Service from Proven Educators

From the beginning of your college journey to the day you notify your chosen school, The College Atelier is functionally by your side, offering expert guidance on your specific path to admissions success. By this we mean comprehensive, strategic support based on your specific situation, helping you find the optimal ways to pinpoint your strengths, highlighting all that you have to offer, while anticipating all the potential pitfalls and challenges that might stand in your way.

We will meet with you regularly to discuss your passions, get to know everything you bring to the table, alongside any areas where you may need to grow a bit more. It starts with honest communication, goal-setting, and a holistic approach to finding your application narrative, continuing with targeted check-ins to make sure you are meeting all the necessary landmarks according to the optimal timeline. Responsive and responsible communication are critical to our practice, and we pride ourselves on taking the time to extensively explain the admissions landscape and how it affects you individually.

Because we spend real time getting to know you, we are able to effectively determine your unique niche, while helping you present yourself in a detailed and thoughtful way that is immediately identifiable to admissions officers. In a current moment overloaded with algorithmic advice, we will help you present your authentic best-self through a deep awareness of the college admissions process. This positioning is critical and will help guide further suggestions about extracurricular activities, course selection, and standardized testing, outlining a path to success that is yours to claim and celebrate.

However many schools you choose to apply to, we will make sure you are playing the game intelligently, and with the proper mindset. This means helping you develop a school list that is a reflection of your interests, preferences, and goals, comprising a wealth of potential places where you will grow and thrive. We will help you determine which schools are dream case scenarios, while providing the tools to prove why you belong there. And because college admissions is an increasingly volatile space, we will make sure you are also considering a wide range of options across all competitive tiers that you can get excited about.

Our students do not write essays that blindly follow the common recipe - because there isn’t one. We move beyond common cliches and cookie cutter recipes, helping you create unique essays that help you relay exactly what you want the admissions officers to know about you. It is not an exaggeration to say writing is a passion for us – something we have extensive experience teaching in the classroom, and doing in our free time. We have guided students of all skill levels through every stage of the college essay writing process from ideation to finished draft, helping them execute highly individual and self-reflective pieces that shine an essential light on who they are and where they come from. Consequently our students’ essays are time capsules of their growth and maturity at the time of applying to college, something they can revisit in the future and remember with pride.

Everyone knows your extracurricular profile is an essential way to demonstrate to admissions officers the precise ways you will be a positive contributor to your college community. We show you how to find the optimal synergy between your extracurriculars and your overall application narrative, aiding you in pinpointing the activities that combine individual interest and maximum impact. Then, when it’s time to fill out your application, we help ensure that your hard won accomplishments are presented with the utmost clarity, so you can be certain nothing gets lost in translation.

We have worked with every curriculum across the globe, and we know what top schools are looking for in terms of a rigorous high school course load. We are here to help navigate the complicated questions like “IB or AP?” “How many APs?” “Which electives?” We can also help you ask the right questions of your school guidance counselor to make sure you’re selecting a pathway aligned with your larger goals.

Struggling to figure out who to approach for your recommendations? Wondering if that supplementary rec is really worth it? Are you worried about how to ask your teachers for a letter? Have you already asked them but you’re unsure about how to make sure they write the best possible letter? Guess what - we have written hundreds of letters of recommendation in our time as teachers! We will make sure your teachers have everything they need to give you a glowing letter of support that sounds genuine and unique to you.

Want to spend your summer on a college campus taking a class or two? Are you curious about which summer programs add the most value to your profile? We’ve got you. We can assist with program selection and essay support for applications to competitive and participatory programs that will enhance your depth of knowledge and experience.