Our team of experts provides personalized and high-touch support at every stage of the college application process.
These formative years are important for building a strong foundation for success. We will assess a student’s unique strengths, passions, and goals and will design a personalized, strategic roadmap. This roadmap will cover all aspects of a student’s high school journey and we will provide guidance for executing each step of that plan.
During this critical year, we provide holistic support as a student prepares to apply to college. We provide advice on leadership building, extracurricular development, summer planning, college list building, and more. We also offer work closely with students through all aspects of preparing their applications.
Regardless of where you are with preparing your applications, we are ready to jump in! Our team are experts at identifying a student’s strengths and crafting their compelling narrative. We offer tailored suggestions and work with you to execute them, ensuring a refined application.
Through this stand alone, virtual research program, we match high school students with PhD candidates from top research universities. Students will complete the valuable process of selecting a research topic, collecting and analyzing data, and producing a final paper or project as they dive deeper into their passions.
Our team of tutors support students in preparation for the SAT and the ACT as well as all academic areas. They have the expertise to effectively guide students through all standardized testing, including AP exams, ensuring that students are maintaining their academic profiles.
Applying to graduate school is competitive so don’t leave your application to chance. We have the expertise across a wide range of graduate programs and we will work with you to discover the best programs for your goals and to craft tailored applications, geared towards each of your individual schools.
93% of our students are admitted to one of their top 3 college choices.
Working with Oriel Admissions was the best decision that I made for my son’s college applications! Rona and her team went above and beyond, offering comprehensive support that exceeded my expectations. Their holistic counseling approach empowered my son to achieve his dream of being admitted to an Ivy League college. I highly recommend Oriel Admissions!
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The earlier that you begin your engagement with Oriel Admissions, the greater impact that we can have on your child’s admissions chances. A student’s curriculum in middle school will often determine their academic profile in high school. Starting as early as 8th grade can allow us to set your student on the path for academic success.
For our long-term counseling engagements, we create a Strategic Roadmap that is personalized to each student and is designed to provide guidance for how a student spends their time in high school. We can build this roadmap for our students as early as 8th grade up to as late as the first portion of 11th grade.
However, we can also support students in the later stages of their high school experience and often engage with students who are rising into their senior year or who may need assistance improving their applications while in their senior year.
Our unique 360-degree approach to counseling is how we provide students and families with the most comprehensive level of support, allowing students to develop the skills that they need to be successful in high school, in college, and beyond.
The student will have a primary college counselor who will meet with them on a regular basis for advising sessions (8th, 9th, and 10th grade) or who will work directly with them on their application (11th and 12th grade).
In addition to their college counselor, the student will be supported by academic tutors, SAT/ACT tutors, a career coach, a writing coach, and project mentors, as needed.
Rona Aydin, the founder of Oriel Admissions, is involved with every family as well. Rona will meet quarterly with the student to check on their progress and is always available to provide support and strategic direction as needed.
We offer comprehensive advising and planning services beginning as early as 8th grade, helping students navigate every stage of their academic and personal development.
As students transition into the college application process in their junior and senior years, we provide:
Our students come from all over the country and from all around the world. Our students attend public high schools, charter high schools, and private high schools. Additionally, we are well-versed in the educational systems of the countries that commonly send their students to study in the US.
Even if we have not worked with a student from your district before, we will quickly familiarize ourselves with your school and what makes it unique. After all, there are over 20,000 institutions providing a high school education in the US and we have not yet had the opportunity to work with students from all of them!
We guide students with diverse academic backgrounds. Our students are incredibly diverse in their interests and passions. They are creative thinkers, aspiring designers, and artists eager to explore innovative fields.
Many of our students are drawn to the humanities, seeking a broad and interdisciplinary education that fosters critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the world around them. We also work with students who are passionate about STEM subjects and are driven to build quantitative skills in fields like engineering, computer science, and medicine.
What sets many of our students apart is their desire to pursue dual interests. We encourage them to use their time in high school to explore these parallel passions, crafting a unique academic narrative that reflects their individuality.
Our students apply to a wide variety of colleges and programs. From Ivy League universities and small liberal arts colleges to large public flagship institutions, they seek out schools that align with their goals and aspirations. They apply to specialized programs such as arts and design schools, engineering and computer science departments, business programs, and even competitive BS/MD programs. No matter the path, we help our students present their best selves and achieve success across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines.
Our students apply to every imaginable college in the US, Canada, the UK, and other countries throughout the world. Many of our students are targeting Ivy League and other highly selective colleges. We are equally prepared to support students with diverse goals and college preferences, tailoring our guidance to meet their unique aspirations.
We recognize that no two students are the same, and we are equally prepared to support those pursuing a variety of goals and college preferences. Our team tailors guidance to each student's unique aspirations, ensuring they find the best-fit schools where they will thrive both academically and personally.
TL;DR: The Harvard interview is an optional, alumni-conducted conversation assigned at the discretion of the Admissions Committee – you cannot request one, and your application is considered complete without it (Harvard College Admissions, 2026). Roughly 10,000 alumni volunteers conduct these conversations by Zoom, phone, or in person, typically in October for Restrictive Early Action applicants … Continued
TL;DR: The Georgetown interview is required for all first-year applicants – Georgetown is one of the very few highly selective universities that still mandates an admissions interview (Georgetown Office of Undergraduate Admissions, 2026). It is conducted by the Alumni Admissions Program, a network of more than 7,800 alumni across 200+ regional committees, in person or … Continued
TL;DR: There is no Penn interview. The University of Pennsylvania ended alumni conversations with applicants beginning with the 2025-26 admissions cycle, announced July 16, 2025 – the final step in a two-stage wind-down that had already converted evaluative interviews into non-evaluative conversations in 2023-24 (The Daily Pennsylvanian, 2025). The stated reason was scale and equity: … Continued
TL;DR: The MIT interview is conducted by Educational Counselors – a network of more than 3,500 MIT graduates worldwide – and is offered whenever possible after you submit your application (MIT Admissions, 2026). It is deliberately informal: held in person where feasible or virtually by agreement, with most Early Action conversations in November and most … Continued
TL;DR: The Harvard transfer acceptance rate sits near 0.8 percent – in a recent cycle roughly 1,900 applicants competed for 15 offers, and Harvard itself describes admitting about 12 transfer students in an average year (Harvard College Admissions, 2026). Eligibility is narrow: one to two years of full-time study at a liberal-arts-style institution, fall entry … Continued
TL;DR: The Rice interview is the only one in this tier that the school openly recommends: optional and not guaranteed, but explicitly encouraged for first-year applicants (Rice Office of Admission, 2026). It is also one you request yourself – submit your application, get portal access within about 48 hours, and reserve a slot from late … Continued
TL;DR: There is no Columbia interview. Columbia College and Columbia Engineering discontinued their alumni interview program effective with the 2023-24 admissions cycle, announced May 18, 2023, and the admissions site states plainly that interviews are not part of the application process (Columbia Undergraduate Admissions, 2026). The rationale was equity: application volume had grown so large … Continued
TL;DR: The Dartmouth interview is an alumni-run conversation you cannot request: once you apply, your contact information goes to volunteer admissions ambassadors, and an alumnus or current student emails you directly – Dartmouth explicitly advises checking your junk folder (Dartmouth Admissions, 2026). Early Decision interviews cluster around November; Regular Decision runs early December through mid-February. … Continued