The Tutors: Rebecca Comella and Hamilton Education

One of the patterns that I have noticed over the years is that you can often turn your extraordinary early success of getting into a Harvard or a Yale into a full-time career helping the next generation of high schools students get into a Harvard or a Yale. All though this is a small part of my consulting practice, I have had good luck making a little on the side helping folks with their college essays, study habits, test-taking skills and high school clubs and pursuits. After all, who else can help you get into an elite school better than a former elite school professor? 

To get to my main point, I was scanning Twitter and noticed an interesting post featuring Rebecca Comella '14 who is apparently working as a tutor with a business called Hamilton Education in San Diego. The firm is impressive. According to their website,

Since 2014, we’ve had 122 students earn perfect scores on either the SAT or ACT. In 2018 alone, 42 of our students earned perfect scores. Beyond that, more than 40% of students who attended Hamilton Education’s 2018 summer courses scored in the top 1% on the official SAT/ACT.

According to the website, Rebecca is a humanities instructor. In her LinkedIn profile, however, things are more confusing. In her profile, she refers to herself as a Instructor/Writing & Curriculum Development Consultant at Hamilton College Consulting, but down below it says she only worked there for less than a year. I don't get it. Really, the Williams College alumni office ought to be calling these former students up and teaching them how to do accurate and compelling LinkedIn profiles.

Rebecca took a B.A. in History and Arabic Studies. I'm not sure what, if anything, is available about her political views. In San Diego, full-time tutors for high school students earn in the low 50s on average. I don't have enough information to check whether or not Rebecca was an unhappy leftist feminist radical anti-Israel extremist who is now paying off enormous student debt at a snail's pace. Who knows?

As I explored that theme I did notice that she had been a key figure in the famous Williams College Ephlats  an acapella singing group.

Membership in this group is by audition only and it appears to be both a lot of fun and highly competitive. They have been around since 1956. They make recordings and travel around quite a bit to posh spots like New York City and Palm Beach. There is even a 300 member alumni organization focused on it.

Sadly, I had under educated musical tastes back when I was an assistant professor in the political science department in the late 1980s. I remember turning down an invitation from an earnest student who invited me to attend some sort of vocal concert. At the time, I thought acapella, Doo Wop and barbershop groups were lame.

At any rate, I think we need to take a hard look at educational institutions like Williams College. Elsewhere, we see ambitious institutions are separating themselves from their low-paying, bleak future art, drama, history, humanities, language divisions. In some cases, these divisions seem so engrossed in identity politics that perhaps it will be best to let them die out entirely. They are usually training students for the hoary jobs of the past, with an unrealistic ideological certainty which borders on madness. I think a more relevant, sustainable, forward-thinking schools are putting a bigger emphasis on STEM, economics, and business degrees. They are doing themselves and their students a favor.

It doesn't matter how much you brainwash yourself or others, young men are not going to start dating transgender women (ex-boys) no matter how much you shame them for their hateful atavistic prejudices.

At a certain point, we have a moral obligation to let people know that becoming a tutor does not require a Williams College degree. We should also be upfront about the difficulties of finding a suitable career - good enough to allow you to buy a home in California - if you major in history and Arabic.

You can argue that you enjoyed four years of singing and fellowship, made priceless connections, and enjoyed the vast resources of Williams College. In the end, however, it seems like talented students could do much more with their lives if we didn't allow selfish faculty members to lead them into low-paying, dead-end careers.