Many parents want their children to get into the best colleges and universities. Academic standards are high, regardless of tuition, for entrance into schools like Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Yale, so some parents are doing all they can to increase their children's chances of getting in by starting early.

In her article for The Daily Beast, Private School Parents Confess, Kathleen Kingsbury reveals the lengths to which parents are willing to go to get their children enrolled in one of a select group of private elementary schools. They believe that getting their children into a prestigious elementary school will lead to their getting into a top notch prep school, which will then improve their chances for getting into an ivy league or prestigious private college or university.

Amanda, a consultant in Manhattan who charges $15,000 for helping parents "through the admissions process" at prestigious schools like Dalton, Trinity or Horace Mann, told Kingsbury that parents would "spend their last dime" to get their children into private schools. They fear their children won't get a quality education in one of the public schools because of budget cuts.

How committed are some parents to this mission? One woman advised her friends to avoid giving birth in August, September or October because the schools have strict cutoff dates of August 31[birthdates] for kindergarten. Some parents have been so desperate that they've bribed their children (a bad idea) to behave themselves during interviews or "let slip" damaging information about rival parents. And being the child of someone who works on Wall Street is a hindrance in light of recent events.

The desire to get their children into the best colleges or universities consumes some parents from the moment of conception. They are willing to lie, cheat and backstab to get their children into a prestigious private elementary school, all in the hopes that it will increase their children's chances of getting into a prestigious college or university. It doesn't seem to matter that their children may choose not to go to college. Is that even an option?