College admissions consulting in New York City.

Working with New York families

New York is the most competitive admissions market in the country. Students at the city's independent and specialised high schools are applying against classmates with the same grades, the same scores and often the same activities. A strong transcript is the entry fee rather than the differentiator.

Dalton, Horace Mann, Trinity, Collegiate, Brearley and Riverdale are read closely by American committees, as are Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Hunter and Regis. An officer opening a file from any of them already knows what the grades are worth, which settles the question of rigour and does nothing for the question of distinctiveness.

What separates applications at that level is whether a student has built something an admission officer can describe in a sentence. That is the work we do, and we start it early enough to matter, usually in sophomore or junior year.

What a New York engagement includes

Families work with us on a single end-to-end package rather than buying hours. One team, one plan, from the first strategy session through to the acceptance letter.

• Strategy and school list built around early-round positioning rather than copied from the rankings.
• Personal statement and supplements, developed with former admission officers from August and finished by early November.
• The Hook Program, in which a student builds an original project — an app, a nonprofit, a journal, a venture with real users.
• Independent academic research with a Ph.D. or professor, published in an academic journal.
• Summer programs and internships drawn from our own database and partner companies.
• Admissions Roundtable review, where former officers evaluate the finished application before it is submitted.

Pricing sits in two tiers, Standard and Premium. Both are quoted after a private consultation. See how the tiers differ.

Why families choose us over a local counsellor

A school counsellor in New York typically splits their time across several hundred students and has never sat on an admissions committee. That is not a criticism of the role; it is a description of the workload.

Our team is led by people who used to make these decisions. They read a file the way a committee reads it and say what they saw, which is sometimes uncomfortable in a first meeting and considerably more useful two years before a decision than two days after it. More on how we work.

Our New York office

Meetings are held by video call or in person by arrangement. We also work with families in San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, Tokyo and Dubai.

Where else we work

Alongside New York, we work with families in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok.