College admissions rates fell with the widespread adoption of the online Common App in the early 2000s. Add more recent changes to admissions — like universities no longer requiring standardized test scores and then changing their tune, a Supreme Court ban on affirmative action — and high schoolers and parents have been left with whiplash and confusion. That’s where independent college counselors come in.

As Nicole LaPorte wrote in Town & Country, the field has grown into a $3 billion industry. LaPorte is also the author of the book “Guilty Admissions,” which chronicles the Varsity Blues scandal.

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with LaPorte about the world of independent college counselors. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: Could you define a term for me here? What is an “independent college counselor”?

Nicole LaPorte: Yes. An independent college counselor is a counselor that works outside of a high school. You can hire them to provide a service for your high school student or maybe even your middle school student to walk them through the college admissions process, everything from looking over their essays and filling out the application. Just helping out with all of this stuff that these kids need to do to apply.

Ryssdal: I’ve had four kids go through the college application process. Could I hang out a shingle tomorrow and say, “Here I am. I’m an independent college counselor”?

LaPorte: You absolutely could, and you’d probably be very good.

Ryssdal: No, no, because the truth is, my wife did all of them, but that’s a whole different thing.

LaPorte: Yeah. I mean, sort of the dirty secret of college counseling is that you do not need a certification. You absolutely can set up shop.

Ryssdal: How much for those parents of kids who are confused and anxious, and, you know, parents probably who are confused and anxious? How much is it going to cost?

LaPorte: There’s quite a range. The numbers that get the big headlines, of course, are the super-, superhigh numbers, and that can go up to $200,000. That’s not for, you know, a month of counseling, or even a year of counseling. That’s counseling that starts in middle school. So that’s say, from eighth to 12th grade. You know, at that point it becomes almost like a concierge service where the counselor is perhaps mapping out visits to colleges and doing a lot more than just, you know, editing an essay.

Ryssdal: Let’s say I don’t have 200 large to spend on my kid before they even get to college. What’s the, you know, sort of average going price?

LaPorte: Yeah, the average is about $6,500 and you know, when you get into New York and LA and San Francisco, these more expensive places to live, it goes up to maybe 15 grand. Again, that’s over a couple of years. That’s not just for a couple of months or even one year. But it’s expensive, there’s no way around that.

Ryssdal: I’m obliged to point out here, as you say in this piece, you know, the schools know this. This is a service that’s available to a teeny, tiny fraction of the tippity, tippity, top of the income spectrum. And it brings with it a whiff of elitism that is inescapable.

LaPorte: Absolutely. I mean the numbers that I was just citing alone tell you what segment of the population we’re talking about. And, yeah, colleges admit this. I talk about Christoph Guttentag, the longtime Duke admissions officer, and he admits that this is absolutely a luxury, and it’s giving advantaged kids another advantage.

Ryssdal: Not only are the parents deeply interested in this, but as you point out in this piece, venture capital firms are interested in this. There’s a company that you talk about in here that raised some, you know, high tens of millions of dollars funding round.

LaPorte: Yes, I mean, I will point out that that’s not the norm.

Ryssdal: Fair enough, but the idea that VC is interested in this should tell you something.

LaPorte: Well, I think it speaks to just how this has come to dominate media headlines and the cultural interest in this, particularly amongst, yes, elite members of the population. And, you know, it’s a $3 billion industry. I just think that number alone, you can’t ignore that. But again, that’s a rare example.

Ryssdal: With the observation here that not everybody, and probably most people don’t and shouldn’t want to have the need to go to this tiny piece of higher education because you can get a good college education lots of places. Do these companies have the secret code?

LaPorte: They would like you to think that. Well, it’s funny, because you look at their websites and there’s all kinds of promises and statistics, much of which is very hard to discern and get behind and prove. But then when you actually speak to them, and I think virtually all of them, in probably the first meeting with a family, will say we cannot guarantee admission to X school. So no, there is no secret sauce, but again, it’s just providing an advantage.