Folks sometimes ask us during free consults, “What differentiates Ivy Coach from every other private college counseling firm?” In all candor, we dislike the question. And why? Because the prospective client is, whether knowingly or unknowingly, asking us to sell and we have zero interest in selling. After all, we have entirely enough folks interested in our services. If a prospective client would like to work with another private college counseling firm, go forth and prosper. We’ll likely hear from them again around December 15th, when their child doesn’t get into their Early Decision or Early Action school and wants our help in the Regular Decision round. We make no promises that we’ll be available to work with them then. In fact, we likely won’t be available and even if we were, it’s extremely difficult to help folks craft powerful and compelling applications in the two weeks prior to applications being due on or around January 1st.

If you’re interested in comparing private college counseling firms, peruse the website of Ivy Coach. And then peruse the website of every other private college counseling firm. The difference will be evident. Listen to Maya Angelou: “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” Or don’t and we’ll likely hear from you December 15th. Harsh? Maybe. The truth? You bet it is.

There are quite literally thousands of private college counseling firms across America. We’ve never heard of just about all of them. If you peruse the websites of just about all of these firms, you’ll note template websites that lack creativity, originality, information, and overall spunk. If this isn’t a good indicator that the applications of your children will lack creativity, originality, information, and spunk, then we don’t know what is. As the great Maya Angelou taught the world, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” Really study these websites. All three pages of them. Study Ivy Coach’s website. All tens of thousands of pages of it. Ok, you likely won’t be able to read all of our content. In fact, it’s likely impossible. But read enough. You’ll get the hang of it. Read the Testimonials section. You’ll see full names on our site. Read the Testimonials on the sites of other private college counseling firms. Who is John and how do we know he actually went to Harvard? We don’t.

You’ll see the difference. And if our track record and reputation don’t precede us (they sure do!), then this sure should. But we kindly ask folks not to ask this question during free consults. It implies that it is our task to sell to you. What these parents — and it’s almost always the parents rather than the students — don’t realize is that this is a two-way street. We only work with so many students each year. We have a bandwidth. We are the leader in this space. It works both ways…