Students Rave:
As a parent navigating the complex and often overwhelming college admissions process, I can confidently say that working with Alice was one of the best decisions we made for our two daughters. We first used Alice with our older daughter six years ago and then again last fall with our younger daughter. In both instances, it was clear that she brought not only deep expertise and insight into the college landscape, but also genuine care and personalized attention that made all the difference.
Alice took the time to truly get to know each of our daughters—not just as a student, but as a whole person. She helped highlight strengths, uncover passions, and craft a narrative that felt authentic and compelling. The result was essays that reflected our children’s respective voice and values, and a process that felt organized and manageable, even during the most stressful moments.
What impressed us most was her ability to reduce anxiety—not just for our children, but for us as parents, too. Alice provided clear timelines and always made time to answer questions, no matter how small. It truly felt like we had a knowledgeable partner and a steady guide walking with us every step of the way.
Thanks to Alice’s support, both of our girls were accepted into their first choice school. We are deeply grateful and cannot recommend Alice highly enough to any family beginning this journey.
-Stan Sze
I highly recommend Alice Chen as a college admissions consultant. We met Alice when my son was in 10th grade. When we first met her, we knew she was the right person to help our son with his college application. She planned everything ahead and kept my son on track with all the application processes.
She was always creative and shared new ideas from different aspects of the applications. She was tireless in her enthusiasm and generous with her time, especially during the holiday season. She gave my son the most considerable support.
The competition is fierce for Asian male engineering students, and she helped my son create the strongest application possible. My son has already been accepted into an Ivy League university and another Top 10 University. She is an outstanding mentor - she works not just on the essay but on developing the potential of each of her students.
-Fiona Zang
I really enjoyed working with Alice! Our time together has been very inspiring, and I came out of the college application process with great results and a clearer idea of what I want to do in the future.
Alice is very supportive and open-minded, and she is great at pushing me to dig deeper into who I am and craft stellar college application essays that I would have never thought of by myself. She's also a great editor---her attention to detail taught me to not only become a better writer but a storyteller. She coached me to seek perfection in my writing, from choosing accurate word choices to using efficient diction.
I remember feeling stressed and overwhelmed when applying to more than two dozen colleges, but Alice patiently guided me through this process and was extremely respectful and thoughtful. More importantly, Alice taught me how to write from the perspective of the readers (i.e., the admission officers) and appeal to different audiences.
Working with Alice has paid off, and I’ve been accepted to my dream school! More importantly, I will continue to use the writing skills I learned from her throughout college and beyond. If you’re looking for a college application consultant, please consider Alice!
-Adam Liao, Top 3 School Acceptance
Yelp 5 Stars: I got into my top choice early decision because of Alice! My only regret is not starting sooner with her!
- Jb B. New York, New York. Admitted to UPenn VIPER Program.
Google Reviews 5 Stars “Alice was an amazing help in college essay writing…her guiding questions and patience allowed me to formulate my ideas in a natural way… I ended up learning a lot about myself…. Not only this, Alice also…encourag(ed) me to focus on topics I found personally powerful and meaningful. Thank you Alice!”
- D.R., SF Bay Area - admitted to Harvard, Berkeley MET Program (< 2% admitted), Columbia (with Egleston Scholar distinction), UPenn, Northwestern, USC Iovine and Young Academy (Presidential Scholar, half tuition scholarship, roughly $160,000)
Google Reviews 5 Stars “Alice is AMAZING! She helped me learn how to organize my writing in a way that was engaging, easy to read, and contained all the little things admissions officers look for…I felt like my writing improved a lot and that I'm better at catering my writing towards different audiences… I'll be going to MIT this fall :)!”
-A.M. -SF Bay Area - admitted to MIT, Dartmouth, Rice (Full tuition scholarship roughly $210,000), Dartmouth, Duke, Georgia Tech ($85,000 scholarship)
Google Reviews 5 Stars - “Alice provided thoughtful feedback and support... For many of my essays, Alice helped me see the potential in writing about experiences I hadn't previously considered…. Alice always gave me her complete and honest feedback, and she pushed me to make my essays the best they possibly could be.
-J.L., San Francisco University High School, Stanford Acceptance
I am very grateful to have worked with Alice throughout the college application process!
Before I met Alice, I felt very unsure and stressed with deadlines, having gone through many different ideas/drafts for my essays. By asking specific questions and providing prompts for thinking, she helped bring my writing to life. In addition to providing advice/direction, she also always eased my stress and was a pleasure to talk with.
With Alice's feedback, I was able present my best self to my colleges, helping me get accepted into my top choice school early.
-O. - Stanford Acceptance
I really enjoyed working with Alice on my college admissions essays. She was kind and thoughtful, and provided much insight into what ideas succeed for what topics, and how to execute those ideas. She also kept me accountable for deadlines and polishing my applications on time. She helped me highlight my voice and I appreciate the honesty she approaches the process with.
-J. - Harvard Acceptance
Working with Alice was a wonderful experience!
While I was brainstorming ideas for my essays, she always asked good questions that helped me dig deeper into the topics I wanted to write about. Her questions were very on point and allowed me to reflect on my experiences from new perspectives, which helped me make my essays more meaningful.
Alice is also a brilliant editor. For me, one of the major difficulties in college essays was the word limit. It's hard to convey complex ideas in only a few hundred (or even in just one hundred) words. Alice has a sharp sense of what parts of my writing are necessary and add to the theme, and what parts are filler that should be cut out to give the story a harder punch. She really opened my eyes to the utility of words. I know I'll use the writing skills she taught me in college and beyond.
Alice is also super respectful and friendly. I feel like she tried to get to know me as a person, which made me more comfortable writing and editing essays about personal topics. She is honest in her feedback but also kind. There was a time when I got into a writer’s block and was stressed, but Alice was patient and helped me work through it.
I really appreciate the feedback and encouragement Alice gave me throughout this process, which helped me get into one of my dream schools. If you're looking for help on your college essays, you should definitely consider Alice!
-G., Brown Acceptance
Google Reviews 5 Stars “Alice taught me how to clearly articulate my own self worth, and to uniquely articulate my talents… I've taken away literary skills I'll be using in college, graduate school and beyond. I'm extremely grateful for her wisdom, patience, and creativity that helped me get into my top schools (UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley) with my first choice majors!”
-G.Z. California Crosspoint Academy, accepted to UC Berkeley, UCLA (Alumni Scholarship), UCSD (Regents Scholarship $20,000)
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - “Alice gave me lots of ideas… that I wouldn't have thought of on my own…Thanks to her work, I was able to get into my top choice for college. A fresh set of eyes on my work is always helpful, but Alice is a step above everyone else I've worked with.”
- N. P. MIT Acceptance
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - “As a high school guidance counselor there is little professional training available to assist me in helping students craft their best college application essay. Working with Alice, along with one of my students, provided me with professional training … Alice was easy to work with and very gifted at discussing life experiences, brainstorming essay topics and assisting my student in expressing himself through personal story, balancing interest and self-reflection. As a result of my work with Alice, my student was accepted to his dream school, MIT, and I am more prepared to help all of my students with their essays. I highly recommend Alice!!!”
-K.W. Private School Guidance Counselor
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - “Alice helped transform a potentially overwhelming college application process to a truly rewarding experience. She taught me me how to tell my story with clarity, purpose, and confidence. She encouraged me to stay true to who I was… One of the things that makes Alice an amazing college counselor is her genuine desire to help her students. ”
- C. S. Lynbrook High School - Cornell Acceptance
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - “Alice is an incredible writing coach… I genuinely enjoyed brainstorming college essay ideas with her! Alice made the grueling college process so much easier for both my family and me. 10/10 would recommend!”
- M.D. Urban High School of San Francisco, UCLA Acceptance (Undergraduate), Tulane $100,000 Founder’s Scholarship, UCSF Acceptance (Graduate School of Nursing. Hired Alice for undergraduate and graduate school applications.)
Google Reviews 5 Stars - Alice… dug up stories/narratives I wouldn’t have ever written about on my own! I’ve learned to write effectively during my time working with her, and these skills have already permeated into other spheres of life (school, internships etc.). More than anything, she’s been a super inspiring and charismatic mentor and has encouraged me to be more bold as an Asian American girl pursuing STEM.”
— Esther, Albany H.S., UC Berkeley Acceptance Computer Science
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars Alice .. truly took the time to understand the heart of my essays and offered so many creative and practical suggestions that I could easily incorporate into them. Her genuine warmth and encouragement have comforted me during this hectic process and boosted my confidence in expressing my stories.”
— A.Z., Lynbrook High School, Cupertino, UCLA Acceptance
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - Alice gave very helpful advice and kind encouragement along the way, making college app, as intimidating as it was, much more enjoyable.”
— Neville S., Hong Kong - UCLA acceptance
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - Alice did so much more than proof my essays…she helped me relax through it all. Alice honestly kept me from losing my head during all of it and having her cheerful counsel took an edge off of the process as she guided me through. Heck, she made writing my applications fun, of all things. — Rebekah W., Los Gatos
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - Alice helped me tremendously throughout the college process. Before I started my essays, I was worried I wouldn’t have any solid ideas. But Alice helped me brainstorm and even helped me understand myself better through the process. Her editing was always extremely thorough but also ensured that my original vision was still easily shown in the essay. She greatly improved the flow of my essays, the grammar, and the overall ability for the essay to show what I had envisioned it to show. Alice was extremely supportive throughout the whole process, and at the same time, she pushed me to be efficient … Beyond just the college application part of it, Alice was just really fun to work with and made the overall process much less stressful. I couldn’t thank her enough.
— Andrew Z., San Jose (NYU Acceptance)
Yelp Reviews 5 Stars - I feel so privileged to have Alice edit my writing assignments. Not only is she a gifted writer, but she excels at helping me express myself more clearly and powerfully. With her assistance, my assignments have made a huge impact and have helped me in obtaining jobs and gaining admission into graduate school and various programs. I think working with Alice has been a worthy investment and I recommend that you use her services!!
— KAW, Stanford University
“E had a happy admission session because of all those acceptance letters, especially the one from Berkeley. :)
We are very happy about this result, actually we are thrilled. Thank you very much for your help during this stressful application period. ”
— J.S., Albany parent, (daughter accepted by UC Berkeley)
“We have so appreciated your help with [our daughter’s] college application process! Your suggestions and editing skills were invaluable as well as your calm, supportive manner.”
— The Urban School of San Francisco Parent (daughter accepted by UCLA)
“My son has decided to go to UCLA (Engineering program.) We understand that nowadays college acceptance gets competitive or even unpredictable and we are grateful for the opportunity to go to such a great school. Thank you very much for your guidance throughout this journey. You provide exceptional and professional service with a personal touch.”
— A.L., Los Gatos High School Parent (son accepted by UCLA)
“Alice is an amazing counselor. Coming into the college application process, I felt completely lost and overwhelmed. She helped me take it step by step, helping me organize my essays and prepare my applications before my deadlines. Alice cares very much about her students, and I never felt rushed or unprepared. She helped keep me in check and relaxed during my already stressful senior year. I highly recommend her!”
— Jasmine, Piedmont High School