They Open Elite Varsity Doors, For A Fat Price

A tiny group of boutique companies is helping rich Indian students get into top foreign institutions

- Devina Sengupta

MUMBAI In January 2022, a Class IX student from a school in Gurugram met a counselor seeking guidance on how to get into a top college in the US to study medicine. After laying the groundwork in the first year, the counselor asked the student to shadow a doctor when she was in Class X. For a reason: the student needed to get up close and personal with blood, guts, warts, and fecal matter to understand if these were the sort of delights she wanted to deal with on a daily basis over her career.

As it turned out, the experience made the student unsure about whether to pursue a career as a doctor. She wanted to work in the medical field but wasn't sure about the role. Eventually, with the help of the counselor and after evaluating various options, she realized that instead of spending time in the trenches with patients, she wanted to work in the research field, in the more sanitized environs of a lab.

Over the next couple of years, the counselor guided her on medical research options through video calls and personal sessions and sent her journals, articles, and podcasts. Today, the student has been accepted into the elite Johns Hopkins University for a course in biomedical engineering, a field that combines biology and engineering to drive technological advances in medical devices, procedures, and patient care. She heads for the US this August.

The counselor who helped the student land the coveted seat, outperforming applicants from around the world, was Namrata Pandey. Based in Delhi, Pandey is the founder and chief mentor of La Mentoraa, an organization that specializes in helping students gain admission into universities in India and overseas.

Over the last eight years, her company has helped more than 500 students gain admission into universities such as Harvard, Cornell, Stanford, Duke, Oxford, and the London School of Economics, among others.