, grade point average and so on - the pilot group with coaching did better," said Saskia Knight, vice chancellor for enrollment management. "We feel the results are well worth the commitment."...