Lisa Tsou

Greetings! My name is Lisa, and I am here to help you craft the most compelling college essays and application package possible so you can achieve your college admissions goals. As a Stanford alum and former interviewer for Stanford, I have literally read the book on what these admissions committee look for and value. I have sat across the table from dozens of students, evaluating them as candidates for admission so I know what makes an application stand out from the crowd and shine! My comprehensive approach to college admissions combines helping students write college essays that stand out to college admissions offices and preparing a college application package that they can’t forget. In addition to college admissions success, my students come away from the process with a new understanding of who they are, what they want from their education, and their long-term goals for the future. Many have even told me they enjoyed writing their college essays! :) I have been blessed to work with so many amazing students! My students have gained admission to a wide array of schools including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, The University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Carnegie-Mellon, all of the UC campuses including UCLA and UC Berkeley, The University of Virginia, The University of Michigan, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The University of Southern California, Georgia Tech, Boston College, and Notre Dame. My students have also received full merit scholarships to schools including Washington University in St. Louis, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, and the University of Southern California. I am an alum of Stanford University (B.A.), Columbia University (J.D.), and the University of Southern California (M.B.A.). I love working with students and their families so please reach out to schedule a free consultation! More About Me After graduating from Stanford (B.A. in English and Economics) and Columbia (J.D.), I spent most of my career in Wall Street finance, working with startups to raise the money they needed to realize their vision. What this really involved was spending hours with founders, teasing out their story, building out the narrative, and strategizing how to present it all in the way that most would appeal to investors and get them to write a large check. And I was terrific at it! Because of my storytelling expertise, I have been featured in such diverse publications as “The Huffington Post,” "Entrepreneur," "Inc.com,","Fortune," and "Business Rockstars," and my startup alumnae have raised over $100 million. I now leverage those same storytelling skills to work with high school students to present their best versions of themselves in their college essays. Moreover, because I have spent years as an alum interviewer for Stanford and have interviewed dozens of candidates, I can help you identify the qualities you have that will most appeal to a college admissions committee and help you bring those out in your essay.