1. How will I meet with my Ivey College Coach? Will my Coach be able to meet with me evenings and weekends?

Because we work with applicants all around the United States and the world, your Ivey College Coach will work with you "virtually" rather than in person. We set up a password-protected collaboration website for each of our students that serves as "project headquarters" and where we post messages, drafts, questions, session notes, and documents for each other. (Parents/guardians will also have access to that collaboration site.) We know that high school students are typically not available for meetings during the school day, and they are located in many different time zones, and we try to accommodate student and family schedules as much as possible.

2. When should I start working with you?

You should start working with us whenever you are ready. We will begin working with you as early as the beginning of 9th grade, and as late as the beginning of 12th grade. Most applicants choose to start working with us sometime between January 1st of 10th grade and February 1st of 11th grade.

3. Should I wait until I have my SAT/ACT scores before I contact you?

It's best if you begin working with us before you have your scores. We can give you our advice on test prep options and timelines, and we can tackle bigger strategy questions long before you have a score, especially in a college universe that is increasingly test-optional. The earlier we start strategizing together, the more time you have to implement your strategy.

4. How will I be matched with my Ivey College Coach?

In 9th and 10th grade, you do your own matching – you can book your sessions with the Coaches of your choice, subject to their availability. (Not all Coaches on our team work with 9th and 10th graders.) For our packages in 11th and 12th grade, we focus on matching you with the Coach who will work best with you. We consider your personality, interests, and personal circumstances (including schedule and time zone) in choosing your Coach. If you want to work with a particular Coach, we will do our best to accommodate that request.

5. I'm probably not in the running for admission to a top college. Will you still work with me?

Absolutely. All we require of you is motivation and ethical behavior. That said, our expertise lies with helping applicants who want to get into one of the 500 or so selective U.S. colleges. By "selective," we mean those colleges that admit only a percentage of their applicants and that use a holistic admissions process ("holistic" in an admissions context means that admission is based on more than just GPA or test scores). If you are not aiming for a selective college, we probably don't have enough value to offer you.

6. Do you have experience working with international students?

Yes. Every year, about 40% of the applicants we work with are international students, and they come from all over the globe — Europe, Africa and the Middle East, South America, and Asia. Our only additional requirement for international students is that they read, speak, and understand English well enough to work with an English-speaking Coach and that their English is proficient enough to comfortably complete their college applications in English.

7. I just want some help with my essays. Do you have a package for that?

No. We won't work with you on your essays alone, because your essays are just one component of the large application that an admissions officer will consider when deciding whether to admit you. Admissions officers do not read essays in a vacuum, and so we don’t review them in a vacuum either. We are committed to helping you in a way that will actually improve your chances for admission, and the best way to do that is to help you think about and work on your essays in the context of your whole application. More generally, in our work together we try to teach you to “think like an admissions officer,” and that includes thinking about how a given essay works together with other components of the application.

8. What if I want to work with you through all phases of the application process? Do you have a package covering all years of high school that I can purchase upfront?

We are happy to work with you through all phases of the process. We do not offer a four-year package, because you are the best judge of how much help you will need, and it can be hard for you (or for us) to predict what your needs will be three or four years in advance. We do not want to lock you in and sell you services that won't end up adding value for you. Rather than asking you to commit to purchasing a package spanning three or four years, we allow you to purchase smaller packages and add on additional services when the time comes. That gives you more flexibility if you're starting earlier in high school.

9. Do you write essays for your clients?

Emphatically no. Our goal is to help you submit the best applications of which you are capable. Our students work hard on their application materials and are prepared for honest feedback. Think of yourself as an athlete in training, and us as your coaches — you'll still run your own laps and lift your own weights, while we help you train for the big competition.

10. Can you guarantee me admission to a particular school? What is your success rate?

No, we never guarantee admission to any school. Anyone with first-hand admissions experience knows that only the admissions officers who make the final decision on your applications can guarantee you acceptance to their schools. Nobody else can. Furthermore, to offer some kind of "guarantee," we would have to pre-screen prospective clients ruthlessly and turn down anyone who might hurt our "guarantee" or the appearance of our "success rate."

All of our clients are different. They come from all walks of life, with different talents, achievements, and challenges in their backgrounds. Success means different things to different people. For one person, only a highly selective school is worth the time and expense of working with us. For another, a somewhat lower-ranked school with a big scholarship is a huge success. For students with problematic records, getting into a selective college is a big win. We want to add value no matter what your baselines and measures of success are.

We would never turn someone away as a potential client just because he or she is not likely to go to a top school or because someone has real challenges. We love working with superstars, but people who have experienced bumps in the road are just as important and interesting to us. As long as you are willing to work hard on the application process and are willing to approach the process ethically, we consider it a privilege to collaborate with you.

Here's how we measure success: You get into the colleges that are right for you, the colleges where you will thrive, the colleges where you want to be. By this measure, our clients are remarkably successful. With very few exceptions, almost all of those we have coached have gotten into one or more of their top choice schools. But it’s important to emphasize that you get out of the process only what you put in. We do not have magic wands.

11. The counseling process involves a lot of personal details. I'm nervous about sharing them with a stranger.

We know that we can give you the best advice only if you feel comfortable being completely honest with us, and we promise students and their families that we will keep their information—and even the fact that we are working together—confidential, unless you decide to put us in communication with someone else to discuss some aspect of the application process or the working relationship.

12. I'm embarrassed about some really stupid things I've done.

If you've done some stupid things, we have a couple of reactions: We've all done stupid things. We are not here to judge you. We see our job as helping you deal with them ethically and effectively in the application process.

The admissions process sometimes makes you shine a spotlight on some of your stupid things, and that's not a pleasant experience. However, you'll need to know how they will affect your applications and even your longer-term plans. So we encourage you to be open and honest with your Coach about those kinds of issues in your background.

And don't fudge those issues in your application. You don't want to spend this important time in your life worrying that something you lied about will come to light later. Colleges can and do revoke offers when they discover dishonesty in the admissions process. It's better to confront those issues now and figure out the best way to deal with them sooner rather than later. We can't be as helpful to you if we don't have the full picture.

13. Can you come to my school or organization to speak to our group?

Yes. Anna, Alison, and other members of our team routinely give talks and are happy to tailor the content to the interests of your audience. Please contact us about availability.

14. Where can I find out more about your team's background?

Click here, which will take you to our team bios.

15. I have additional questions. How can I get more information?

Please send additional questions to us through our online contact form, which is the fastest way to reach us. We are happy to hear from you.