We’re a multifaceted team of high achievers who like to earn extra credit with our clients—when that means earning points for heart, humor, accessibility, and personal integrity.
Are you the right fit for Yale? Williams? MIT? Barnard? UF?
One Second. First, figure out if we are the right fit for you.
Our Approach to College Admissions Advising is Unorthodox. Fun. Effective.
We’re Rare Birds Who Can Do It All
We offer test preparation, tutoring, personal and project mentoring, writing development, entrepreneurial advising, personal development & college counseling in a hands-on, rigorous, ethical environment designed to bring out the best in students by wildly experienced coaches who flat-out care about kids.
We engage the 5 key hallmarks of student development*:
The disciplined mind: we develop intellectual depth
The synthesizing mind: we foster intellectual breadth
The creating mind: we cultivate mental “stretchiness” and connectivity
The respectful mind: we model curiosity that welcomes diverse opinions, people, and insights
The ethical mind: we challenge students to consider what kinds of people they want to be, to articulate their values, and to decidedly contribute to their communities.
*borrowed from Howard Gardner, Harvard University
Stop Giving Colleges All the Power.
We Place Students at the Center of our Work.
What if you did everything “right” and still didn’t get the result you wanted? If you’ve found us, you’re probably acutely aware that this is the challenge parents and students – and the college consultants and counselors that work with them – are facing with college admissions.
Students are doing the work, racking up the accomplishments and extracurriculars, hiking up grades, optimizing test scores, and listening to all the conventional advice… and we’re all watching them get waitlisted/deferred/flat-out denied by colleges that would have accepted them in a heartbeat only five years ago.
The Paradigm Has to Shift.
Here’s the thing: all the conventional wisdom about “what it takes” is the problem. Your (probably amazing!) prep school and your (really well regarded!) college counselors are determined to see you squeeze yourself into the mold they’ve been using to drive acceptances for years.
…but if we weren’t sure before, we know now: colleges are onto the formula and the jig is up.
College applications aren’t a checklist: they’re an art and a science, and success is a reflection of how well you understand and optimize yourself, your true north and then align your true story with a college that wants someone like you.
Our North Star is helping you uncover the educational and creative life you want to lead (which, yes, also happens to be what elite colleges and universities want to see).
Begin to define the life you want to live, and then develop the autodidactic and metacognitive skills you’ll need to unlock it. All that just so happens to unlock doors at universities, too.
Hone your emotional intelligence. There’s a reason there are mental health crises on college campuses, and we’d prefer to equip you to avoid them. This whole process, especially while barreling through adolescence, can be a lot. That’s why you’ll find multiple mental health professionals on our team. We have people on hand to help you with the anxiety you may have now and learn how to stave it off in the future.
Your Killer Application is a Byproduct of all the Development We Do Together…
…and, let’s just say it: our relentless incisiveness, strategy, and specificity. When it comes time to actually develop your apps, we are relentless.
The application you’ll finally submit is a byproduct of everything we’ll do together–the brass-tacks education, the mentoring, mental toughness coaching, networking, and creative brainstorming–combined with all your independent effort and our serious commitment to ensuring .
We Aren’t Your People If…
… you want us to guarantee you’ll get into Princeton or get a 1600. (Those people went to jail, remember?)
… you want us to write your college essays for you.
… you want us to zhuhz an essay from Chat GPT.
… you want us to take your take-home exam with you.
That being said,
You want to give yourself every opportunity to choose at the end of the college application process? Yes!
You want to get better at speaking the language of math? Yes!
You want to learn to write well? Yes!
You want to be heard and respected? Yes!
You want to learn how to learn so when you’re 19, 29, or 39 and suddenly discover you’re into tornadoes, bonsai, mycorrhizae, coding, bebop, pickling, woodworking, aeronautics, politics, or tomatoes, you know what steps to take? Yes!
You want experts and mentors who genuinely care about you that you can text virtually 24-7 with questions? Yes! Even ten years from now? Yes! Twenty? Yes! (Happens regularly.)
You want to get to know yourself better? Yes! You want to learn to appreciate and improve from constructive criticism? Yes! You want to learn to ask better questions? Yes!
You want to become a better version of yourself and get into a fantastic college? Yes!