When I applied to college, I relied primarily upon the guidance counselors at my high school for information about the application process. What a mistake! In retrospect, my application strategy was terrible and I was not admitted to any of my top choices. This disappointment, however, motivated me to study diligently in college and emerge with a 3.9 cumulative GPA. After taking the LSAT and scoring a 168, I sought to avoid a repeat of my undergraduate admissions experience.

It became clear that law school admissions was primarily a "numbers game." It became equally clear, however, that my numbers placed me precisely on the fringe in terms of being admitted to a top-3 school. It seemed that I had approximately a 40-50% chance of being admitted to Harvard, with Stanford and Yale as longer-shot possibilities. The question then occurred to me, "If half the applicants with my numbers are admitted to Harvard and half are rejected, what is it about the admitted students' applications that Harvard finds attractive?" I decided that, although numbers limit the range of schools where an applicant may be admitted, the application itself plays a decisive role. I decided that I needed to maximize every subjective aspect of my application in order to improve my chances.

When I began researching admissions consultants, I was initially reluctant due to the price. When viewed in light of the thousands of hours that went into my undergraduate work, the $1000 I paid for an LSAT prep course, the $500+ dollars I would be spending on application fees, and the $150,000 + I would be spending to attend law school, however, the price seemed very worthwhile.

I chose to use Anna Ivey's service because she has seen the process from the inside-out at its highest levels. She served as the Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago, a school with a highly selective admissions process. What it is that schools at the level of Chicago seek in applicants, I don't know; but Anna does because she made thousands of those decisions when she served as the Dean. That makes her unique, as far as I know, among admissions consultants.

Beware of other services where they claim to have "worked in the admissions office at Harvard." Admissions offices have janitors, too. Very few people actually make decisions at the highest levels of admissions, and Anna is the only one I know who is available to share that knowledge with applicants. In addition, she is very friendly and easy to work with. She will not only help you strengthen your application in order to maximize your chances, but also learn about your academic and professional interests and help you shape your application strategy accordingly.

As I write this from the Langdell library at Harvard Law School, I can say with certainty that her service is well worth the cost. The only negative about working with Anna is that every time it's freezing cold here, I have to wonder whether I should have gone to Stanford. She helped put me in the God-awful position of having to choose between the two.

—Harvard Law School