Do you hire former admissions officers? Does that provide an advantage?

We do have a small number of consultants with admissions committee experience, including individuals who have served as deans of admissions at leading institutions. That perspective is genuinely valuable. It provides context on how committees evaluate applications, how priorities shift between cycles, and what distinguishes a candidacy that receives serious consideration from one that does not.

We do not, however, treat former committee membership as a primary qualification, and we encourage prospective clients to examine that assumption carefully. The skills required to evaluate applications from behind a desk are not the same skills required to work one-on-one with a candidate, diagnose the strategic dimensions of their profile, and coach them toward a compelling candidacy. The former is assessment. The latter is development. Both matter. They are not interchangeable.

Our hiring decisions reflect this distinction. Coaching ability — the capacity to identify what makes a candidate distinctive, challenge them to articulate it with precision, and build a strategy that positions their strengths effectively — is the criterion we prioritize above all else. Admissions experience can enrich that foundation. It does not replace it.