Nick Cappelletti
Book a free call with Nick
Nick’s intro
Rural Colorado sent several students to Ivy League schools in my graduating year. I was not one of them, and the structure of that outcome taught me more about college admissions than any acceptance letter could. I study economics at UC Berkeley.
I qualified for nationals three times in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and captained the team, which means I spent years learning how to say the thing that needs to be said and cut the thing that weakens the case. That skill transfers directly to college essays. Most students write what sounds important instead of what actually happened to them, and the essay dies in the first paragraph. I work as a consultant for Optimir Consulting here at Berkeley, where I analyze applications for structural problems: a student whose extracurriculars don't connect to each other, or whose essays repeat what the activities list already said, or whose theme is so broad that other students in the same high school could claim it. I also run a digital content platform with over 6,600 followers, which taught me how to find a voice that doesn't sound like everyone else's and how to make an idea land in fewer sentences.
I got into Berkeley, Michigan, Boston University and Wake Forest. The students I've worked with have gone further: Yale, UNC Chapel Hill, UCLA, Michigan. The difference was not that they had better extracurriculars than I did. It was that we built their essays and activities lists so that every piece of the application pointed to the same student, and that student was specific enough that an admissions officer could describe them in one sentence after reading the file. If you're interested, book me for free and I'll give you your child's read.
Common questions
Before you book
What does this cost?
We are flexible, and there is a plan here that fits your family. You hear your number on the first call, before anything is agreed. What changes between plans is the kind of experience in the room: a current undergraduate at a school your student is applying to, someone who interviewed applicants for a university as an alumni volunteer, or a former admissions officer who read files and sat in committee. Every one of them is somebody we would put in front of our own family.
Do we need to know what we want before the call?
No, and most families book before they have decided anything. That is the useful time to talk. An hour, no charge, and you will come off the call knowing what we can do for your student.
How many students does one counselor take?
Few enough that the person you meet is the person who reads the drafts. Every counselor sets their own cap and prints it on their page, so you know exactly how much of their year you are getting. If your first choice is full we will introduce you to someone on the roster who suits your student just as well.
Our student is already a senior. Is it too late?
It is not too late. Several counselors here run compressed engagements and take seniors into the autumn, and there is usually more still open in a file than a family expects. Tell us where your student is on the call and we will tell you what we can do with it.
Book a call
How the call is booked.
Nick reads your student’s file and builds the plan. The call is an hour-long video call and costs nothing.
Book a free call with NickNick reads what you tell us about your student before the call, so it starts there rather than at the beginning.
If something changes
The agreement is held by Aristo Scholars rather than by Nick personally. If Nick cannot finish the cycle we move your student to another counselor on this roster at the price you were already quoted, and everything written down so far moves with them.
Where Nick’s students got in.
Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by UC Berkeley or any other institution named on this page. Nick Cappelletti is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, speaking only as an individual, with no role in its admissions office and no influence over any admissions decision.