I have experienced the same type of companies.  There are so many of them because this crap SEO still works in some situations.  What you will always have to worry about is building a business on top of shaky ground like that.  It may work for a season but it won't last.  @WilReynolds said recently " why build your business on a one legged stool?  It may work for a season but..."

I would definitely recommend reading through the "Beginners Guide to SEO" (http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo) and evaluate the possible SEO help based on the fundamental methods explained in that.

You know, Rand just spoke about this in a WBF recently but I can't seem to remember which one.  He said that based on current research the connection between .EDU and authority in Google's eyes is based on content not a causation of the .EDU domain name.  It's weight is determined by that site's content and links just like every other TLD.

Since PR has many different variables I would recommend taking the site as is and not trying to ascribe a certain authority based on PR or .edu domain name.

Run it through OSE and compare it to other similar sites then run some organic searches for keywords you know it is ranking for.

I was referred to this "awesome" solution to high bounce rates.

It is suppose to "fix" bounce rates and lower them through this simple script.  When the bounce rate goes way down then rankings dramatically increase (interesting study but not my question).

I don't know javascript but simply adding a script to the footer and watch everything fall into place seems a bit iffy to me.

Can someone with experience in JS help me by explaining what this script does?

I think it manipulates the reporting it does to GA but I'm not sure.  It was supposed to be placed in the footer of the page and then sit back and watch the dollars fly in.

For the sites that I have added sitemaps to, no matter how small, it seems to only have helped.  Either brought out some areas I could improve on or just general site architecture awareness which helped me see a bigger picture.