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College Zoom's Mission & Team
Admissions Science Funded by USC
We Decoded "Miracle" Acceptances to Engineer Advantages for Every Student
Many Just Focus on Essays. We Align Every Part of Your Application to the Rubrics That Grade It.
Smarter Decisions, Smarter Outcomes
Why Top Students Get Rejected
Many consultants push students to do more. We asked, "When does more stop mattering, even for the Ivy League?" We analyzed data from unexpected acceptance cases, high schools, and top universities, identifying points of diminishing returns—and discovering blind spots that feed the "pass" pile.
Data Breakthrough to Admissions Science
After we reproduced miracle acceptances in 1-on-1 practice, the University of Southern California funded College Zoom to advance admissions equity in 2012. Creating programming for public schools introduced design challenges that forced us to distill our methodology into a science.
We continued honing our methodology in private, 1-on-1 practice, achieving a 96.5% Success Rate with our entire application strategy.

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 rescued from Vassar College's waitlist, Class of 2016
5% waitlist admit rate★★★★★
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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: For All Students
"Miracle students" have lower grades, test scores, no outwardly special hooks 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. Every student has underdog moments that define their potential, even the highest achievers.
How Miracle Underdogs and All Students Win in College Admissions
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Exceptionally Strategic: Researcher-Practitioners, Not Just Admissions Consultants
Ahead of Admissions Trends—At Times, We've Set Them.
Years before Harvard’s Turning the Tide report on college admissions in 2016, we were already applying its core principles. We also presented admissions strategies to hundreds of counselors at USC’s Counselor Conference and successfully petitioned the University of California (UC) Application to allow bullet-point formatting in its current activity summary. A decade before the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, we were helping Asian and minority students succeed with unique, lived-experience essays over cultural-identity ones. Our rubric approach keeps us ahead of industry shifts.
We Know When Conventional Wisdom is Wrong
We guided a student to write about her ex-boyfriend—a topic publicly ridiculed as the “absolute worst topic ever” by her dream school's regional admissions officer. Despite the reader's bias, our methodology identified the narrative's underlying merit as her strongest. The student was accepted with a 27 ACT score (1280 SAT equivalent), significantly below the elite university's competitive threshold. Two years later, at a NACAC conference, the officer confirmed she not only remembered the essay, but had been moved to tears by it.
Our Team

A’Lira Underwood

David Reynaldo
College Zoom is Los Angeles'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

Adam Kronenberger

Wendy Liu

Riley Darrough

Julia Haffie

Preston Walker

Griffin Damron

Adya Mohanty
The Perfect Bridge Between Generations
Magnetism ⬩ Talent Building ⬩ 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 qualities needed to maximize a student’s potential in life and on paper. Sixteen years later, a former admissions officer has yet to pass our first-round interview, yet we succeed by fostering relations with admissions officers, directors, and deans, through NACAC and WACAC where it matters, and guiding 1-on-1 with coaching talent, where it counts.
Our students have outperformed those guided by more expensive firms, focused on title-chasing and honors. Because we benchmark the intrinsic journey as rigorously as others track awards, we can guide students to the "holistic" thresholds that give underdogs more ways to win and help top performers break the tie.
Holistic consulting for holistic admissions.
— David Reynaldo, Founder








