Why Us

We Specialize In Working With High-Achieving Students In The Top 5-10%

IvySelect is one of just a handful of firms in the world that specializes in working with high-achieving students gearing for admission to Ivy League and other top universities in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. We are a boutique firm, focusing on the particular needs of students applying to top schools. This means that we work with many fewer students so that we may spend more time with you. Our individualized, customized and comprehensive program is designed to enhance both your academic and extracurricular profiles so that you can be a more competitive applicant to elite universities. IvySelect’s college counselors offer you first-rate backgrounds and top-level strategic guidance. You’ll be in the best hands possible as you pursue admission to Ivy League universities, peer institutions like Stanford, Duke, Chicago and MIT or top liberal arts colleges like Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams and Pomona.

We Provide Unrivaled Guidance For Students In The Top 10-20%

If you’re in the top 10-20% of your class, you need to know this: the game for you is the same as for students who are competitive to the very top schools. Very selective universities and colleges, particularly private schools, utilize the same “holistic” admissions approach as used by the Ivies and other elite universities. Holistic admissions sounds precisely like what it is – evaluating you as a “whole person.” Through strategic advice, IvySelect helps you elevate your academic and extracurricular portfolio, so that you’ll stand out in the holistic admissions process. Essays are a significant part of holistic evaluation. As with students applying to the most competitive schools, both your main Common App essay and your supplemental essays are incredibly important. We lavish the same time and attention on your essays as with any of our students. Don’t worry – we’re not going to spend less time with you because we’re fixated on students applying to the Ivies. All our students deserve our best, and you’ll get it from us. Whether private universities like NYU, Boston University, George Washington or Boston College are “in your crosshairs,” whether you’re considering first-rate public flagship universities like Virginia, Michigan, UCLA, North Carolina, or Wisconsin, or whether you’re drawn to selective liberal arts colleges like Skidmore, Oberlin, Bucknell and Bard, we will assist you in finding your best fit.

Unsurpassed Experience, Talent & Intelligence

IvySelect college counselors have the first-rate experience and backgrounds that you’d expect. We also possess the talent to help you write winning essays and the intelligence to help smart students like you through the process. It seems to us that having the experience to help is only half the package. You want an individual guiding you who attended a top school and has the brainpower to help strategize and critique your work. We meet and exceed those criteria. Moreover, our world-class counseling will ramp up your knowledge base, increase your choices and help you avoid critical errors. We offer you top-level essay assistance and the global strategic positioning that will help maximize your competitive stature to elite colleges. IvySelect provides unsurpassed excellence in college counseling.

Academic & Membership Credentials That You Can Trust

The truth is, anyone – including individuals with no college counseling experience – can hang out a shingle and call himself or herself a college consultant. These “counselors” fail to meet the required training and are without the requisite degrees and background to acquire membership in college counseling’s most prestigious and influential associations. Other consultants do not wish to meet the rigorous standards required of association members, including visiting college campuses, attending college conferences, professional development and, most importantly, adhering to standards of ethics and good practice. IvySelect’s counselors are very different. The Director of IvySelect, for example, has first-rate credentials and is a member of the premier college consulting associations that you can trust. He is an Ivy Leaguer, one of a very limited number of college counselors in the world to have the necessary background to be awarded the College Specialist designation as a Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), and was an Admissions Interviewer and Member of the Secondary School Committee for Penn. You can read much more regarding IvySelect’s top-flight college admissions counselors on the About Us page.

We Specialize In Top College Admissions

IvySelect is among a handful of firms in the country that truly specialize in top college admissions. We’re at the top of our game so you can be at the top of yours. We gear our college visits, reading, research, contacts and professional development to acquire accurate, timely and insightful information related to Ivy League admissions, including the academics, culture and environment at the Ivies and their peers, extending to the top 50 colleges and universities in the United States.

We Help You Find Your Best Fit Among Top-Tier Colleges

Our focus on elite universities means that we are able to spend much more of our time researching top-tier colleges and need not devote our precious resources on learning about all 3,000+ schools in the country. This superior knowledge translates into helping you create an informed college list based on your goals and passions. We assist you in getting beyond the prestige factor related to highly selective colleges, to truly understand the environment where you will be academically engaged, happy and successful. IvySelect’s college counselors will help provide you with the unsurpassed guidance to find the college of your dreams.

We Care

There’s a great deal of pressure associated with trying to get into the top schools in the country. With acceptance rates as low as the single digits, the process is more stressful than ever for both students and their parents. We can’t promise to alleviate all the stress, but we definitely can (and do) help. We truly care about you. Of course, we care about your academic success and we’ll provide you with the confidence to successfully navigate the process. But we also care about you as an individual and your happiness. We’re there to support you, coach you, motivate you and listen to you. We’ll be there if and when you need us!