A Historic Breakthrough: Funding from USC
In 2012, we won funding from the University of Southern California to create a special program based on our approach to college admissions applications.
We had studied why certain students with lower grades and test scores were accepted to top colleges, while their peers with higher marks got rejected. Further, the same college admissions strategies that ethically lifted students with lower academic credentials to success increased the certainty of acceptances for higher-achievers. However, to enact these strategies, the whole application matters, beyond the college essays, and the 1-on-1 coaching hours required per student exhausted family budgets before completion. The innovative curriculum enabled by USC began a 10+ year process of achieving the same student outcomes in one third of the time. We went onto became the first and only independent college admissions consultants that USC invited to both present workshops to prospective applicants and educate school counselors in tandem with its admissions office. Year after year, we've continued refining our 1-on-1 methodology, achieving successful outcomes faster.
Clarity That Accelerates Your College Admissions Success
“My expectations were very low. I said, really, what are you going to do that the college counselor at my daughter's private high school could not? But you presented a novel point of view, one that had not occurred to the other professionals. Then you accomplished two years worth of therapy in an hour, pulling everything out of her and getting it onto the page. I was impressed!”
— Gita Rosenwald, Daughter matriculated to Vassar College, Class of 2016
★★★★★
“We did more in 2 hours than I did in 40 meetings with a college consultant who charges $200/hr.”
— Jessica G., USC Appellant
★★★★★
“I paid [a well known college consultancy in New York] $1,000 for a one hour session and nothing was produced from that meeting. It was clear to me that they were doing a formulaic job. What they were offering was search engine optimization for college admissions: taking well-known facts about me, spinning and positioning them throughout the application. When I approached College Zoom, I thought they’d help me come up with some essay topics, potentially edit and proof read them, and say, “Thank you very much, here’s your invoice.” Instead, the service I got demonstrated more attention to detail, care, and concern about me, and my application, than I ever could have imagined…”
— Steve, Claremont McKenna College, Class of 2014
9.4% acceptance rate★★★★★
“You strengthened the skills that all parents want to see in our 18 year olds, especially the maturity — and it appeared to be in a fun and enjoyable way. That’s something I didn’t expect at all when I placed the call to you. Even I was inspired.”
— Lauren White, Parent, Son attended USC, Class of 2017
★★★★★
Everybody Roots For the Underdog, Including College Admissions Officers.
"Miracle students" have lower grades, test scores, no outwardly special stand out qualities, and still get into their dream colleges over peers with better academic qualifications. While their classmates describe them as "only average," one college admissions officer described them as "too good of a fit to turn away."
How Miracle Students Win in College Admissions
Expert Opinions Provided For:
Hitting Unseen Targets
For Some Students, Defying Traditional Advice is Their Best College Admissions Strategy.
We guided a student to write about her ex-boyfriend. The topic was passionately and publicly discouraged by the same admissions officer who ultimately admitted her (and was moved to tears by her essay). The story was completely absent from her initial brainstorming ideas, but our college essay methodology quickly discovered and assessed the story as the student's best opportunity to compel higher scores on admissions rubrics.
We're Ahead of Trends—At Times, We've Set Them.
Our forward-thinking approach has repeatedly put us ahead of industry shifts. We predicted and were applying recommendations from Harvard's Turning the Tide study four years before its 2016 release. We educated hundreds of counselors on overlooked application strategies at USC's Counselor Conference, and we successfully advocated for a change to the UC application's activity summary format, enabling its current bullet point formatting. Meanwhile, we cut through noise and disregard fleeting, false college admissions trends that lack real impact.
Our Team: Unique College Admissions Consultants
16 Years of Magic
In 2009, my business plan for College Zoom - Admissions Consulting envisioned a team of former, elite college admissions officers driving our success. However, I quickly learned that traditional measurements of expertise in the industry (i.e. admissions office pedigree) doesn't equate to persuasive writing or teaching ability. As it turns out, a former admissions officer has yet to pass our first-round, talent-based interview. Yet, College Zoom maintains one of the industry's best success rates.
I differentiated College Zoom by studying students who didn't satisfy admissions officers' expressed standards yet still got accepted by them. By mapping my research findings onto the candidate evaluation rubrics used internally by college admissions offices, I created a predictive model that accurately forecasted miracle acceptances, top student rejections, and all outcomes in between.
By decoding the colleges' grading keys, College Zoom transformed the process of closing students' competitive gaps into one that is straightforward, transparent, and exacting. In addition, we perfected a college admissions application and essay writing methodology for holistically maximizing candidate evaluation scores. Our students surpassed those guided by more expensive competitors, who were often elite former admissions officers; we even achieved breakthroughs with students others had deemed hopeless.
Our expertise, however, is only as effective as a student's commitment to follow through. Therefore, our 96.5% success rate is reliant on our ability to mentor teenagers to reach heights they never thought possible. Our 16-year history of success guiding teenagers is your success.
— David Reynaldo, Founder

A’Lira Underwood

David Reynaldo


Aisa Castro

Jackson Burgess

Adam Kronenberger

Wendy Liu

Ezra Li

Riley Darrough

Julia Haffie

Luryn John-Miller

Preston Walker

Griffin Damron

Adya Mohanty
The Perfect Bridge Between Generations
Rapport ⬩ Role-modeling ⬩ Trust ⬩ Skill

To uphold our highest standards, we're all in-house employees of College Zoom - Admissions Consulting. We never outsource any part of your counseling to contractors.