FAQs About Working with Solomon

Just submit the contact form on our website or send us an email at info@solomonadmissions.com. Let us know your child's current year in school and one of our Enrollment Coordinators will reach out with more information to schedule the call.

Strong academics paired with a unique and deep resume, focused on a less common area of study.

Similar to #2 above, the academics are near-perfect and paired with a profile that has deep intellectual vitality (activities like research, but see our webinar recordings for more about this topic).

Many students mistakenly think that the admissions process is where colleges weigh the value of your effort and achievements on their own merits; a rejection letter is often seen as a personal failure. Instead, your effort and achievements are weighed against the school's needs for an intellectually diverse class and the other options they have for it in their applicant pool. From this perspective, rejection usually comes from a lack of strategy rather than effort.

The student has to be ready to look at this kind of planning, but an earlier start means more success at the end and less stress throughout. We begin planning for college with many students in middle school.

The key to a strong resume is avoiding the typical well-rounded profile and common list of activities everyone else is pursuing (standard clubs, generic community service, etc). A strong and specific academic focus should be the highlight, with each activity and accomplishment on the resume supporting it.

They need to tie into your positioning strategy, or specific academic focus. Selective schools also want to see a student demonstrate individual initiative, creating their own opportunities rather than just relying on the structure provided by established programs. If done well, your own independent research blog, non-profit venture, etc, will make a bigger impact.

Most local consultants who come over to your home are not going to be former admissions officers at elite universities. All of our consultants are former admissions officers at elite universities, which is why we are in demand nationally. The majority of students we work with do not live in New York. Many live in California, Texas or are international students living abroad. Our responsive team of consultants performs all the necessary communication and work via phone, skype and emails. There is no difference between working with us whether you live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, the Bay Area, New York, New Jersey, Dallas, or Chicago; you receive the same customized, responsive attention and results either way.

Since we work with our valued clients on a confidential basis, we are unable to breach this relationship and trust by disclosing the names and contact information of our past clients for the sake of landing more clients. Similarly, if you choose to work with us, we will ensure that your student’s name remains confidential and will not give it out to anyone under any circumstance. Actual acceptance letters from clients for the most recent admissions cycle are the ultimate reference as they are proof of where our clients got in and of their satisfaction.

You can view our clients' acceptance letters here.

Many high school counselors are overwhelmed with the hundreds of students they are responsible for helping and cannot provide the type of individualized attention necessary to maximize admissions odds. In addition, although counselors and teachers can assist in the application writing process, most have never been on the admissions committees at the top colleges and maybe unaware of what makes an applicant stand out from the rest. All of our admissions consultants have insider experience being on the admissions committees at some of the top schools in the country, including Stanford, MIT, Penn, Columbia, UCLA, and the University of Chicago. The opinion of an insider is invaluable to getting accepted and cannot be replaced by the assistance of most counselors and teachers.

Over the last decade, admissions rates at most of the top schools have decreased by approximately 50% on average (see chart below). It used to be that a student with perfect grades and near-perfect test scores with a plethora of extra-curricular activities would be admitted at many top schools; this is no longer the case as top colleges have tightened the criteria for gaining admission significantly. Parents and students often spend over $200k to finance a four-year private college education these days.

Getting in is the hard part, and our consulting rates are a drop in the bucket compared to the annual cost of college. Surveys have shown that one in three students applying to a private university in the U.S. hire an admissions consultant. All of our consultants are former admissions officers with insider knowledge of how to get your child accepted to his or her top choice colleges. Although we don’t make admissions guarantees, over 90% of our clients are accepted to one of their top 3 choice colleges.

View our Independent Accountant Report for the most recent Admissions Cycle.