How The Ivy Dean Has Maintained Success for 10 Years
The start of a new year is always exciting for me, but ringing in 2019 has been particularly special: this year marks The Ivy Dean’s 10th anniversary. My company has had the privilege of helping students across the country get into their top colleges for the past decade, and to say that it has been a rewarding experience is an understatement. I take great pride in knowing that we have helped dozens of college hopefuls navigate one of the most important processes, and decisions, of their lives.
I am also deeply proud of our success rate: in the past 10 years, all of our students have been successful by identifying their best-fit colleges among the top colleges in the country. I doubt that is something that all college admissions counselors can say, and we have worked hard to maintain this record. I believe it is an important part of why we have had 10 great years in business, and why we are still going strong today.
Ultimately, families place their trust in our company because they know that they will get results. It is a rare combination of three things that set our company apart, and in reflecting on our first ten years in business I would like to share some insights with families who are just beginning to search for a college counselor. The competition for acceptance into the country’s top colleges is becoming increasingly fierce, and it is more important than ever to find someone to guide you through the process with a high degree of care and competency.
What Makes The Ivy Dean Unique?
There are three things that have positioned our company for success: our ability to provide individualized service to our clients, our extensive admissions experience, and our small team. If you are looking for a college counselor, I encourage you to keep these three factors in mind.
Individualized service:
Unlike other counseling firms that provide cookie-cutter solutions and advice, The Ivy Dean offers each client customized, personalized support. We take on a limited number of students on a first-come, first-serve basis, without regard for where they want to go to school. Instead, we prioritize students based on how willing they are to work closely with us to make their admissions dreams a reality. Our approach to counselling ensures that each client gets the one-on-one attention they deserve and allows them to present a unique application to their preferred schools, which is the key to standing out in competitive applicant pools.
Extensive admissions experience:
When looking for a counselor, it is extremely important to hire someone who has experience working inside the admissions office of a top college, ideally in a senior role. There are all sorts of considerations, information, knowledge and insights that come from being in a position at the top, and these are very valuable to a counselor in guiding students to prepare strong applications. Without this professional experience, counselors simply cannot offer detailed, personalized advice to their clients.
Small team size:
Finally, part of The Ivy Dean’s success stems from the fact that we are a small, dedicated team. Working with a company that employs several counselors may mean that students are automatically paired with a counselor who is relatively inexperienced, since some firms actually charge extra for clients to work with counselors who have more admissions or counseling experience. You can get an indication of how much help you might get from a company by looking at their fee structure or the number of counselors on their team. Meanwhile, in working with a small company like ours, you can rest assured that your family will get personalized assistance directly from an experienced counselor – which in my case means more than 40 years of experience in college admissions.
When done well, these three factors represent the hallmarks of a good counseling company. Our commitment to excellence has paved the way for a great first 10 years in business, and we look forward to at least 10 more!