How do you decide which consultant to pair with my child?

We look at several factors at once: the student’s background, personality, target schools, the specific strategic challenges in their profile, and — when families have preferences — any requests about who they’d like to work with. If a requested consultant is available, we’re happy to accommodate that.

That said, here’s what actually matters most. The strongest predictor of a great engagement isn’t where a consultant went to school or whether they’ve worked with a particular demographic. It’s whether the consultant is genuinely excellent at diagnosis and coaching — and whether there’s a natural working chemistry with the student. A brilliant strategist who doesn’t connect with a particular seventeen-year-old will produce worse outcomes than a slightly less experienced consultant who makes that student want to show up, think harder, and do the work.

We’re confident making these matches because of how we hire. Our screening process is blind — we evaluate work product with no résumé attached. About 5–6% of applicants make it through. The result is a roster where every consultant clears what we internally call the VIP bar: we could assign any one of them, sight unseen, to the highest-stakes client we’ve ever had and feel completely comfortable. That’s not aspirational language — it’s the standard we enforce.

So while we do optimize for fit, the honest truth is this: there’s no bad draw. The baseline is simply that high.