A Historic Breakthrough Inspired by Miracle Students' College Acceptances
In 2012, we won development funding from the University of Southern California to create a special program based on our approach to college applications.
We had studied why some students with lower grades got into top colleges, while others with high grades didn't. Our innovative methods ethically lifted students with lower grades and SAT/ACT scores to success while increasing certainty for higher-achievers. With three public high schools, we tested our program while we fine-tuned the optimal balance between student independence and close guidance. School counselors chose 12th graders with diverse academic achievement levels, all of whom significantly and measurably improved their college applications. All students who finished our program got into a top three college choice—even with below average academics, so long as they weren't lower than the 25th percentiles for admits to those colleges. Concurrently, we became the first and only independent college consultants invited by USC to present workshops alongside its admissions office. Since then, we've continued refining our methodology, helping students 1-on-1 achieve the same successful outcomes faster and more efficiently.
How We Decoded Miracle Students' College Acceptances
Miracle students have lower grades, test scores, no outwardly special stand out qualities, and still get into their dream colleges over peers with better qualifications. While their classmates describe them as “only average,” one admissions officer described them as "too good of a fit to turn away."
Everybody roots for the underdog, including admissions officers. Activate your inner underdog.
Expert Opinions Provided For:
Popular Advice Doesn't Mean Correct Advice
We've engaged extensively with admissions professionals, recognizing biases and contradictions that often confuse applicants. For instance, an admissions officer at a highly selective university once emphatically warned against writing about romantic relationships, citing a "boyfriend essay" as the worst she'd read. Yet, using our approach, one of our students wrote about her ex-boyfriend and not only gained admission but moved that same officer to tears. Our method identified this story as the student's best opportunity for her essay to score high on the admissions rubric, despite conventional wisdom and the officer's advice suggesting otherwise.
We achieve unexpected acceptances because we critically examine and evaluate, rather than echo, conventional wisdom circulated amongst college admissions officers and consultants. Four years before Harvard's Turning the Tide (2016) study on the future of college admissions, we had already predicted and were applying its recommendations. At USC's Counselor Conference of 2014, we were invited to educate 300 school counselors and independent consultants on our strategy for an overlooked part of students' college applications. In 2019, we successfully requested a change to the University of California application, enabling bullet point formatting in its activities section. In the decade before the U.S. Supreme Court ended affirmative action in 2023, we already had our students revealing their substantive lived experiences (the current legal standard) instead of over-emphasizing racial clichés in essays. This led Asian American students to win Harvard acceptances as Harvard's Asian admit rate hit historic lows. We're ahead of trends; at times, we've set them.
Our Team
16 Years of Magic
In 2009, my business plan for College Zoom envisioned a team of former admissions officers driving our success. I quickly learned that admissions office pedigree isn't equivalent to impressive teaching or persuasive writing ability. As it turns out, a former admissions officer has yet to pass our first-round, skills based interview.
Guided by admissions directors early on, I studied their decisions after being awed by students who didn't satisfy their expressed standards yet still got accepted. After exhaustive research and statistical analysis, I identified the lowest competitive thresholds for key admission criteria, specific to each university. Below these thresholds, students became non-viable—but, above them, they could still compete and be accepted despite having below-average credentials. By reinterpreting the evaluation rubrics used by admissions offices with this data, I constructed a model that explained—and then accurately predicted—miracle acceptances, top student rejections, and all outcomes in between.
This unprecedented insight made our personalized admissions strategies highly actionable for any student. By using the answer key, we made the process of bridging their gaps clear and unambiguous. Our precise, targeted goals avoided burnout while leading families past unclear and inconsistent advice they'd gotten from official sources. We also perfected an entire college application writing methodology and system—covering essays and all application materials—for holistically maximizing evaluation scores. Our students surpassed students guided by more expensive competitors; we even achieved breakthroughs with students others deemed hopeless.
Nevertheless, our expertise has only ever been as effective as a student's commitment to follow through. That's why our 96.5% success rate has been powered equally by our ability to mentor teenagers to reach heights they never thought possible. Our 16-year history of success is your success. We help students adopt the mindsets necessary to unlock their inner heroes and achieve standout successes in their own ways.
Beyond admissions coaching, we activate greater successes in life.
— David Reynaldo, Founder
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A’Lira Underwood
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David Reynaldo
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Aisa Castro
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Jackson Burgess
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Adam Kronenberger
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Wendy Liu
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Ezra Li
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Riley Darrough
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Julia Haffie
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Luryn John-Miller
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Preston Walker
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Griffin Damron
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Adya Mohanty
The Perfect Bridge Between Generations
Rapport ⬩ Role-modeling ⬩ Trust ⬩ Skill
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To uphold our highest standards, we're all in-house employees of College Zoom. We never outsource any part of your counseling to contractors.