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College Zoom's Mission & Team
An Admissions Science Funded by USC
Once we cracked admissions office evaluation rubrics,
we set out to crack the perfect college essay.
We ended up perfecting entire applications, tailored to each college.
From Breakthrough To Admissions Science
Our 1-on-1 Students Earn Top-Choice Acceptances, Happy and Without Burnout
We Reverse-Engineered Miracle Acceptances
The admissions consulting industry tells students to “do more.” We asked a better question: when does more stop mattering, even for the Ivy League? By analyzing exclusive data from: high schools, miracle acceptance cases, and elite universities, we identified the minimum thresholds past which additional effort stops increasing admissions odds at each college.
Refining Our Breakthrough Into Admissions Science
Following our 1-on-1 success with students of varied profiles, the University of Southern California provided funding for College Zoom to advance admissions equity in 2012. We designed methodology for public schools to deliver top-3 choice college outcomes at scale. That endeavor forced us to refine our process into a science—streamlined, measurable, and repeatable.
Today, That Science Works Directly for Your Family.
Once adapted back to private 1-on-1 coaching, our admissions science was perfected. Every College Zoom student receives a hyper-personalized, 1-on-1 admissions strategy, built around their strengths, high school's reputation, and mapped to an admissions office rubric tailored to their desired colleges. Then, we apply an "entire college application" strategy for maximizing students' rubric scores. The result? A 96.5% Top-3 Choice Success Rate.

Exceptionally Fast: Not the Admissions Consulting Experience You Were Expecting
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“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? [Editor's note: Windward School is currently ranked #2 in Los Angeles by Niche]. 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
★★★★★
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“We did more in 2 hours than I did in 40 meetings with a college consultant who charges $200/hr.”
— Jessica G., USC Appellant
★★★★★
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“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★★★★★
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“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
★★★★★
Expert Opinions Provided For:
Exceptionally Effective: Our Admissions Science, Inspired by Miracle Underdogs, Is Even More Effective for Top Students
"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 top-20 college admissions director described them as "too good of a fit to turn away." Everyone roots for the underdog, including admissions officers. High achiever? Everyone has underdog moments that define their potential.
How Miracle Students and Top Achievers Win in College Admissions
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Exceptionally Keyed In: As Researcher-Practitioners, Not Just Admissions Consultants
Ahead of Admissions Trends—At Times, We've Even Set Them.
Our forward-thinking approach has consistently kept us ahead of industry shifts. Years before Harvard’s Turning the Tide report on college admissions in 2016, we were already applying its core principles. We’ve presented overlooked admissions strategies to hundreds of counselors at USC’s Counselor Conference and successfully compelled the University of California (UC) Application to add bullet-point formatting capability to its current activity summary section.
Avoid False Trends and Wrong Conventional Wisdom
We guided a student to write about her ex-boyfriend. A topic passionately discouraged as the "absolute worst" by a top-25 admissions officer in a public presentation by her dream school. Yet, this same admissions officer admitted the student and was moved to tears by the essay. The ex story was initially absent from the student's brainstorming work due to the admissions officer's intense discouragement, but, despite the taboo topic, our college essay methodology quickly discovered and assessed the story as earning the highest scores on admissions office rubrics. (We learned of the admissions officer's reaction by speaking with her at a NACAC conference.)
Our Team

A’Lira Underwood

David Reynaldo
College Zoom is Los Angele's #1 ranked college counseling service (Yelp). We're experts in elite college admissions throughout the U.S. and our success rate is the best nationwide. Smarter decisions, smarter outcomes.™ More.
Aisa Castro

Jackson Burgess

Adam Kronenberger

Wendy Liu

Ezra Li

Riley Darrough

Julia Haffie

Preston Walker

Griffin Damron

Adya Mohanty
The Perfect Bridge Between Generations
Magnetism ⬩ Rapport ⬩ Role-modeling ⬩ Skill
87 Years of Combined College Admissions Expertise
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 admissions office experience doesn't equate to mentoring talent, persuasive writing ability, or a magnetic personality—the most essential qualities for maximizing a teenager's performance. Sixteen years later, a former admissions officer has yet to pass our first-round interview. Still, College Zoom maintains one of the industry's best success rates thanks to our relations with admissions officers, directors, and deans through NACAC and WACAC where it matters and our emphasis on proven practitioner talent where it counts.
Our students have succeeded over those guided by more expensive competitors, often elite former admissions officers turned consultants—we even achieved breakthroughs with students others had deemed hopeless. Our 16-year history of guiding the teenage brain to success is your success. That's why even admissions professionals trust us for their own children.
— David Reynaldo, Founder









