This millennial was rejected from 200 jobs—now he makes millions charging wealthy families six-figures to get their kids into the Ivy Leagues

Preston Fore

Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 5:03 AM 6 min read

• Like many Gen Zers today, after graduating from college, Christopher Rim was rejected from more than 200 job applications—including at top firms like Goldman Sachs and BCG. But, he says, “that was the best thing that could have happened to me.” Now, he’s making millions disrupting the $3 billion college consultancy industry.

How much would you pay to help your child get accepted into Harvard, Stanford, or MIT?

$10,000? What about $100,000, or even $750,000?

Hundreds of families are paying six-figure price tags to a young millennial named Christopher Rim to get their kids into their top college choices. As the founder and CEO of college admissions consultancy group Command Education, Rim has become a wizard of sorts for how to crack the Ivy League code. Over the last five years, 94% of his clients have been accepted into their top three college choices.

And while the $3 billion college consultancy industry may sound like another leg-up the rich have to get their children into schools, Rim says it’s about helping students reach their dreams and unlock their potential. After all, on average, only about 5% of pupils who want to go to an Ivy League school actually get in.

“You have one chance. That’s it,” the 30-year-old tells Fortune. “You can’t go back to college or apply to these selective universities again.”

Unlocking potential is something that hits home in Rim’s own story toward success, both in his own journey trying to attend an Ivy League school as well as trying to find his footing as a young graduate.

As a public high school student in New Jersey, Rim was told he’d never be cut out for an Ivy League institution.

While he admits himself that he wasn’t the smartest kid in his class, he had a mission to attend Yale University, and decided to apply even when his guidance counselor pleaded with him to settle for Rutgers University, an in-state public school. Out of the nearly two dozen students from his school who applied to Yale, he was the only one who got in—despite having a lower GPA than the rest.

As a student, he kept the ball rolling by charging high schoolers $50 to edit their admissions essays and advising them on how to strengthen their resumes and “authentically stick out.” After his first two clients got into MIT and Stanford, he realized he might have a gift, and thus Command Education was born in 2015 in his New Haven, Conn., dorm room.

However, Rim still wasn’t sure it was the key to a post-grad career. Then came the time to apply for jobs.

“I applied to over 200 jobs senior year. All my friends were getting jobs at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, BCG, major corporations. I got none. I got zero,” he says. “And that was the best thing to have that happen to me.”