(MONEY Magazine) – A $500 SAT class? A private counselor for $30,000? If that's what it takes. Anything to get my baby into Yale.

That kind of thinking led Lloyd Thacker to quit his job. During his 20-year career as an admissions officer and guidance counselor, he saw the pressure that the college admissions process places on students and their families. It got worse, he says, largely because of a billion-dollar admissions industry--college rankings publishers, "enrollment consultants" and the like. In 2004, Thacker, now 52, edited a book called College Unranked, making the case that rankings destroy the admissions process. It sold so well that Harvard University Press republished it. He also started the nonprofit Education Conservancy, aimed at improving the process. To parents, he suggests ignoring rankings and letting kids know that prestige isn't what makes you proud. "Studies show that what really leads to success in life is the student's skills and abilities, not the brand name of the college," he says. "Be the one to tell your child that."

...Word watch: vish ing n. When a fake e-mail directs you to call a local number "regarding your bank account" and crooks answer the call...