Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Ivy League Prep is a boutique firm devoted to strategically guiding and supporting students from around the world in the college admissions process. We help our clients gain admission to the most competitive colleges and universities.
We work with students in 8th grade through 12th grade. Click here to learn more about our complete guidance admissions programs.
We welcome the opportunity to work with all students and their families and we work on a first-come, first-served basis. We typically sell out of our comprehensive one-on-one consulting packages for rising high school seniors. In light of the global nature of our client base, our students represent a diverse set of academic, extracurricular, and cultural backgrounds. However, each student has his/her own unique goals and we focus on helping each student gain admission to the selective school(s) that will be the best academic and social match. Our primary objectives are to (i) remove the stress and confusion from the application process and (ii) help our students gain admission to highly selective and desirable schools that would otherwise have been out of reach.
Absolutely. Our Managing Directors are on call for our students 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In addition, our U.S. office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (UTC-05:00) and our China office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM China Time Zone (UTC+08:00). We pride ourselves on our complete accessibility to our clients and this is one of the reasons clients repeatedly choose to engage us.

Yes, Sam Silverman works directly with middle school and high school students; however, he takes on only a limited number of students each year. Please contact us to inquire about availability for your prospective student. All of our clients receive personalized one-on-one guidance and also benefit from the collective knowledge of our entire admissions team.
We encourage all of our clients to conduct a thorough review of our firm and other admissions consulting firms. We believe it is imperative that families ask questions about whether the admissions firm they are considering has principals with current, hands-on admissions experience (and success) from both the applicant perspective and from the admissions office perspective.

Students work directly with one of our Managing Directors, Sam Silverman or Tracy Li, who are each highly successful professionals who attended both Harvard and Yale University and went on to work for some of the most prestigious global firms, including Goldman Sachs and The Boston Consulting Group.

Sam Silverman also has several years of experience conducting interviews and evaluating applicants for the Yale University Admissions Office. In addition, Sam currently serves as the Director of Scholarships of a national endowed scholarship foundation for which he has reviewed thousands of highly competitive applicants seeking millions of dollars of merit-based scholarship awards.

Tracy Li also has several years of experience conducting interviews and evaluating applicants for the Harvard University Admissions Office.

Our Managing Directors are easy for students to connect with and look up to as they are not ex-admissions officers who worked in admissions offices 20 years ago.

Our Managing Directors personally experienced the value of attending a top school and leveraged that experience into the same professional opportunities that many of our clients are also hoping to realize.

Our comprehensive professional and current admissions experience allows us to review our clients’ applications with a true admissions officer’s perspective and provide valuable feedback that materially improves our client’s odds of admission.

Recent U.S. Department of Education statistics indicate that U.S. public high school students receive less than 1 hour of personal advising on college admission during the four years of high school. In addition, in the United States today there is an average ratio of 475 students to every 1 public high school college counselor. When considering these facts, it is no surprise that almost 50% of U.S. public and private high school students hire a college consultant to assist with at least one aspect of their college admission application process. The data shows, and we firmly believe, that personalized one-on-one admissions consulting has become a necessity when it comes to obtaining a top college acceptance. Every year the competition becomes even fiercer with a limited number of spots and a growing number of applicants at the most competitive programs, with as many as 15 to 20 students competing for a single spot.
Ivy League Prep is not cheap. However, we strongly urge parents to consider our admissions services as a long-term educational and career investment in their children. Gaining admission to a top-tier college provides students access to the most competitive professional graduate school programs and to the most prestigious firms across industries. The reality is that the cost of four years of private college can easily exceed $250,000. Looking at the bigger picture, is it not worth it to invest a bit more to ensure that a student gains acceptance to the best possible college program that fits with his/her academic interests and gives him/her the best possible set of opportunities to pursue a desired long-term career?
No. We know that each student is different and has unique personal goals and professional career aspirations. We work with each student and his/her family to assemble the most compelling college application for schools that are a great fit and where the student has a realistic chance of admission.

Our application strategy is designed to give students options and best position them to gain admission to “reach” schools while still providing options with target and safety schools.

Last year, our students were accepted to a wide range of colleges across the United States. Please visit our student and parent testimonials page to learn more.

Yes. We offer both comprehensive Complete Guidance programs and basic hourly packages for clients. Most clients begin with an Initial Consultation and then choose to add on either an hourly package or a Complete Guidance program based on the student’s age and the college admission goals of the student and family.
Unfortunately, this is not possible. Confidentiality is of the utmost importance to us and the families that we work with. Therefore, we do not share identifying information about any of our clients unless they expressly allow it. As a potential client of Ivy League Prep, you can expect the same level of confidentiality.

However, we do have a set of written recommendation letters from previous students and parents that we are happy to share with serious, qualified potential clients who are considering engaging us. In addition, you can visit our student and parent testimonials page to see what parents and students have shared about their experience working with Ivy League Prep. We are also very proud to share that approximately 75% of our current students are direct referrals from current or former clients.