IvyWise

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IvyWise is a for-profit New York-based consultancy that assists students pursuing admission at top American schools at the collegiate and private secondary levels. IvyWise is run by Katherine Cohen, who has a Ph.D in Latin American literature from Yale University. In 2002, she published a book called "The Truth about Getting In: A Top College Advisor Tells you Everything You Need To Know", detailing her methods. Her cost runs the gamut from pro-bono work to as high as $28,000.

IvyWise also provides admissions counseling to parents seeking to have their children admitted to elite private nursery and elementary schools. IvyWise also provides graduate school admissions counseling.

Slightly under half of IvyWise's 2004 and 2005 high school senior clients ended up attending a college on IvyWise's list of the 20 most selective American colleges.

The parents of plagiarist Kaavya Viswanathan reportedly paid IvyWise $10,000 for its assistance in having their daughter admitted to Harvard University. Viswanathan's best-selling novel described an academically oriented Indian American girl's efforts to become more "well-rounded" in hopes of boosting her chances of admission to Harvard. Impressed by Viswanathan's manuscript, Cohen put her in touch with the William Morris Agency which went on to secure her book and movie deals. The furor over this incident substantially raised IvyWise's profile although Cohen was never associated with Viswanathan's alleged plagiarism.

[edit] External links

• IvyWise

[edit] References

• Cohen, Katherine (2002). The Truth About Getting In: A Top College Advisor Tells You Everything You Need to Know. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0786887478
• Washington Post: "A Passage to Harvard: How Kaavya Viswanathan Got Micromanaged, Got Marketed and Turned College Into a Novel Obsession"
• Providence Journal: "How Kaavya Viswanathan got herself packaged"
• Harvard Independent: "As Plagiarism Allegations Deepen, IvyWise Distances Itself from Kaavya"
• Harvard Independent: "Kaavya's Expensive Inner Circle"
• New York Times: "For $300 an Hour, Advice on Courting Elite Schools" - a description of IvyWise's nursery school and elementary school admissions counseling
• New York Guide: "The $28,995 Tutor"