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: Yield protection in 2026 is why students with 1500+ SATs and 4.0 GPAs get rejected from schools ranked #20-#50. Schools like Tulane, Northeastern, and Case Western reject overqualified applicants they believe will attend a higher-ranked school, protecting their yield rate (the percentage of admitted students who enroll). Yield directly affects U.S. News rankings (NACAC, … Continued
TL;DR: The 10 most common parent mistakes in college admissions 2026 include starting too late (62% of families begin after junior year), treating the process like a checklist, ignoring Early Decision strategy, fixating on rankings over fit, and writing their child’s essays (NACAC, 2025). Each mistake has a concrete fix. The underlying pattern is that … Continued
TL;DR: The Common App activities list 2026-2027 allows students to list up to 10 activities with a 150-character description for each. Admissions officers at Ivy League schools spend 8-12 minutes per application and scan the activities list before reading essays (NACAC, 2025). The order matters: list your strongest activity first. Lead every description with impact … Continued
TL;DR: An Ivy League degree is worth it in 2026. Ivy League graduates earn a median of $95,000-$105,000 by age 34, roughly $20,000-$30,000 more per year than graduates of top-50 public universities (Opportunity Insights, 2024). The total cost of an Ivy League degree ranges from $0 for families earning under $200,000 at schools like Harvard … Continued
TL;DR: The difference between the most and least generous financial aid offers at top-20 schools can exceed $40,000 per year for families earning $200,000-$300,000 (College Board Net Price Calculator data, 2025-2026). Harvard and Princeton guarantee free tuition for families under $200,000, while schools like Georgetown and Emory may offer minimal aid at the same income … Continued
TL;DR: Every top-20 university accepts both the SAT and ACT equally, with no preference for either test (College Board and ACT, Inc., 2025-2026). The middle 50% score range at Ivy League schools is 1500-1570 SAT or 34-36 ACT. The digital SAT is now 2 hours 14 minutes while the ACT is dropping its required science … Continued
TL;DR: Likely letters 2026 are pre-notification signals sent by selective colleges to approximately 5-15% of admitted students, typically 2-4 weeks before official decision dates (NACAC, 2025). All eight Ivy League schools, Stanford, Duke, MIT, and several other top-20 universities send likely letters. They originated from Ivy League athletic recruiting rules that prohibit formal offers before … Continued
TL;DR: The most selective universities require 1 to 6 supplemental essays in addition to the Common App personal statement (Common App, 2026), and the “Why This School” prompt is the most common and most consequential (Common App, 2026). According to admissions officers, the supplement is where most applicants lose: generic essays that could apply to … Continued