It says on their website that, in the past 25 years, 93% of the students they consulted got into their first choice college and 100% got into one of their top three. Does their success simply come from hard work or do their counselors “know something more”? I’d assume the latter, especially when looking at pricing, mainly because they’ve worked on college admissions for so long.
If anyone has had experience with IvyCoach or a similar program, I think it’d be interesting to know what they do.
First choice - not necessarily what your first choice would be.
Top three - ditto.
I used to teach GRE and GMAT prep for a small firm that limited its clients to three applications, and absolutely could guarantee admission to at least one of those three. How did they do it? By carefully editing the clients’ application lists, and by maintaining professional relationships with several mid-level programs that would admit just about any decent candidate, and a couple of low-level programs that would admit anyone.
Right, it presumably means that, you may walk in the door thinking your top 3 choices are Harvard, Princeton and Stanford but by the time they have worked through your list with you, your top three have become your instate public and two likelies.
Some of these $$$$$ companies only take top candidates they know have a higher chance of success in the application process
Ivy coach and others like them will not take you as a client if you don’t already have stats that are in the right ballpark. The people who pay for ivy coach already have plenty of money. They have, and I am generalizing, probably spent a lot of money on extracurricular activities that look good on college applications. Ivy coach will do a ton of work that many parents simply don’t have the time or energy for, or are not qualified to do, such as test prep and help with essays.
And yes, probably all the other things mentioned come into play as well, esepcially forming a proper list of schools. A great student with great stats, ECs and everything else can also get into his/her top three choices IF they apply to the right schools. And some of those schools will be Ivy Leagues.