IvyWise
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Contact Info City: New York City State: NY Zip Code: 10019 Phone #: 212-262-3500 Web Site URL: http://www.ivywise.com Offerings
Essay editing •
Application review •
Standardized test prep •
School Selection Guidance •
Resume review •
Transcript/Curriculum Review •
Ongoing Counseling •
Interview prep
Specialty: Elite colleges and universities • College Transfers • Athletic Recruiting • Scholarship Search • International Applications • Legacy/Development Cases User reviews
Average user rating from: 4 user(s)
Add new review 14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Unethical, unorganized and unprofessional, Friday, 23 October 2009 Written by Frustrated Mom
Narrative Review (More detail = more helpful) BACKGROUND & GOALS: I'm happy someone told me about this website. I've been wanting to complain about this company for months now. I have two children who attend exclusive Manhattan private schools. Although we have excellent college counseling, I was convinced that my kids needed the extra push to make sure they got into their top choices. I read IvyWise's marketing materials and was convinced that, unlike other independent consultants, they they had former Ivy League admissions officers on staff. I swallowed hard and paid a hefty price. I was nervous--and very uninformed for the chaos to follow. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES: I needed my children to sit down with an expert to make sure they stood out and that they would build a relationships with their counselor. There must be something going on with the management there because counselors come and go. I've worked with three counselors there in 8 months. And, you have to make full payment up-front and sign pages and pages of contracts that prevent you from getting a refund. When I called to complain, I got the same runaround from their assistant who clearly was reading a script. When I asked to speak to the CEO, Dr. Cohen, she gave me these empty promises that she was the best in the business and that she had her hand in helping all of her students, even though we did not pay her atrocious prices. She apologized for the turnover in her company convincing me that she hired young professionals who could not handle the demands of working in New York City. When I asked to work with other counselors, she recommended a counselor who had NO ADMISSIONS EXPERIENCE. I was miffed, but I could not disappoint my kids. I think she's really the only counselor there. And when I found out that she was only a reader for three months at Yale, I felt ripped off. When I reread the contracts, they basically only protect IvyWise, not me or my kids. Every threat that I made to say that I was going to report them to the Better Business Bureau, Dr. Cohen kept on referring to the contracts. I felt that I had sold my soul to the devil. RESULTS & FINAL THOUGHTS: Over the next few months, we worked with our guidance counselor (who was fine and did give us the attention we needed.) IvyWise only gave minor comments on my children's college lists, essays, and applications. I could've done that myself! The worst part is that when my son was denied to his top choice Ivy (early decision--Dr. Cohen said that he should only apply early) she said, "I didn't support that choice" and suggested that his #5 school-a less selective institution- should be his top choice. Then, in May, when he finally got into his schools, her assistant kept harassing us for results. When we ignored that, we got emails asking for referrals for new business and even a testimonial on how much they liked working with IvyWise. IvyWise and Dr. Cohen is only about making money and making sure that she changes her statistics to reflect what is best for her. I feel that my families needs were pushed aside. Fortunately, my son handled this chaos well--but I haven't. STAY AWAY FROM IVYWISE!!!! Would you recommend this consultant or hire them again?: no
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Inflexible and a waste of money, Friday, 24 July 2009 Written by A rip off!
Narrative Review (More detail = more helpful) BACKGROUND & GOALS: As a parent, I chose IvyWise because we needed help. My son was not getting the attention he needed at his private school and after reading about IvyWise and Dr. Kat Cohen, I thought this would be a good investment in helping him find the right school and helping him get in. We didn't expect miracles. We just wanted help. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES: After seeing Dr. Cohen's atrocious prices (they wanted $47,775 for a Jr/Sr program--that's more than the price of tuition!) we chose a lower priced counselor, Liluye. Unfortunately, it was a bad relationship. Liluye was unresponsive to my emails and phone calls. I had to call the office to get in touch with her as she wouldn't respond to my son's needs. She was not proactive at all--and when we needed something, it was on her schedule. After months of frustration, we scrapped together a few applications- after my son and i did a lot of the work on my own. Liluye is very nice, but not the expert that she claimed she was RESULTS & FINAL THOUGHTS: My son is going to a selective college--but clearly, the money was not worth it at all. Would you recommend this consultant or hire them again?: no
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1 of 17 people found the following review helpful
IvyWise Rocks, Thursday, 23 July 2009 Written by anonymous
Narrative Review (More detail = more helpful) BACKGROUND & GOALS: Dr. Cohen and her team prepared me for the college application process much better than any college counselor in my private high school. She puts her heart and soul into the process. She expertly sizes up your possibilities and commits herself to helping you achieve your goals. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES: I worked with Dr. Cohen. She guided me in choosing a college and in organizing my essay. She did the later by editing the essay not by writing the essay. RESULTS & FINAL THOUGHTS: Trinity College in Ct among others. I will go to Trinity Would you recommend this consultant or hire them again?: yes
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Picking IvyWise was not so wise, Sunday, 05 April 2009 Written by Unsatisfied Customer
Narrative Review (More detail = more helpful) BACKGROUND & GOALS: I was a straight A's, all honors/9 APs, SAT 1500 (old SAT), captain of lots of clubs, played three sports etc etc etc boring upper middle class girl. I worked quite hard and was quite successful at a very highly ranked public high school. However, I knew that the likelihood of my getting into the schools I was most interested in would be extremely tough simply because there are so many high achieving, bright, high SAT, upper middle class kids out there. My mother heard about Ivywise after hearing an interview with Katherine Cohen on the radio and decided it might be worth looking into as an added edge, seeing as I had done most of the heavy lifting on my own. Ivywise had extremely good statistics regarding accepted students and my parents and I figured that Ms. Cohen would help to give me that extra lift by helping me to present myself and my accomplishments as well as possible. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES: My parents selected the highest priced package - the platinum package with Ms. Cohen herself as counselor (valued somewhere around $30,000 I believe). Basically, the aim of Ivywise is to help a student use what they've accomplished and present themselves in the best light possible through carefully checked application essays but also things like encouraging students to take internships/other projects in high school they may never have thought of before. There is nothing unethical as far as I could tell - I wrote my own essays etc. However, I'm not quite sure what Ms. Cohen did to enhance my chances at all for all that money. RESULTS & FINAL THOUGHTS: In the end, I was admitted to none of the schools Ms. Cohen helped me to apply to though I was in an academic range to at least have a fighting chance at all of them - (one of them in fact, I had far better SAT/GPA/Extracurrics than the average admitted student and I didn't get in) indeed students from my school with lower GPAs/SATs gained admission to two of the schools without having shelled out money for a counselor. Further I WAS admitted to three highly competitive schools she did NOT help with (Oxford University, the University of Edinburgh and St. Andrew's University, all in the UK). Granted, Oxford was my first choice because it is pretty unbeatable so I ended up quite happy though I'm sure my parents would have liked to have saved the $30,000 given to ivywise seeing as the service did nothing - in fact I believe it hurt my chances at the American universities because I couldn't just be myself in my app/essays (like I could with my Oxford app, having done it all on my own) because Ms. Cohen was so bent upon "presenting and packaging" me a certain way. Like I said earlier, it wasn't unethical, it was just like having a very very overbearing guidance counselor who stifled my personality in my apps and thus, I believe, made my application seem like just another nameless overachieving app rather than that of a unique individual with her own aspirations. Further, I was always under the impression that she cared most about how each student would affect her admission stats not how happy each student ended up with their prospects. The most disappointing thing about Ms. Cohen was that when my mother (very politely and civilly - I was there) asked why her highly-priced influence had seemed to dampen not enhance my college prospects, she got completely defensive and more or less said I was to blame. Why, I'm not sure, she was altogether unclear and defensive. She then proceeded to include the fact that 'one of her students' had gotten into Oxford on her website despite her having had quite literally nothing to do with that application (she didn't even see a photocopy of it at any point, let alone have any influence on the outcome). So overall, Kat Cohen and Ivywise proved to be an expensive, burdensome waste of time and money. Even the money aside, it made my college application process far more stressful than it had to be and did nothing to alter the result. Definitely would not recommend. I've heard from friends that there are counselors that charge one tenth the price of Ivywise and do have extremely helpful services. Look elsewhere, and don't think that "most expensive" = "best", trust me, I made that mistake. Would you recommend this consultant or hire them again?: no
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