'Better Than Their Numbers'

Handpicking students who lack top test scores and grades but are leaders among their peers, College Summit helps them craft eye-catching college essays and then dispatches them back to their high schools to help foster a ‘college-going culture.’

Tarnue B. Kesselly was in the middle of a total re-evaluation of his college-worthiness. The 17-year-old New Yorker, now a high school senior, was sitting last month across a table from admissions consultant Edward T. Custard, showing him his transcript but mostly answering questions about his life outside the classroom proper.

To the high schooler, who calls himself a smart but often lazy student, the details of his life seemed ordinary: The Queens resident wakes up early. He spends three hours on the subway so he can attend the public Acorn Community High School in Brooklyn. He reads books for pleasure. He captains the debate club. Nothing special—certainly nothing that would impress anybody at one of the colleges he half-hoped, half-despaired of attending.

Mr. Custard had a different reaction: “College-admissions people are going to...