For better or worse, colleges do pay attention to your First Year. Luckily, so do we.

We're here to start your family off on the right path by creating clear expectations and a healthy mentality toward college.

In First Year, we introduce the college application process to younger students in a way that eases them in - minimizing anxiety and confusion while answering their questions.

In a series of sessions, we will focus on essential admissions topics like:

• Understanding your course trajectory at your school and anticipating any scheduling challenges.
• Balancing the importance of course rigor with mental health.
• Understanding the role of rigorous coursework (of AP, IB, DE, Honors) in the admissions process.
• Identifying extracurricular commitments and pathways to deepen and expand through high school.
• Completing basic college research, and gaining familiarity with the college landscape.
• Sharing our 3-pronged approach to ECs: school-based engagement, helping someone else, and passion projects.
• Discussing “spikiness vs roundedness” and laying the seeds of a plan for your application narrative.

In Sophomore year, decisions multiply as the branches of an application narrative begin to grow. Our work focuses on helping you lock in the academic and extracurricular direction that will set you up for the all-important Junior year.

Sophomore Year services focus on:

• “Pruning” the extracurricular tree and ensuring the student is focusing their efforts on the most meaningful and strategically impactful extracurriculars.
• Taking next-steps with college research, including planning school/virtual tours, and learning about majors and academic programs.
• Helping to make important course-planning decisions for Junior year informed by an appreciation for rigor and a continued commitment to preserving mental health and “staying power.”
• Making a test-taking plan and connecting with any prep services needed.
• Auditing course rigor and assessing whether the student is on track for admissions goals and college list.
• Evaluating summer programs and "pay to play" opportunities.

Sophomore year is where the really important decisions are made, ones that dictate how you'll spend the next two years of high school. Our goal is to help you make the best decisions in view of a broader application strategy.

Finish Junior year with momentum and a plan.

Your third year of high school is the most important to admissions officers. Admissions committees look most closely on Junior year commitments and grades.

In Junior year, sessions focus on the following areas:

• Making last-minute changes to extracurriculars to coalesce the narratives that will be central to your applications.
• Completing any unfinished school research and beginning to demonstrate interest in relevant schools.
• Solidifying a college list and strategic application narrative that incorporates areas of extracurricular and personal experience throughout high school.
• Solidifying major/academic study decisions and evaluating the strategic impact of major decisions on admissions plans.
• Setting up a summer plan that dovetails with the beginning of application season in Senior year.
• By the end of Junior year, students should be prepared for the rigorous college application process in Senior year.

Senior year is when it all comes together, the foundation you've laid across four years of high school, in the college application process. How do you communicate your unique story? Strike a strategic narrative? Develop the perfect college list? It's not easy.

We help you feel confident about your application, focusing on written and narrative strategy. You've got one shot at crafting the best application possible; we're here to help.

Our most intensive work happens every year with our senior class as we guide them through the exhaustive (and exhausting!) process of creating and submitting the strongest college applications possible.

Our Senior packages start in rising-Senior summer. We offer two core packages based on whether you are applying to the UCs or not.