TTA Frequently Asked Questions

What does Top Tier Admissions do?

Dr. Michele Hernandez and Mimi Doe cofounded Top Tier Admissions after publishing their best-selling book, Don’t Worry: You’ll Get In in 2005. We are a company devoted to empowering students from grade 4 through graduate school. We are best known for our signature programs: our unlimited time Private Counseling Program and our internationally acclaimed Application Boot Camp®, an intensive four-day college application program for students entering their senior year of high school. This annual event has been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Forbes, The Huffington Post and other media.

Where are you located?

Top Tier Admissions has offices located in Concord, MA, just outside of Boston, and in Weybridge, VT just outside of Middlebury, VT. Our counselors and clients are from around the world and our counseling programs are all conducted virtually.

What grade levels do you work with?

We begin in 4th grade and work with students through graduate school (master’s and doctoral programs). We’ve also partnered with the nation’s best standardized test tutors to offer ACTSATAP, SSAT, Academic tutoring, GRELSAT and GMAT prep along with Executive Functioning & ADHD Support tutoring.

What is the Application Boot Camp® program at Top Tier Admissions?

Top Tier Admissions created the first, most successful four-day intensive college application program for high school students entering 12th grade. Registration opens in the fall each year (when students are juniors – though we also have an early sign-up option for sophomores) and we sell out by early summer. We hold Boot Camp virtually over a four-day timeframe every August. As soon as a student registers, they receive our in-depth Personalized Admissions Report. During the four days of Application Boot Camp®, students work one-on-one and in small groups to review and finalize the Common Application; prepare multiple essays using our proactive system, refine an application strategy to increase college acceptance possibilities, receive advice on their odds at targeted colleges, complete an activity sheet to submit with the Common Application, and take part in interview training. Prior to the four days of admissions counseling and application completion, participants in Application Boot Camp® receive access to our Membership Site where our resources live including but not limited to our Ultimate Guide to Top High School Summer Program and our Ultimate Guide to Top High School Contests and Awards, a Personalized Admissions Report, exclusive webinars, and one-on-one phone conferences with a TTA counselor.

I’m not located in the northeastern U.S. Can I still use your services?

Absolutely. Our students hail from around the world and we work remotely via Zoom, phone or email. Most of our programs are distance-based as we find it to be efficient and an excellent match with students’ busy schedules. All members of our team have extensive experience as educators, in addition to their depth of admissions experience and knowledge.

Do I need to apply to work with Top Tier Admissions®?

We welcome the opportunity to work with all students and their families and we work on a first-come, first-served basis. We typically sell out of our comprehensive counseling programs, including our annual Application Boot Camp® program for rising high school seniors and our one-on-one Private Counseling program. Our students represent many different academic, extracurricular, and cultural backgrounds. Each student has unique goals and we focus on finding the college or graduate school that will be the best academic match and social fit for each individual student. Our objective is to maximize students’ college and graduate school choices.

Can you work with students on nights and weekends?

We have varying schedules so that we can be as accommodating as possible. Our office hours are officially Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST). However, our counseling experts often arrange evening and weekend appointments as well. We pride ourselves on our accessibility.

How am I matched with a private counselor?

Prior to enrollment in our comprehensive Private Counseling Program, families speak first to our Enrollment Manager and then to one of our counseling experts. Additionally, we make sure our counselor speaks directly to the student who wishes to enroll to ensure they are committed to our program. We make every effort to understand a family’s goals prior to enrollment. Our Senior Private Counseling team works with middle school and high school students; however, they take on only a limited number of students each year. The full TTA team works with rising seniors in our summer Application Boot Camp® program. Dr. Kristen Willmott also works directly with graduate school applicants (law school, MBA, PhD, Master’s). Please contact us to inquire about availability for your student. We can assure you that all counselors undergo rigorous and regular admissions training and preparation. Our clients receive personalized one-on-one guidance, and also benefit from the collective knowledge of our entire team.

How do I choose a college consulting firm?

We encourage all of our clients to conduct a thorough review of admissions consulting firms. We think it’s imperative that families ask questions about whether the admissions consulting firm they are considering has counselors with hands-on admissions experience at competitive colleges and counselors with a depth of experience as educators. Having excellent writing skills or a business background is not enough when it comes to helping applicants prepare top admissions applications. At Top Tier Admissions, our collective admissions and higher ed experience allows us to review our clients’ applications with a true admissions officer’s perspective. Due to the collaborative nature of our programs and our entire team, when you work with Top Tier in our unlimited time private counseling, Application Boot Camp® or our Personal Boot Camp, you benefit from the collective “TTA brain trust.” Every application, essay, and strategy is reviewed “admissions-committee” style, meaning if you work with one of us, you work with all of us.

Why do I need an outside college consultant?

Recent United States Department of Education statistics indicate that U.S. public high school students receive an average of 38 minutes of personal advising on college admissions and there is an average ratio of 476 students to every 1 high school college counselor. Not to mention, many U.S. public and private high school families hire college consultants to assist with at least one aspect of their student’s admissions applications. We feel that personalized one-on-one admissions consulting has become a necessity when it comes to top college or graduate school admissions and acceptance because there are so few spots at the most competitive programs.

Some of your packages are known for being somewhat expensive. Are they really worth it?

The signature Top Tier Admissions packages are expensive because of the comprehensive nature of the counseling and depth of personalized guidance included. However, we urge parents to consider our admissions counseling programs as an educational and career investment for their children. The modern reality is that four years of private college can exceed $200,000 and four years of public college averages approximately $80,000. It’s worth investing in strategic guidance now to ensure that a student gains acceptance to a college or graduate school program that is the best fit for their academic interests, aptitudes, educational goals, and career track. Plus, year-over-year, our TTA students earn $4+ million in merit aid and go on to secure high-paying jobs after graduation.

How does Top Tier Admissions match counselors with students for online programs (i.e. Essay Guidance Program, Common App/UC App 911, tutoring) and Personal Boot Camp?

We focus on finding the counselor that best matches a student’s personality, interests, learning style and schedule. Simply contact us and we’d be happy to walk you through our programs and available counselors to help identify the counselor who would be the best fit for your family.

What is the role of an independent counselor?

An independent counselor can supplement your school counselor’s efforts by providing additional personalized guidance throughout the college admissions process. This can include working with you to develop a balanced college list, helping you create your activity list, preparing you for interviews and college visits, explaining the admissions process to you, and helping you with brainstorming and editing components of the application. We guide students and their families through every step of the college admissions process so they can identify the colleges (or graduate school programs) that will be the best academic and social fit for them. We then work with each student to help him or her portray the most comprehensive representation of who they are to the admissions committees of their chosen colleges. An independent counselor will not contact an admissions office on behalf of the student, nor can an independent counselor “get” a student admitted. Be wary of anyone who promises to get you into an Ivy League college – no one can guarantee admission and this premise violates the ethics of the profession.

Does Top Tier Admissions only help students who want to go to Ivy League schools?

No. We know that each student is different and has unique goals and aspirations. Our focus is to help students find the college or graduate school that will be the best match for him or her, where he or she will be happiest and truly thrive. We also work to ensure a strategy that gives our students options. Every year, our students are accepted to a wide range of colleges. To see the variety of programs that our students attend, please our results for college and for graduate school.

I just have a few questions about my student. Can I talk to you about their odds at College X and College Y if I give you their GPA and test scores?

Our admissions guidance depends upon factors and information unique to your student and their academic and personal history and goals. Therefore, we need to perform a thorough review of your student’s history in order to provide advice and accurate, comprehensive answers to questions. We are happy to tell you more about our process, but we do not provide advice or guidance on college or graduate school admissions odds to students for whom we have not written a personalized student report –and we cannot write this report for students who are not our clients.

My student only needs help with some aspects of the application or admissions process. Do you offer more targeted services versus the fully comprehensive programs like Private Counseling and Application Boot Camp®?

We offer several programs including our Essay Guidance Program,  Common App 911, Application Review Program, Gap Year Guidance, and Deferral/Denial & Waitlist Analysis Program for families who would prefer to focus on a specific component of the application process or a targeted aspect of the admissions process. For our full array of programs, please see our main Counseling page. Students can also work with our tutors through our tutoring programs for standardized test preparation and executive functioning skills.

Can I speak with past clients?

Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate this request. Confidentiality is of the utmost importance to us and the families we work with, and we do not release identifying information about them unless they expressly grant us the right. Of course, you can expect the same level of confidentiality as a Top Tier Admissions family. We understand that you may want to hear from former families first-hand so we have provided student and parent testimonials on our website for this purpose. We are proud to say that over 60% of Top Tier Admissions students are referrals from current or former families.

Does Top Tier Admissions do pro-bono work and/or partner with charitable organizations?

In recent years we have partnered with several nonprofit organizations in New York and Massachusetts, including the Reach NYC program, Tenacity in Boston, and the John Andrew Mazie Memorial Foundation in Framingham, MA working to bring college admissions guidance to underprivileged students and first-generation college applicants. Please contact us if you are a nonprofit U.S. organization focused on underprivileged college student access and seeking to partner with Top Tier Admissions.

Do you have a question we haven’t answered?

Please feel free to Contact Us and schedule a meeting, email us directly at info@TopTierAdmissions.com or call (781) 530-7088.