Complete waste of time - the consultants did not help, their system was a joke, and nothing but waste of time and money.

We feel so lucky that our son worked with Dr. Megan Race. She kept him, and all of us, on track. She was everything one would want in a college consultant and more! This was our first time in the college process and she made the whole process less stressful. It was so helpful to have an expert guide us and be the one to help direct our son (vs us nagging him!). Our son got into his first choice college (early decision) and we are looking forward to working with Spark again for our second child. Besides having great consultants, Spark fully understands the college landscape and they give you that incredible inside knowledge to help craft your child's whole process. We looked at lots of college consultant companies and know Spark and especially Megan was the best choice for our son! read more

The words "thank you" seem inadequate for the academic support, emotional support (mostly for the parents), and the overall assistance with the college application process, but really - thank you. It is ALWAYS a pleasure to work with someone who knows and loves her work - and who then makes it easy for her clients to trust her and her advice! That is clearly Rachel. Rachel was absolutely influential in helping our daughter create the right "list" of schools for her, as well as guiding us in high school course selection decisions. We appreciated the recalculation of our daughter's GPA and the view from the perspective of an admissions officer. It was a true pleasure to have Rachel guide our daughter in both the applications and the essays themselves (much less fighting in our house because of Rachel!!). A very heartfelt thank you from our family to Rachel at Spark Admissions! read more

If you're looking for college application support, I highly recommend Matt Newman with Spark Admissions. Matt worked extensively with our son to craft his application essays and other submissions; not an easy challenge given our son's short attention span and lack of focus on details. Matt was tireless in providing help and encouragement. He also made a very complex process simple for us and took away (most of) the stress. The result was 5 college offers, two at schools we thought were beyond reach. Five-plus stars! read more

We have worked with Rachel Blankstein for 4 years and couldn't be happier with our relationship. Rachel worked with my daughter and is now working with my son throughout the entire college preparation and application process. She has made a complicated and stressful experience enjoyable with her knowledge and organization. She is responsive, generous with her time and has been a part time therapist to my daughter and us:) I cannot emphasize enough how Rachel helped eliminate the majority of stress that goes along with the college entry experience. The earlier you work with her the better so she can help build your students resume with the experiences needed to make them more well rounded students. My daughter received offers from every school she applied to - amazing! Thank you Rachel and Spark Admissions! read more

Rachel at Spark Admissions is really excellent. She made the whole process of navigating the college admissions process a lot less stressful and much more manageable for our son. She created a step by step plan early, and provided guidance and follow-up throughout. She was great at brainstorming with our son to help bring out his unique individual story that could get reflected in his essays. Rachel is very knowledgeable about the admissions process and different schools. She spent time both with our son and with us, sharing that knowledge and guiding, and was always available. We are truly grateful to Rachel and Spark Admissions! read more

Rachel and her team saved us. They are world class, top notch full service counselors who make the college application stressless and positive, but also realistic and no nonsense advice. Excellent client service and tutoring services. My daughters love the staff. KR read more

The college application process can be a time of tension, stress, and confusion. Thank God we found Rachel. She may be the most organized and thoroughly conscientious person I know. Rachel made excellent recommendations for our daughter on how best to strengthen her application, she offered guidance on course selection, made suggestions for colleges that would be a good fit for our child, as well as represented a calm presence in the midst of chaos. If you are lucky enough to get the chance to work with Rachel or her colleagues, take it. A beacon of light through the fog. We couldn't be happier with our experience of Spark or with the results for our daughter. A +++ read more

Our daughter worked with Dr Rubin starting in the summer before her sophomore year and has just been accepted to a very competitive BS/MD program. Rachel was very helpful at all parts of this very stressful process -- identifying relevant extracurricular course and activities, keeping her on track with standardized testing and subject tests, identifying schools that would be a good fit as well as being a sounding board for all the essays and supplements. I would strongly recommend Dr Rubin. read more

My family was introduced to Dr. Rachel Rubin through a close friend. Since then, she has been invaluable as both a guide through the intricacies of the college process, but also as a friend. Starting in junior year, she helped my older brother hone in on his strengths while rounding out his application; as a result, he was accepted into his dream school and several other top universities. As I needed more direction, I started meeting with Rachel in my sophomore year. At the outset, she tailored a plan to transform me from a subpar student into a competitive college applicant. She was involved in every step of the way, providing a constant stream of guidance and support. From internships to research programs to volunteer opportunities, she was always in the know as to what was best for me. As college deadlines approached, she helped me construct a compelling application by providing critical ideas, suggestions, and revisions. Ultimately, I was accepted into one of my top choice schools, and I couldn't be more grateful to her. Any ambitious high school student would be extremely lucky to work with Dr. Rubin. read more

Hello Parents, I have used Spark Admissions twice over the past five years for my two very different children. This group provides top notch, attentive, individualized support and guidance through the very stressful and important process of getting your child through the competitive college application process. Rachel Rubin guided my daughter from start to finish with clear, kind, informed, and extremely well directed advise. Its an easy process to get overwhelmed with and Spark Admissions really helped break down each step into small manageable tasks that resulted in a strong application targeted at a wide range of well matched schools for my daughters personality and learning style. Rachel is extremely experienced and knowledgeable and able to provide the support and direction needed to help families navigate numerous demands to help create a strong applicant. There are so many details in this process that I would not have known or thought about that Rachel guided us through. Our family has been extremely grateful for all her input. Lindsay Cohen worked my younger child and provided amazing insightful personalized guidance with a complicated student. She is exceptionally capable, accessible, and wise in helping guide students navigate the stressors of application process. I particularly appreciated her ability to help my child think about and compose an authentic, thoughtful, interesting and essay that captured his unique personality and interests. Lindsay helped us manage test taking, school visits, application writing and letters of recommendations with clear timely guidance making all of these tasks done well in advance and therefore greatly reducing our stress levels. I highly recommend Spark Admissions. They truly understand the nuances of the college admissions landscape as well as the unique aspects of all the local public and private schools. read more

My son's dream school has always been Duke, My biggest concern regarding his application was his essays, and I really did not know how to help him. I had actually tried a local college counselor in IL who worked with him, but it would take a long time to get comments on his drafts and the comments were not very helpful to him. When I would ask my son what they did at his counseling sessions, he could never really answer me. Even though we are in IL, we engaged Dr. Rubin of Sparks Admissions to help my son sharpen his essays. My son is a perfectionist and did multiple drafts of multiple essays. Dr. Rubin responded to each of his drafts immediately with very insightful guidance and direction. She also helped him keep focus and "sparked" his own creativity. My son was able to reflect on her comments from both a substantive and technical perspective to create much stronger essays. My son has the highest weighted GPA at a very competitive high school (as of end of Junior year), he is a National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist (as of now, finalists not yet announced), almost perfect SAT and SAT II test scores, 5's in all the AP's he took Jr. year and a full senior course load of AP classes. He also won 1st place in an International DECA competition (advertising campaign) and 1st place in IL State for both DECA and Robotics last year. Of course, Duke rejects a majority of the valedictorians that apply. Having great essays that could show the dimensions to my son beyond the statistics was the icing on the cake. We found out yesterday that my son was accepted Early Decision to Duke. Dr. Rubin was the guardian angel that helped to get him there. read more

I hired Spark Admissions and worked with Rachel Blankstein to help me with my graduate school applications for the competitive SLP programs I was applying to. The experience was perfect and I cannot recommend Spark more highly. Rachel really did help me to submit very strong applications. She helped me draw out my strengths in a way that I never would have been able to do myself. She was able to answer any question about the process and was always available to me whenever I needed her. As a result, my stress level was much lower and I feel very confident in the applications I submitted! read more