College admissions strategy

Your kid's grades aren't the problem. The story is.

75% of applicants to top schools have high enough grades and test scores. Less than 5% get in. The difference isn't stats. It's whether the person reading your kid's application falls in love with who they are on paper.

I help students find that story, build that application, and land in the small group admissions officers fight for.

Want to get an idea of what I would do with your kid's application? Send me your kid's profile and I'll send you a personalized video with my thoughts. Free, no commitment.

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The real problem

What happens when your kid's application is reviewed

At most elite schools, a primary reader reviews everything first, then presents it to the admissions committee. That presentation goes one of three ways:

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The advocate

The reader shows up with energy and fights for your kid. Everyone leans forward.

~5% of apps

▬

The shrug

A basic summary of stats and strengths. Nothing wrong, nothing special. Waitlisted.

Most apps

▼

The stack

"Here are 20 I didn't find compelling. Let me know if you want to discuss any."

Many apps

Everything I do is designed to land your kid in that first group. That's a storytelling problem, not a stats problem.

Why this is different

What you're paying for

	Big firms	Ally
You work with the same person every session	✕	✓
Strategy built around your kid specifically	✕	✓
Story found before your kid writes a word	✕	✓
Your fee goes to the work, not marketing	✕	✓
Takes students who need help, not just easy wins	✕	✓
Professional writing background	✕	✓

What this costs

Crimson Education $30,000 – $200,000

IvyWise $14,000 – $100,000

Ally Admissions $5,000 – $10,000

Where does the money go at those firms? Crimson has 26 offices, thousands of employees, and a billion dollar valuation to support. IvyWise has layers of consultants, coordinators, and admin staff. Most of what you pay covers overhead: offices, marketing, management, and the people between you and whoever ends up working with your kid.

And who ends up working with your kid? At Crimson, each senior counselor carries 40 to 50 students. The counselors doing the work make $24 to $34 an hour. At IvyWise, admissions counselors average $49,000 a year. A parent paying $50,000 is not getting $50,000 worth of that person's attention. On top of that, many of these firms cherry-pick students who would have gotten into top schools without any help, then take credit for the results.

I'm one person. No offices, no staff, no overhead. Your fee goes entirely to the person doing the work, and that person is me in every session. I take 15 students per application cycle so every one of them gets the attention they need.

The process

How I build an application that makes the reader fight for your kid

Extraction

I pull out the details and experiences your kid doesn't realize are interesting, and turn them into compelling stories.

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Strategy

I map the whole application as one story. Every piece reinforces the same picture.

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Essays

Your kid never faces a blank page alone. They know what to write about and why before they start.

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Everything else

Activity descriptions, school list, interview prep, rec letter guidance. Every piece shaped to tell the same story.

For parents

You don't have to manage this process

Most families have the same experience before they find the right help: the kid is stressed, the parents are anxious, everyone is fighting about essays at 11pm, and nobody is sure if the application is good.

When you hire me, I take the process off your plate. Your kid hits every deadline. You get updates so you know where things stand. You don't have to become an admissions expert, and you don't have to nag anyone about essays.

What if my kid doesn't have "the story"?

A lot of parents worry their kid's life is too "normal" to get into a top school. No nonprofit founded, no research published, no Olympic medal.

It's always there. The admissions office isn't looking for the most impressive resume. They're looking for a person they want on campus. Finding that story in kids who don't think they have one is what I'm best at. I pull out the details and experiences they overlook and turn them into something an admissions officer remembers.

The AI question

Why can't my kid just use ChatGPT?

They can. They're just not getting into a top school with what it produces. ChatGPT predicts the most likely next word, which means it produces the most average, most expected version of whatever you ask for. Admissions officers reading 50 essays a day recognize it because AI-assisted essays all sound the same. Polished, correct, and completely empty.

AI also can't do the part that matters most. It can't sit across from your kid and pull out the details they don't realize are interesting. You want an essay that sounds like your kid and nobody else. That requires a person who can get to know them.

The offer

The complete application

One package. Everything your kid needs from first conversation to final submission.

Flagship · $5,000 – $10,000

Full application package

I'm with your kid from the first extraction session through the last application submitted, and I'm available through decision day. This is the complete process.

Includes: deep extraction sessions, full application strategy, personal statement through final draft, all supplemental essays for every school on the list, activity description optimization, school list strategy, letter of recommendation guidance, interview preparation, and accountability so you don't have to nag.

Get in touch to discuss

Also available

Essay coaching

For students applying to top schools who need their essays to do more than sound good. I find the story, develop it through multiple drafts, and build essays that give your kid a real edge in admissions.

$2,000 – $4,000

Student mentoring & early strategy

Ongoing work to shape your kid's high school years into a profile that gets them into the schools they want. Courses, activities, summer plans, projects. The students who start earliest have the strongest applications. Crimson Education charges $30,000+ for this kind of long-term guidance.

Packages from $3,000

SAT/ACT prep

1:1 test prep. I scored 790 Math, 750 Verbal, 750 Writing. Students have improved 200+ points. Kaplan charges $1,600–$7,000 for their packages and Princeton Review charges $1,900–$4,600. Their tutors aren't required to have high test scores, and the average SAT tutor at these companies makes $25–$39 an hour. Most of what you pay goes to the company, not the person teaching your kid.

Packages from $1,200

About

I'm Rafael. University of Pennsylvania graduate, finished in three years. I've spent 15+ years working with students and over a decade writing professionally.

I've tutored SAT prep, coached students through essays and writing assignments, mentored kids on how to spend their time inside and outside school, and worked closely with parents to build structure, accountability, and a long-term plan. I also taught middle school, coached sports teams, and ran leadership training programs for 10 years.

At the same time, I was writing professionally. I wrote and directed a feature film released on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. I've written scripts, developed stories, and spent years learning how to take a pile of raw material and shape it into something clear and compelling.

Those two things combine into something unusual. I know how to work with teenagers, and I know how to build a story. A college application is raw material: activities, grades, experiences, personality. It needs to become a clear story about one person. Most consultants treat that like an editing job. I treat it like a writing job. I'm not polishing what your kid put on paper. I'm figuring out what the story is in the first place, then building the entire application around it.

I work virtually with families in the US and internationally. Every session is with me directly. There's no team, no hand-off, no junior associate.

What families say

From parents and students I've worked with

"Within two sessions he found a story none of us saw."

Matt A., parent

"He's the rare person who can get a teenager to talk."

Michael C., parent

"He ended up getting into Penn, which none of us expected."

Suzan F., parent

"Rafael asked me one question that changed my entire personal statement."

Will B., student

"She got into Brown, and I'm convinced that essay is the reason."

Baki M., parent

"I'm from Indonesia and I got into my dream school in the US."

Amelia A., student

"My daughter's essays went from generic to something I'd want to read myself."

Jane H., parent

"I didn't think my life was interesting enough for a good essay. I was wrong."

James H., student

"Worth every dollar. Our son got into schools we didn't think were possible."

Fred N., parent

"Our son got into Columbia and two other schools we thought were long shots."

Matt A., parent

"He turned my daughter's 'boring' summer job into the best part of her application."

Martha E., parent

"I walked out of my first session knowing exactly what my application was about."

Sam R., student

"I stopped fighting with my son about college the week we hired Rafael."

Lisa R., parent

"By the time I was applying, everything in my application connected."

Amelia A., student

"Our son had no idea what to write about. Rafael figured it out in one conversation."

Jeff R., parent

"He helped me see myself the way an admissions officer would."

Margaret H., student

"The experience was so good we didn't even consider anyone else for our daughter."

Michael C., parent

"My son went from dreading the process to being proud of what he submitted."

Naomi N., parent

"Rafael found the essay in a story she told about something that happened at work."

Baki M., parent

"Rafael saw something in my grandson's application that we completely missed."

David R., grandparent

"By the end of the first session our son was excited about his essay for the first time."

Suzan F., parent

"The whole application told one clear story. That was all Rafael."

Alyssa R., parent

"Our son's supplemental essays were better than most kids' personal statements."

Jim H., parent

Common questions

FAQ

Do you guarantee admission?

No. Anyone who guarantees admission to a specific school is lying to you. What I guarantee is that your kid's application will be the strongest possible version of who they are, and that the process will be structured, clear, and on time.

When should we start?

The sooner the better. Get in touch and we'll figure out the right schedule for your kid.

Do you write the essays for my kid?

No. The essays are your kid's words and your kid's story. I find the story, I tell them what to write about and why, I give detailed feedback on every draft, and I push until it's excellent. But the writing is theirs. That's the only way it works. Admissions officers can tell when an essay isn't in a student's voice.

Do you work with international students?

Yes. I work virtually with families in the US and internationally. All sessions are over video call.