Our Story | Ivy League Counseling

Where It All Started

Neither Ivy League Counseling nor our service and network were meant to be brought to the public. The original idea for Ivy League Counseling was more of something done on a small scale ( as a favor ) for our neighborhood friends, helping them through the now complex and commonly misunderstood process of getting into top colleges.

While many of our friends would consult their high school counselors, most need to learn the strategies it takes to get into top schools, partially because most high school counselors have not gone through the modern application process themselves. This is a shame for high-achieving students who know that these schools are a good fit for them; however, they need the correct information and the right strategies to achieve their goals of getting into their top school.

Kurt Fass, Co-founder of Ivy League Counseling, began forming a network of Ivy League students in Harvard Square—along with tailored course material for each individual—when he was 18 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was tired of making too many errors and mistakes that he had seen his classmates and upper-level students already make with their applications, along with testing strategies. Naturally, having come from a public high school, it was unheard of for students there to dare enter the gates of the Ivy League, let alone apply.

After years (and years, and years, and years....) of initially tutoring international kids within Asia (China and Taiwan), he, along with Co-founder, Matthew Jia, ensured their approaches and strategies worked for ANYONE, as they had seen their strategies help not only ALL their students within the United States, and outside the United States but also something that worked for themselves. Matthew Jia went on to further expand their network, amassing Ivy League Counseling's network to the ever-growing team that it is today, from our original small but mighty team of two to now spanning over 20+ Tutors. Each one of us on the team has personal success in admissions with the Ivy League Counseling method—a tradition we have built from our collective experiences, connections, and insight.