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College Admissions

The journey to college is stressful, overwhelming, and often unclear. We help high school students and families build a clear admissions strategy, strengthen the student's profile, and craft standout applications that communicate who they are - not just what they've done.

350+

successful admits to Ivy League and Top 20 U.S. and global universities

>95%

of our students gain admission into at least one of their top choice colleges

$2.5M+

scholarship support earned, helping families pursue both fit and financial value

15+

years specializing in strategy development, storytelling, essays, and application execution

How We Help

We help families make sense of the process, prioritize what matters, and build applications that are thoughtful, cohesive, and competitive.

Profile Strategy

We assess academics, activities, leadership, awards, interests, and potential gaps to understand how the student is currently positioned and what can still be strengthened.

School List Strategy

We help build a balanced college list based on academic fit, competitiveness, major interests, geography, culture, family priorities, and early application strategy.

Application Positioning

We identify the student's strongest narrative themes so their application feels cohesive instead of like a disconnected list of classes, clubs, and awards.

Essay Development

We guide students through brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, and polishing personal statements, supplemental essays, UC PIQs, and scholarship essays.

Activities & Honors Review

We help students frame activities, leadership, service, research, work experience, and awards in a way that shows impact, initiative, and depth.

Interview & Decision Support

We support interview preparation, letters of continued interest, waitlist strategy, scholarship decisions, and final school choice conversations.

Services

Choose the right level of support for the student's grade, timeline, and admissions needs.

Comprehensive "All-In" Support

High-touch end-to-end admissions support for families who want a strategic partner through the full college application process.

Focused Support

Focused packages for students who need earlier strategy, stronger positioning, essay support, scholarship strategy, or final application polish.

Package details & pricing

Compare package scope and pricing below. All prices are in USD.

Comprehensive "All-In" Support

1:1 End-to-End Application Support

This high-touch, all-inclusive college admissions package is for students and families who want expert strategy, deeply personalized storytelling, and end-to-end support across the full Common Application process. We begin with a deep-dive strategy session to understand the student's academic profile, extracurriculars, personal background, goals, strengths, gaps, and target schools. From there, we build a customized admissions roadmap and a clear positioning strategy: what the student should be known for, how the application should be read, and how every component should work together to tell one compelling story. This is a comprehensive application architecture process. We clarify the core narrative, identify the strongest differentiators, develop a balanced school list, map essays across applications, strengthen activities and honors, and make sure each school receives an application that feels intentional, mature, authentic, and memorable.

  • A comprehensive admissions strategy built around the student's strengths, goals, target schools, and competitive positioning
  • A clear application roadmap with priorities, milestones, deadlines, and next steps
  • A strategically balanced college list across reach, target, and likely schools
  • A differentiated applicant positioning strategy that defines the themes, qualities, and strengths the application should consistently communicate
  • Personal statement brainstorming, structure, editing, and refinement
  • Supplemental essay strategy and editing so school-specific essays feel tailored, substantive, and connected to each institution
  • Activities list and honors section optimization to make impact, leadership, initiative, and depth clear
  • Recommendation strategy, interview preparation, and final application review
  • Comprehensive - 3 Schools (20-30 hours): $4,500
  • Comprehensive - 5 Schools (30-40 hours): $6,500
  • Comprehensive - 7 Schools (40-50 hours): $8,500
  • Comprehensive - 10 Schools (50-60 hours): $10,500
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Complete UC App Package

This package is designed for students applying to the University of California schools. You receive step-by-step support throughout the UC application process so the final application presents a strong, cohesive, and memorable picture of the student's strengths, experiences, and aspirations. We support UC campus and major strategy, Personal Insight Question selection and development, activities and awards optimization, academic and additional information sections, and final submission review. The goal is to make the UC application feel intentional, specific, polished, and aligned with the student's strongest candidacy.

  • A UC-specific application strategy that clarifies how to present academic strengths, activities, leadership, impact, and personal qualities
  • UC campus and major guidance, including campus fit, major competitiveness, alternate majors, and positioning across the UC system
  • Personal Insight Question strategy, including topic selection, narrative planning, editing, and refinement for four strong PIQ responses
  • Activities and awards optimization to make leadership, initiative, depth, work experience, service, research, and extracurricular involvement stand out
  • Guidance on academic and additional information sections
  • A final UC application review to ensure materials are cohesive, polished, typo-free, and aligned with the student's candidacy
  • Complete UC App Package (15-20 Hours): $4,000
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Focused Support

(For 9th & 10th Graders) Early Strategy Package

This early strategy package is designed for ambitious 9th and 10th grade students who want to build a stronger, more focused, and more competitive college admissions profile before application season begins. The biggest advantage in college admissions is not starting essays early. It is building the right story, academic path, extracurricular depth, leadership experiences, and strategic direction early enough that the application has real substance by senior year. We assess where the student is now, identify gaps and opportunities, and build a personalized roadmap for the next 12-24 months.

  • A full early-candidacy profile assessment across academics, extracurriculars, leadership, interests, awards, summer plans, testing, and college goals
  • A personalized 12-24 month strategic roadmap that outlines what to prioritize now and what to build next
  • A focused extracurricular and leadership strategy to build depth, initiative, impact, and distinction
  • Academic and major-positioning guidance, including course selection, rigor, subject strengths, intended major exploration, and target-school expectations
  • Summer and opportunity planning across programs, research, internships, passion projects, competitions, service, entrepreneurship, or self-directed work
  • A preliminary applicant positioning strategy that clarifies the student's emerging narrative and key differentiators
  • (For 9th & 10th Graders) Early Strategy Package (10 Hours): $2,250
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(For 11th Graders) Early Success Profile Package

This 20-hour 11th grade strategy package is designed for students approaching application season who want to make the most of the critical year before senior fall. Junior year is when college admissions strategy becomes real. Course rigor, grades, testing, extracurricular depth, leadership, summer plans, school list direction, and early narrative development all begin to shape the application the student will eventually submit. This package helps families move from scattered effort to a clear, focused, and competitive admissions plan.

  • A comprehensive junior-year profile assessment across academics, testing, extracurriculars, leadership, awards, summer plans, intended majors, and college goals
  • A personalized application-readiness roadmap for junior spring, summer, and early senior year
  • A strategic college list framework across reach, target, and likely schools
  • A differentiated applicant positioning strategy that clarifies the student's core narrative, strongest themes, key accomplishments, and areas to strengthen
  • Extracurricular, leadership, and summer planning guidance
  • Early essay and application preparation, including personal statement brainstorming, activities list positioning, recommendation strategy, and senior-year readiness
  • (For 11th Graders) Early Success Profile Package (20 Hours): $4,250
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Essay & Narrative Development Package

This package is designed for college applicants aiming to craft exceptional essays that maximize their chances of admission. Strong college essays do more than sound polished. They reveal how a student thinks, what they care about, how they have grown, and why they would be a meaningful addition to a college community. We help students identify strategically valuable topics, build narrative arcs, draft with clarity and specificity, and refine essays until they feel authentic, mature, and memorable while fitting clearly within the larger application strategy.

  • A personalized essay strategy that identifies which stories, values, themes, and personal qualities should come through
  • Guidance on topic selection so essay ideas are authentic, distinctive, and strategically valuable
  • Support with essay structure, narrative arc, and organization
  • Detailed feedback and editing on clarity, specificity, voice, reflection, word choice, flow, concision, and prompt alignment
  • Supplemental essay strategy for school-specific essays
  • Final polishing to ensure essays are cohesive, compelling, typo-free, within word count, and aligned with broader admissions positioning
  • 5 Hours (5 hours): $1,200
  • 10 Hours (10 hours): $2,250
  • 15 Hours (15 hours): $3,250
  • 20 Hours (20 hours): $4,250
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Final Application Review

This package provides top-quality, quick-turnaround review of essays and other written application materials to help students optimize and finalize college applications before submission. We review the full Common Application materials provided, including essays, activities list, and other written components, to ensure consistency with the student's story and goals. The goal is to provide thoughtful, strategic feedback, final polish, and confidence before submitting.

  • Detailed feedback to help optimize stories and examples for compelling essays
  • Tactical recommendations to improve writing style, logic, flow, and clarity
  • Suggestions for enhancement of key application documents, including personal statement and activities list
  • Common App - 1 School (5 hours): $1,200
  • Common App - 3 Schools (7 hours): $1,650
  • Common App - 5 Schools (9 hours): $2,000
  • Common App - 10 Schools (12 hours): $2,450
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Merit Scholarship Application Support

This package is designed for students applying to merit scholarships, honors programs, scholars programs, or competitive university-based awards who want to present a stronger, more strategic case for selection. Merit scholarship applications are different from standard college applications. They often ask students to show evidence of academic excellence, leadership, initiative, service, intellectual curiosity, character, and future impact. We help make it clear not only why the student is qualified, but why they are worth investing in.

  • A merit scholarship strategy that clarifies the student's strongest qualifications, leadership themes, academic strengths, service record, and future potential
  • Essay brainstorming, outlining, editing, and refinement for scholarship, honors program, scholars program, leadership, service, or academic award applications
  • Positioning support to communicate not just achievements, but why they show initiative, character, impact, and future promise
  • Final application polish to ensure scholarship materials are cohesive, persuasive, typo-free, within word count, and aligned with selection criteria
  • Merit Scholarship Application Support (10-15 Hours): $2,250
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Proven Results

Our students have been accepted at top institutions in the US and UK, including but not limited to...

Harvard logo
Yale logo
Stanford logo
MIT logo
Columbia logo
UPenn logo
Duke logo
Vanderbilt logo
UCLA logo
UC Berkeley logo
Johns Hopkins logo
Cornell logo
Northwestern logo
Rice logo
NYU logo
Georgetown logo
USC logo
Carnegie Mellon logo
Caltech logo
University of Michigan logo

Client Voice

What Our Clients Are Saying

Thank you for the outstanding college app process that Ivy Journey provided. Absolutely instrumental in helping my daughter get accepted into the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She's always been interested in business and is ecstatic to be attending the top business school in the country.

Result

Admitted to University of Pennsylvania

I truly appreciated all of Ivy Journey's guidance as our son was applying for college. The process was so much easier with their expertise, knowledge and fabulous story-telling. They were dedicated to making Alex shine in every way possible and stand out from the rest of the crowd. Truly great experience.

Result

Admitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Unmatched college application support from Becky and the Ivy Journey team. We had come to her a bit earlier in the process, when my son was only a freshman in high school. She made sure that we had a solid strategy in place to set our son up for success by the time he would be applying for college. Game-changer. We will be coming back when our younger one enters high school.

Result

Admitted to Stanford University