Chioma Isiadinso, left, counsels Jasmine Rebadavia, center, and Hannah Lindsell on how to make their college applications compelling. Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

The language is pure Madison Avenue, but it is richly in vogue among paid counselors who advise students on how to make strong impressions with top-flight colleges. Package yourself, they say. Brand yourself.

One Manhattan boutique firm specializes in “the development of each client’s personal brand,” and other coaches adopt similar approaches, if in more discreet language. The price for their counseling services can be $4,000 and up.

Branding is a buzzword among corporations, and colleges, too, are desperate to distinguish themselves. And so the philosophy — some might call it an affliction — has filtered down to those applying to the most selective colleges. Full quote

Some say that applying for a selective college is becomming a "marketing exercise."

Still, private coaches striving to get students to define themselves may push them to the edge, or sometimes overboard. Jon Reider, director of college counseling at San Francisco University High School in California, tells of a counselor who, aware of campus politics, urged an Eagle Scout to volunteer for an AIDS telephone help line to prove that he defied the Scouts’ gay-hostile image. “I think it’s disgraceful advice,” Mr. Reider said. “It matters whether you’re doing the activity for the right reasons.”

“I don’t like the idea that a kid is a box of cornflakes,” he added.

QUESTION: How do you feel about the possibility of needing a coach to market yourself for college? Would you use one?

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