For a 29-year-old, Jamie Beaton is a man of many hats: a Rhodes scholar, a graduate with six degrees from elite colleges, and a millionaire entrepreneur of a college consulting firm that is attracting the attention of eager parents and investors alike.

A nice article in The Wall Street Journal outlines how Beaton’s clientele pays his company tens of thousands of dollars, if not that much $200,000for a program that can provide everything from tutoring for exams to advice on how to get excellent teacher recommendations. All with one goal in mind: getting children into elite schools. And so far, it’s working: “Crimson Education” clients represent nearly 2% of students admitted to the undergraduate class of 2028 at elite schools like Harvard, BrownAnd Colombia.

Crimson is part of the college advising market that is now considered valuable ~$2.9 billion as competition for top universities has increased, according to market research agency IBISWorld. Admission rates to top universities like Harvard have fallen sharply since 2006, from about 10% for the class of 2008 to 3.6% for the most recent group of 2028.

Experts warn that students – or, more accurately, their parents – are still drawn to services like Crimson to navigate the competitive and confusing admissions process in the US, mainly because they have a limited understanding of the black box of admissions. The college counseling world that thrives on this complex process is also bound by few rules, as recently highlighted by the celebrity-fueled Varsity Blues college admissions program led by Rick Singer.

Last year, Harvard’s student newspaper The Harvard Crimson reported that 26% of incoming freshmen worked with a private admissions counselor. This share rose to 48% for freshmen from families with incomes over $500,000. Even institutional investors have taken note: after launching in 2013, the company is now valued at more than 10 million euros $550 millionwinning investment from VC giant Tiger Management.