Ivy Coach as Your College Admissions Consultant

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Years ago, college applicants with perfect or near perfect SATs who were ranked number 1 or 2 in their high school classes were often admitted to all of the colleges to which they applied. But this is not the case today. Since more students are applying to colleges today and since those students are each submitting more applications than ever before, many of these highly selective colleges now receive between 20,000 and 50,000 undergraduate applications a year and accept only 5% to 10% of their applicant pools. For the college Class of 2023, the Ivy League universities received between 23,650 applications (Dartmouth College) to 49,118 applications (Cornell University) and accepted applicant pools in the single digits — just check out our page on Ivy League Statistics. So one may wonder what is it that these most prestigious colleges are looking for when they admit their candidates. Read More

In essence, these highly selective colleges are seeking a well-rounded class of uniquely talented students. Note that they’re not looking for a well-rounded applicant. They may be looking for the recruited water polo player, the oboist, the ballet dancer, the thespian, or the math or science researcher. In addition to having great standardized test scores and terrific grades in the most challenging high school curriculum, students also should have an exceptional application highlighting the strengths and talents that make them unique.

We work closely with our students to improve their odds of admission to highly selective colleges, including within:

  • The Personal Statement
  • Supplemental essays that should be tailored to the given schools
  • Activity sheets
  • Teacher and counselor recommendations
  • The college interview evaluation
  • Follow-up correspondences with schools

Our college admissions expertise is what makes Ivy Coach the premier college consultant worldwide.

Why hire Ivy Coach instead of another college admissions consultant?

What we are most certainly not at Ivy Coach are entrepreneurs with a lack of experience in college admissions. Unfortunately, too many private college counseling services are just that. We’ve been in this business for over a quarter of a century and have earned our world class reputation as experts in the field. We’re primarily in this business because with our expertise in helping students get admitted to selective colleges, we can help our students achieve their dreams — and that’s a wonderful, lasting feeling. Read More

Our Founder, Bev Taylor, is a respected leader in the field of highly selective college admissions and has been for years. Drop her name at a conference on college admissions and you bet people know it. In fact, there’s a good chance she’s a keynote speaker at that conference. And the college consultants on staff at Ivy Coach previously evaluated applications for undergraduate admission at highly selective colleges. They’re not parents who helped their children get into college. They’re not merely students who managed to get admitted to an Ivy League school and now want to offer their insightful advice to applicants.

At Ivy Coach, we give it to you straight. If you’re a Chinese American applicant who plays the violin and excels in math, we’re going to help you differentiate yourself from all of the other Chinese American applicants. While this may not be PC, it’s the truth. If you’re involved in a host of extracurricular activities but no one commitment stands out as unique, we’ll help you find your angle so that you don’t come across as a student who does activities just to get into college…because admissions officers can see right through that! If you want your college application to stand out from the pack, if you want an admissions officer to single out your application as one he or she wants to go to bat for, then complete our form for a free 20-minute consultation to get started with the premier private college admissions consultant worldwide.

Do you only work with Ivy League applicants?

No. With our expertise in highly selective college admissions, we help our students improve their odds of admission to the colleges that are appropriate for them. Ivy League or not. If you can help students earn admission to Ivy League colleges, it’s only easier to help them earn admission to less selective universities. But the approach is the same.

I live in Montana. So how can you be my son’s college consultant?

Through phone, email, FaceTime, and Skype, we are a college consultant to students from across the nation and around the world, available seven days a week. When we Skype with a student in Oman, it’s as though we’re in the same room, going over the student’s college essays. And if you think you’d be at a disadvantage to live so far away from us, know that we don’t meet with New Yorkers either — students and parents from the very city in which we’re based. Not even if they live in the building next-door to our offices on Manhattan’s Upper East Side (hey over there!). It’s simply not necessary. To put it in teenager speak, this is how we roll.

When should I hire Ivy Coach to work with my child?

Many of our students come to us in their sophomore or junior year of high school. But we also work with students as their college consultant as early as eighth grade. If you’re interested in our college consulting services for your kindergartner, though, look elsewhere. The benefit to our clients of starting in eighth or ninth grade is that we can help to maximize on the student’s academic curriculum. We can help them discover their intellectual interests. And we can help them shape their extracurricular activities to hone their passions. Another benefit of starting early is that since our fee for our application packages goes up annually, our clients are able to lock in our current rate. But that doesn’t mean we’re open to kindergartners. We’re not! A college consultant for a kindergartner? Oy vey!

Do you work in conjunction with my child’s school counselor?

We have found that even though some high school counselors may welcome the help from a college consultant, we prefer to work behind the scenes. And any college admissions consultant who works in front of the scenes should be avoided. It is to a student’s distinct disadvantage to tout that they had help in this process.

Do you work with applicants for graduate school admissions, too?

We sure do! Our success with helping students share their unique and compelling narratives extends to the graduate school admissions process as well — whether it’s to business schools, medical schools, law schools, or any other master’s or PhD graduate programs. We help our graduate school applicants differentiate themselves, to stand out from the herd. Put it this way — you won’t find our medical school applicants writing about how grandma’s illness inspired their journey into medicine. You won’t find our business school applicants writing about trading futures. Not on our watch.