Working with Jocelyn is absolutely game-changing. Her organizational skills and cooperation were…read morefundamental for my success in graduate applications. If you have any struggles with writing, researching, or simply organizing school applications, this is the program you must use. Thank you so much for all your help, and I hope that more people realize what an incredible boon this service really is!

I highly recommend Ms. Veasley's college prep service, she was always well prepared , knows her…read morematerials and certainly understands what the students need extra work on, she has definitely helped my daughters improved on certain areas of ACT , we appreciate her service. L. Lin

The advocate you want in your greatest time of need. This is not just one person, but a team of…read moreexperts who care about you and your child. They bring a depth of knowledge and experience to their intuitive approach to helping match families with solutions. Shay is an incredible mix of touchy-feely, intuitive, listening, and connected - with a fierce side of get 'er done. This is the team of experts you want when trying to advocate for your child.

Shay and Karen have been by my side through thick and thin. They have always been understanding and…read morecompassionate and helped me find my way. They have helped me navigate through those hard times and continue to be considered dear friends I can always reach out to. Shay and Karen truly saved my life. I am not a parent, I am a young adult who has been working with them for the past 3 years. They have stepped in and helped me when I could not rely on my own parents. They have treated me as a friend, and mentee, and almost as if I am one of their own. I love them both dearly. They have been by my side through the rough times and they have been on the other side of the bride to see me come out with success. They have guided me every step of the way. If I ever need someone to talk to in the middle of the night I feel safe calling either of them. I truly have a unique bond with them than I have ever had with any counselor or therapist. I recommend anyone needing help with counseling or treatment to run straight to them for help. They know what to do and will put you in the right direction. I even had someone tell me that Shay and Karen are a "BIG DEAL" in the recovery world. I feel honored to be their client and have such a strong bond with them. You will not be disappointed!!!!

I want to echo Erica's review and wished I had seen it before we hired this company. It was a…read moredisaster, and only by terminating them early (ghosting) did we salvage our child's senior year and college choices. We used Scalora, whom we came to call the Dark Angel for her negative, cynical and degrading perspective. She had stories to tell! Rape, cover-ups and Title IX violations at the Ivy League and said she was always disgusted when a student of hers wanted to go to one or worse, did. Except we had hired her with full disclosure that our child was pining for a top Ivy and had been for years. By senior year, she said she would be SHOCKED if our child got into her selected schools - read and weep. Worse, she was mean spirited and lazy. Our child was terrified of her, and she hardly bothered to edit essays and even told us that she had read thousands of essays and that they really didn't differ that much, 18 years olds were not capable of profound or original thought in her opinion and these essays mattered little. Only INSTITUTIONAL PRIORITIES decided outcomes and these were out of our control. Why she is in this field, I cannot fathom, except she genuflects on UT as being above repute. Anyway after finding a long series of errors in my child's applications, (including an AP score of 3 taken during a covid year is a lesser mistake - ivy league schools do not want to see 3's and our child had a long string of 5's to self-report), spelling errors and places where our child showed me this woman had changed essays for the worse, we had the Dark Angel locked out and used the high school counselor at our public school. Yeah, the free clinic was far better. This guy helped out starting very near the application deadline and made enormous differences by first, being encouraging. He was a cheerleader who was rooting for what our kid wanted. What was wanted? A top New York area institution. The Dark Angel had said if that was the goal, then Fordham might be squeaked out, but still a reach. The free clinic, said safety - you've got the scores, grades, story and desire - go for it all. Applied to Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Barnard and NYU - not Fordham. Got into them ALL. And the top west coast schools, full ride at Tulane, blah blah blah. Best is our kid is so happy and the stress level at our house dropped palpably immediately after ditching the Dark Angel. Go for the light - that under-paid, over worked guy in the little office at your local public school is far better than this company. You don't need this, don't make your child's experience miserable, enjoy that senior year, trust the folks who have a vested interest in your child's dreams. Go for it ALL.

Summary: Doran & Scalora told us University of Colorado at Boulder could not be characterized as a…read moreback up school, which made absolutely no sense given my child's GPA, test scores and extracurriculars. After switching to a competing firm, we received totally different and better advice. To give you a sense of the contrast, with the encouragement of the competing firm (as opposed to the discouragement of Doran & Scalora), my child landed my child's first choice Ivy League school. Details: We hired Doran & Scalora after the end of my child's sophomore year. Although we had heard great things about one of the founders (Doran), we had to settle for one of the associates (Kinsey), since Doran was booked. We paid a hefty fixed fee for a year's worth of advice to help develop a college list that included target, back up and reach schools. We were told we would get all the benefit and experience of the founder (Doran), as the advisor (Kinsey) worked closely with Doran on all of her clients' lists. The advice we ended up receiving was not specific to our child or especially helpful; the advisor did not offer special insights into any of the schools, their communities, what they are looking for in applicants, etc. The schools the advisor suggested my child consider were all schools we thought would have been back-ups, given that my child had over a 4.0 GPA at a competitive private high school, 4s and 5s on AP exams, a varsity sport and a fine although not extraordinary resume of work and extracurriculars. When we categorized two schools the advisor recommended - University of Indiana and University of Colorado at Boulder -- as back up schools, the advisor announced that while my child had a good chance at University of Indiana, University of Colorado at Boulder could not be considered a back-up. When I asked the advisor to explain why she felt that way, she could not explain. I pointed out that UColo's acceptance rate was higher than Indiana's and pressed the advisor to explain why she thought our child had a great shot at Indiana but a slim chance at UColo. The advisor could not offer any explanation and acknowledged out loud that her inability to explain must seem odd. I figured the advisor was merely reciting what Doran had told her, would talk with Doran about the reasoning, and would be able to explain later. The advisor was never able to explain her view. In the meantime, my child was totally demoralized. After I accessed Naviance (the school's system that shows where past students were admitted and rejected) and saw that students with much lower GPAs and scores were all accepted at both schools, I knew that the advice we were receiving was both wrong and detrimental, and we stopped using Doran & Scalora. The failures of Doran & Scalora became even more apparent when we hired a competitor, At Home Tutoring Service (Alexandra Waxman), by the hour before senior year. See my all star review of At Home Tutoring Service for more details, but suffice it to say that my experience there was night and day different than my experience with Doran & Scalora. I felt that I wasted my money with this firm and would not use them again.

I recently took the in-person GMAT course with Mark Robinson, and the class got me motivated to…read morefinally study! Mark has a plethora of knowledge from his 10 years of teaching. The class itself was very fast-paced though, and it was easy to get lost with all the tips and tricks without the background knowledge. Hence, that's why it's important to complete the Skillbuilders before class. If you are a student that understands the basic concepts, and just want to get through a test taking plateau, then Mark is your guy.

Mark is an incredible instructor, a proud family man and a fascinating character. I took his in…read moreperson GMAT prep course in 2018 and I highly recommend signing up. The course itself is intense and challenging but Mark's enthusiasm and evident passion for the subject-matter keep students engaged and motivated. In short, Mark is the instructor you want to prep with.

The college application process and landscape have changed so much since I was a college applicant,…read moreI wanted to make sure my son would be prepared for the challenge. I had colleges in mind for my son but I needed a third party who is familiar with the process and have resources to elevate him as a strong candidate. I also needed someone to coach him so that I end up not being a "nag" essentially. I felt confident after interviewing and researching several college application counseling services that Ivy Scholars was the one. What I liked about Ivy Scholars was their bespoke approach to coaching the candidate. It was one on one which I truly loved - Not some group in a conference room discussing your child and giving vague ideas of how to build your candidacy. I felt Ivy Scholars focused on the individual candidate. Meeting with Sasha was great, instant confidence. I reviewed his team and they were all very professional and very qualified. It offered candidacy building, test prep, and essay and application help. Everything I was looking for. I had a lot of trepidation about spending money (it is expensive, they all are) on college applications but I felt it would help my son. I needed help as a parent. Well, it was well worth it. Actually I would say Ivy Scholars helped my son beyond what I expected. Daniel Schriever was my son's weekly coach and counselor. He was patient, thoughtful, and really talented. He took the time to learn my son's personality - strengths and weaknesses. My son was not the most organized - typical teenage boy. He worked with him and learned of his passions and interests and helped him get an internship that he loved. It fit right in with his interests. He helped him connect with a research mentor and he was able to submit his research for publication. As for the college application process, well, my son, out of the blue, wanted to apply to the service academies. That is a whole another beast of a process. Daniel helped with 16 college applications and three service academy applications. The essays, the college app, coached him on military panel interviews as well as congressional nomination interviews. So now we have a problem - a good problem to have, we never expected. He got accepted to UT Austin early action as an out of state applicant. They had 140,000 applicants this year - 95% deferred, and only 10% is out of state. He is a national Air Force ROTC Scholarship recipient as well as Army ROTC Scholarship recipient. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy (West Point) with three Congressional nominations. He also got accepted to 11 other colleges of which they are rewarding him with scholarships. Thank you Daniel, Sasha, Dr Len and Team

I sought Ivy Scholars for my daughter in the spring of her junior year and through the fall…read moresemester of her senior year, leading up to her college acceptance at her first-choice university. While my child had a great GPA, high test scores, and some admirable extracurricular accomplishments, I felt she needed help standing out in a crowded, hyper competitive applicant pool. What attracted me to Ivy Scholars is that is they are based in Houston (I also considered national counseling services based on the West Coast and East Coast) and therefore knew the local Houston area high schools and how candidates from the South compete at Ivy/Ivy Plus colleges. I admit that I was initially skeptical if the money would be worth it and if advice would be meaningfully different from the private high schools. My conclusion is YES it was worth it, and here are four things that I got from Ivy Scholars and from no one else: 1. Clear-eyed, objective analysis with pointed feedback: Sasha blew us away at our first interview. He asked a lot of questions, cut to the chase, and offered at least three different approaches to up the game. My experience with other counselors had been generic and friendly, "you do you" message for the applicant. Sasha zoned in on my daughter's options and gaps that had to be filled depending on the option we selected. I also greatly appreciated his insight into what activities NOT to invest in anymore since more is not always better. 2. Application strategy: besides the application itself, other factors just as Early Decision (1 or 2), Early Action, major selection, etc. affect the odds. Ivy Scholars was the only source who could provide specific multipliers that improve or hurt one's chances for acceptance. These multipliers are based on actual data from the colleges. Because of this insight, we had not just a college list but a detailed sequence to execute for early decision, early action, regular, majors, supplemental essays, etc. 2. Ruthless editing: My daughter worked with Dave W. to edit 14 essays for the Common App and supplementals. Quote from my daughter: "it was nice working with someone who didn't know who I was or was worried about hurting my feelings. We just got right down to the point and worked on making the essays better. There was no wasted time." She had her Common App done by the summer. 4. Capstone opportunities: Ivy Scholars provided unique capstone opportunities through their extensive network, enabling my daughter to undertake projects that set her apart. These opportunities, associated with prestigious academic institutions, enhanced her resume in ways beyond what her high school or clubs could offer. For those who are considering Ivy Scholars, I hope that this breakdown of benefits helps other parents make a decision. Ivy Scholars took my stress level down from 95% to 5% and boosted my daughter's confidence in the process, well before the acceptance emails started to roll in. I highly recommend Ivy Scholars and would use them again for my other children.