Our Admissions Philosophy
We tell families exactly what their student's application looks like to an admission officer. If Harvard is not realistic, you hear it in the first meeting. If your student is tired of the admissions lies, this is the firm for them.
How We Work
Most of this industry is built on telling parents what they want to hear. Nice meetings, vague optimism, and a rejection letter in March that nobody saw coming. We run the opposite way. Our team is led by former Harvard and Princeton admission officers, and the first thing they do with a new family is read the file the way they read it inside the admissions office. Then they say what they saw.
A B+ essay gets called a B+. A school list that is all reach gets rebuilt. An activities list with ten clubs and no story gets cut to the one thing that matters. Parents sometimes find the first meeting uncomfortable. They also find out where their child actually stands two years before the decision instead of two days after it.
You get the admission officer's honest read on every piece of the file. Grades, scores, essays, activities, recommendations. If something will not hold up in committee, you hear it from us first.
We track our own results school by school. 92% of our package clients applying early to Harvard got in over the last five years. 80% at Stanford. 70% at Caltech. We quote those numbers because we are willing to be measured against them.
Selective colleges build a well rounded class out of students who each go deep on one thing. Our whole process exists to find that one thing early and build it into something an admission officer can repeat in a sentence.
The Admissions Lies
These are the lines families hear from school counselors, forums and most consulting firms. Here is what former admission officers say instead.
The Lie
"Be well rounded. Colleges want a bit of everything."
The Fact
Harvard reads around 55,000 applications. Ten scattered activities disappear in that pile. One spike with real results, like a nonprofit with users or research in a journal, gets a sentence in committee. Sentences in committee get admitted.
The Lie
"Just be yourself in the essay and it will come through."
The Fact
An officer spends six to eight minutes on a file. The essay has to do a job in that window. Our students draft with former admission officers from August, finish all supplements by early November, and keep their own voice while doing it.
The Lie
"Your school counselor has it covered."
The Fact
A typical counselor splits time across 300 students and has never sat on a Harvard admissions committee. We respect the role. We also know it is not the same thing as a former officer reading your student's file for a hundred hours.
The Lie
"Apply regular decision and keep your options open."
The Fact
The early round is where the best odds live. We build the entire school list around early strategy, which is why 98.4% of our students gain admission to their first choice college.
The Lie
"It is a lottery. Nobody can predict it."
The Fact
It is unpredictable for applicants who look like everyone else. People who used to make these decisions can see which files will clear committee. Every one of our applications is reviewed by our Admissions Roundtable of former officers before it is submitted.
How We Differ From Other Firms
Most consulting firms hand your student a checklist and a Zoom link. Ivy Brothers works with a select group of families on bespoke, white glove packages, and the biggest part of what we deliver is access the student could not get on their own.
Access
When a student launches a venture through our Hook Program, we do not leave them to find members alone. Our network of 100+ mentors and past students helps recruit volunteers, first users, and partners. Past projects include apps, neural networks, literary journals, and a solar nonprofit started by a student who went on to Harvard.
Press
Our students' projects have been featured on the evening news. The firm has been covered by Entrepreneur, Fortune and CBS. When a project deserves attention, we help it get coverage, and that coverage goes in the file.
People
Our team is led by former Harvard and Princeton admission officers with 16+ years of experience. Research is supervised by professors from MIT, UPenn, Brown and Michigan. The person reading your student's essay has sat on the other side of the table.
Opportunities
Placements at partner companies including Julius Bär, Loro Piana, Oracle and Disney+. Published research with Ivy League PhDs and professors, and summer programs chosen from our internal database rather than a public list.
Most firms sell blocks of hours and bill for each one.
We sell one end to end package. One team, one plan, every step from freshman year to the acceptance letter, with no meter running.
Most firms take anyone who can pay.
We work with a select group of families each year so every student gets the same level of attention. We turn families away when we cannot move the outcome.
Most firms submit the application and wait.
Every application goes through our Admissions Roundtable. Former officers evaluate it exactly as they would have inside the office, then tell the student what to fix before it counts.
Most firms disappear after the decision.
Our students join a network of graduates at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Wharton that continues after the acceptance letter, with introductions for internships and careers.
Who We Work With
Our students come from Phillips Academy Andover, Eton College, Deerfield Academy, Harrow School and Sierra Canyon, and from top international schools across New York, Shanghai, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Their parents are used to white glove service in every other part of their lives and expect the same from admissions.
What they get from us is a bespoke plan, a direct line to the people who used to decide, and an honest answer every time they ask how it is going. If you want a firm that will make you feel good about a long shot, there are plenty. If you want to know where your student stands and what it will take, schedule a call.
Schedule a Consultation
Meet with a former admission officer who will read the file the way a committee reads it, and tell you honestly what it would take.
Schedule a Consultation