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Lakhani and his wife, Ginger, who worked for many years in the contemporary art world, have three kids under five — two daughters and a son. Before other people's offspring monopolize his attention, Lakhani can have some quality time with his own.
The last year has seen many businesses migrate to Zoom , but Lakhani has been working that way from the outset — around one third of his clients live outside America. He'll usually conduct coaching sessions after school local time, so key locations for his morning schedule include Singapore, Kazakhstan, Milan, and London.
If it's a new client, that session will be an induction or discovery call, with both parents and the teen together. "I absolutely want the student to do 90% of the talking — and I'll politely shush a parent who wants to keep on talking," he said. Lakhani listens to the student's wants and needs before prepping a customized program for them.
The Varsity Blues scandal looms large over his business now. No wonder, then, that Lakhani is unflinching about the integrity of his process.
For wealthy families — those who can "throw money at any problem," he said — it's a new experience for both parent and child to experience meritocracy. "We get the students to care, and we get the parents to calm down," he said. "Neither of those is easy."
Take the young woman in Europe, a working actress and model, who had her heart set on attending UPenn. She was smart but busy, jetting around the continent for shoots and auditions while prepping for her SATs.
"They're a skill, like playing baseball, so it's not like you can succeed at them just by studying all night for one night," Lakhani said.
A family member took him aside as she was struggling to squeeze prep time in between gigs. "They said, 'How strictly do they police someone else going in and taking the test for her?'" he said. Lakhani ensured they didn't cheat, and instead focused on helping the daughter find time to study. She eventually landed her goal offer, UPenn, albeit after taking her SATs three or four times.
Lakhani Coaching has a dozen-strong, "Mission Impossible"-like roster of coaches, each deployed as needed per a student's specific wants.
In between morning and afternoon coaching sessions, Lakhani might be trying to recruit someone new for that reason — he said he just sourced a professor at Pomona and State Department alum who's now on his team specifically to support a kid with an interest in buffing their Polish.
Come the midday lull, billing is a focus, too. He doesn't sell packages but rather charges hourly, lawyer-style, with fees ranging from $260 for a junior member of the team to $1,000 for Lakhani himself.
"It's intentional," he said. "Other educational consultants who offer 'unlimited' hours in a package? That's a terrible sign. I was sent a college essay that another consultant had seen, and it just had three comments on it. When you work hourly, it's about getting the student inspired and setting their pen on fire."
Often, he's meeting with local, New York-based kids or with families so keen to hire Lakhani, they'll fly to him.
Take the prominent, Florida-based physician who brought his wife and son, then in seventh grade, up for an in-person, goal-setting meeting. The parents had brought an iPad, too, and asked if they could record the two-hour session. They later told him they'd watched it over four times to prime them to support their son.
Top of his class and hard-working, their son was eyeing Stanford, Yale, or similar. Lakhani was thrilled that the parents were tapping him for input at such an early stage — typically he'll be hired later, a couple of years or so before graduation.
With this boy, Hafeez emphasized character, or developing standout qualities unrelated to his academics. "It's the most difficult thing for people to get their head round, but think of, say, Harvard as a dinner table with a limited number of seats," Lakhani said. "If there's one seat left, what makes your child the most interesting person to deserve that last spot? What does he add to the conversation?"
Since then, he's shepherded this boy to go deeper into his interest in debate and politics. Horrified by the governor's attempts to stymie a law that allowed former felons to vote, he was spurred to act — but Lakhani didn't simply suggest a pricey, paid-for internship. Write letters to your local congresspeople and ask to intern with them, he said — one agreed, impressed by the young man's drive and passion. This was far more résumé-boosting than his folks simply calling in a favor from a friend, Lakhani said.
East Coast-based kids can commonly be wealthy legacies — folks whose families have attended one college, perhaps for generations, and donated generously over the years. Both scenarios prime the teen for acceptance.
It doesn't guarantee it, of course, and teens might rebel against such expectations. "The student is the one driving the bus," Lakhani said.
A young man he recently worked with, both of whose parents were Ivy alums, didn't want to attend either of their alma maters — Cornell was his goal. The problem, Lakhani said, was the kid's privileged position, a straight-A student at a Manhattan Private School.
Lakhani separates kids across America into buckets, encouraging parents to understand that their son or daughter is competing against a small set of peers, not every applicant. The most competitive bucket, of course, is Chapin, Spence, and company, the ultimate elite educational level, where most parents are keen for their kids to enter the Ivies.
Thanks to Lakhani, this young man secured a spot at Cornell, albeit with a wrinkle: automatic transfer as a sophomore, which required him to attend college elsewhere as a freshman and maintain a 3.0 GPA.
Lakhani said he grew up in the middle class in Florida and secured his Yale place without the help of tutors. Mindful of this, he was determined to offer his expertise to underprivileged kids, too, first taking on an annual scholar to coach before spinning off the concept into a standalone 501(c)(3) to which other clients can, and do, donate.
His first such scholar, in 2018, was Lisa David, who'd immigrated to Atlanta from Liberia five years earlier. She spoke no English on arrival and lived in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of HIV/AIDS in the country.
Lakhani circulated the newly launched opportunity to low income schools, targeting their guidance counselors — the person who suggested Lisa apply, and even chased up by phone to confirm receipt of that application by Lakhani and his team. Via the program, she was accepted early decision to George Washington University, the first person in her family to ever go to college. The program has broadened to three scholars for 2020, and Lakhani is focused on expanding even further.
As his coaching business has matured, Lakhani watched alums of his program graduate and consider business school or other postgrad programs, so naturally, he expanded to cater to them. Prepping MBA candidates now accounts for 15 to 20% of his business.
"We've raised someone's GMAT scores as much as 350 points," he said. That might involve meetings after work rather than after school, of course — West Coast-based high school clients can often request meetings at 7 p.m. or later.
He devised a solution to ensure that his schedule wasn't packed until midnight: He now accepts coaching appointments two Saturdays each month.
Many high-powered parents, keen to participate in kickoff or follow-up meetings, are thankful for that flexibility. "If a meeting starts at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. on a weekday and we need their full attention, they're not quite game for that," he said.
A few emails at day's end, and he's ready to start all over again tomorrow — well, once he's had some more family time.
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