What students are saying
“With Alan’s help, my college admission process was a lot smoother than I expected. He really knows the college admission system inside and out and will give you his honest opinion about your chances in getting into each one. Alan even suggest a few schools that he thinks would be a good fit for me and now I am in one of them and I am very happy with my choice . I never had to worry about deadlines since Alan helped me budget my time for writing the personal statements and I was able to submit all my application long before the due day.” Graduate of Millbrae HS
“Alan is the ultimate resource of college knowledge. He knows the ins and outs of how the system works and how best to approach the confusing college application process. Alan and I met to discuss where I saw myself going to college, picked “safety” and “reach” schools, then set up a timeline for essay rough drafts, etc. Alan was also extremely helpful in giving me constructive criticism on my essays, helping my writing go from that of a shy high school student to that of a confident college-bound adult. In the long run, I got into some awesome schools, including UCLA, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and Columbia University. I would recommend Alan to anyone I know who is looking for a college counselor.” Graduate of Los Lomas HS
“Alan was very resourceful during college apps. He provided me with a schedule and helped me keep up with all of the deadlines. Going into the apps, I also didn’t really know how to approach the personal essays and statements, so his guidance there was much appreciated. In addition, Alan knows a lot about the higher tier schools. So if you’re looking for some honest, unbiased background into a school or you’re just shopping for the right match, he is definitely the one to go to. Thanks for everything Alan!” –Graduate of Albany HS
“Entering my senior year, I found the prospect of applying to college daunting and overwhelming. Fortunately, I had Alan to guide me through the process. Whenever I had a question, Alan would always either have an answer himself or could contact other experts to get their opinions. Without Alan’s guidance I don’t know if I would have been able to get everything done on time.” –Graduate of Palo Alto HS
“Thanks so much for all the help throughout this process. It’s been a tough road, and I’m glad you were there along the way to keep me sane.” –Graduate of Palo Alto HS
“As a foreign student, I had never had any experience writing essays for university applications. Alan thoroughly explained what schools look for in an essay and helped me find suitable topics. With Alan’s guidance, I was able to write solid essays which helped me gain acceptance to my top schools.” –College of Marin transfer student
What parents are saying
“Alan assisted both my sons in evaluating which colleges might be a good ‘fit’ for them, given their GPA, SAT scores, extra-curricular activities. My older son had more options open to him although wasn’t sure what he wanted to study, but even with not a lot to go on, Alan helped narrow college options down. With my younger son, his options were fewer but Alan gave him a realistic picture of his chances of acceptance of the colleges he listed of interest, and the results were exactly as he predicted. I appreciated Alan’s honest but kind assistance; I think my sons were more inclined to hear his assessment of things much more than their mom or dad!” –Parent of El Cerrito HS graduate
“We found Alan to be a tremendous resource through the entire application process. What was especially valuable to my daughter was his assistance on her essays. He helped her identify and select compelling essay topics and worked with her to more clearly communicate her ideas. The end result were essays that captured my daughter’s personality, character, activities and academic interests.” -Parent of Aragon HS graduate
“Our daughter is a very happy (however busy) freshman at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, and Alan deserves much of the credit for that. He helped us to identify colleges fitting our daughter’s interests and grades, and guided her through the application process, while staying in close contact with us. The result was that she was admitted to all 8 schools she applied to (to some right away, to some from the wait list). More importantly, UPS looks like the exactly right place for her, but it would probably not have been on our radar if not for Alan.” -Parent of Monta Vista HS graduate
“I cannot say enough great things about Alan Young. My daughter worked with him throughout the college application process and we all appreciated his help so much! He has an exceptionally good knowledge of so many colleges and really gets a good feel of what is the right fit for your child. Once Alan and my daughter came up with the colleges to apply to, they developed a plan on how to complete the process. He works very well with teens and is very focused and yet very kind. He doesn’t let things slip. He is excellent with grammar and is a UC Berkeley reader so he’s great with the applications. He also will say when something needs to be redone or not. My daughter was writing her essay for Univ. of Chicago and he told her to please re-do it. It wasn’t the right approach. She came up with a different topic that was really important to her and he agreed that this was the right direction (btw-she got into U of C and I give much credit to Alan’s direction). So, in summary, he’s awesome and we recommend him to everyone. And my daughter is going to Columbia!” -Parent of San Mateo HS graduate
“Alan was instrumental in guiding my son through the stressful college application process, getting into our dream colleges such as MIT and Stanford. Alan assisted us understand the uniqueness of each college, and identify the ones that best match my son. The biggest help we got from Alan is in writing the numerous college essays. Through seemingly casual conversations with my son about his experience, Alan skillfully extracted interesting essay topics that made my son stand out among the army of applicants to catch the attention of admission officers. With Alan’s help, my son’s essays were magically transformed from boring laundry lists of achievements into something that describes a full person so rich in details that even I didn’t recognize! I strongly recommend Alan to anyone facing the college application challenge.” –Parent of Saratoga HS graduate
“Alan was a wonderful calm in the storm of college applications. He was helpful in advising my daughter colleges to consider to round out her list, so that they were not all reach colleges. He helped her identify her essay topics that were right for her and was extremely helpful with advising her with her writing to turn out the successful essays that they became. My daughter was accepted at some exceptional schools including UCLA, UCSB, Scripps, NYU, Skidmore, Wesleyan among others. I would highly recommend Alan to any student who smartly decides to work with a counselor.” –Parent of Tamalpais HS graduate
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