Inside the VIP Admissions Partnership
Watch Steve walk through the roadmap process, impact projects, and the strategy behind helping students stand out authentically.
Trusted by families with students accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and more
Featured in:
A Better Way
The students who stand out at the most selective colleges are not the ones who did the most.
They are the ones who knew who they were, cared deeply about something real, and built a high school experience around that.
Steve's approach starts where almost no other college counselor starts: with your student's core values.
Before talking about essays, activities, or college lists, Steve works with your student to identify what they genuinely care about —
the problems that make them angry, the work that energizes rather than exhausts them, and the kind of person they want to become.
That clarity becomes the foundation for everything else.
The activities they choose. The impact project they build. The story they tell in their application. The colleges they target.
All of it flows from a single, honest answer to the question admissions officers are actually asking:
who is this student, and why does it matter?
The students who go through this process do not just get into better colleges.
They arrive at college knowing who they are.
They are calmer, more confident, and more purposeful than their peers.
Parents consistently describe Steve's work not as college prep, but as life-changing.
What This Partnership Is
A private, ongoing admissions partnership
The VIP Admissions Partnership is a private, ongoing advisory relationship between Steve and your family. It is a sustained, high-touch partnership that begins with understanding your student deeply and continues through every major decision in the admissions journey.
Steve works closely with your student to clarify their core values, identify the work they are most genuinely drawn to, and develop an impact project that reflects who they actually are - something meaningful, memorable, and impossible to replicate. He also works with your family to ensure that parents are informed, aligned, and supporting their student in the right ways at the right moments.
Throughout the partnership, Steve will help your teen:
- Identify their core values and build their high school experience around them
- Develop an impact project that reflects genuine curiosity, initiative, and purpose
- Understand what selective admissions officers are actually looking for - and what they are not
- Build a personal narrative that is coherent, compelling, and authentically theirs
- Make smart decisions about courses, activities, and how they spend their time and energy
- Develop an essay strategy grounded in who they are, not what they have done
- Approach the admissions process from a place of clarity and confidence rather than anxiety and overwhelm
Steve also pays close attention to something most college counselors ignore entirely: your student's health, sleep, and overall well-being. A student who is burned out, sleep-deprived, and stretched across a dozen activities they do not care about is not a competitive applicant. A student who is rested, focused, and genuinely engaged in work that matters to them is. Steve builds this into the work from the beginning.
How We Get Started: The Roadmap Process
Every partnership begins with the creation of a personalized admissions roadmap - a clear, strategic picture of where your student is today and exactly what they need to do to get where they want to go.
Step 1 - Strategic Intake
Your student completes a detailed planning worksheet covering academics, test scores, activities, interests, and the subjects and problems they are most drawn to. Then Steve meets with your student for a strategy conversation to explore their strengths, values, and possible directions. This is where Steve begins helping your student identify their theme, which becomes the through-line that will connect every part of their application into a single, memorable story.
Step 2 - Private Strategy Session
Ongoing sessions focus on implementing and refining the roadmap as your student grows, their interests evolve, and new opportunities emerge. Steve works with your student on their impact project, essay strategy, course selection, and activity decisions, all grounded in the values and theme established in the roadmap. This work makes your student stand out from the hundreds of thousands of other qualified candidates.
Step 3 - Roadmap Development
Students who go through this process do not just get into better colleges. They arrive at college knowing who they are. They are more focused, more confident, and more purposeful than their peers. Parents consistently describe Steve's work not as college prep, but as life-changing.
From there, ongoing sessions focus on implementing and refining the roadmap as your student grows, their interests evolve, and new opportunities emerge.
What's Included
- Private strategy sessions with Steve
- Preparation before major admissions milestones and decisions
- Review and evaluation of the student’s academic performance, course selection, and commitments
- Ongoing guidance as interests, priorities, and timelines evolve
- Support with positioning, narrative development, and overall admissions strategy
- Access to call recordings and written notes after each session
- Development and refinement of an impact project aligned with the student’s interests and values
- A centralized system for tracking decisions, insights, and next steps
- Essay strategy support and draft feedback
“Before working with Steve, my son was stuck in what Steve calls the ‘impressiveness trap’ — constantly doing more, sleeping less, and burning himself out trying to look competitive for top colleges. Steve helped him stop chasing endless accomplishments and instead build a compelling, human story around who he really was, which ultimately helped him get into Yale, Stanford, and CalTech. More importantly, Steve helped my son become himself again.”
— Shiva Rajagopalan, Parent of Rohan, Incoming Stanford Engineering Student
Read Rohan's Story“Before working with Steve, I thought getting into a top college meant taking the hardest classes, joining the most impressive clubs, and constantly doing more. Instead, Steve helped me identify my core values, stop chasing activities just to look impressive, and start building a life and application that actually reflected who I was. I honestly don’t think I would have gotten into Dartmouth if I hadn’t gone through that process.”
— Erica Chemmanoor, Dartmouth College Class of 2028
Read Erica's Story
“Before the Ivy League Challenge, I thought getting into a top college was just about having the highest GPA, SAT score, and leadership titles. Steve completely changed the way I approached high school by helping me identify my core values, build a meaningful impact project, and write essays that revealed who I really was underneath the accomplishments. I truly believe that process played a significant role in helping me get into Cornell.”
— Matthew Kim, Incoming Cornell Engineering Student
Read Matthew's Story