Riya’s intro
I wrote over 100 essays during my own application season and got into Yale, Duke, Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Rice, and Georgetown. I committed to Yale, then came off the Harvard waitlist at the end of June and switched.
That June decision taught me something about this process that no admissions blog mentions: even after you've been admitted, you're still making hard choices with incomplete information. The application months are worse. You're writing dozens of essays, each one asking you to be someone slightly different, and you don't know which version of yourself will get you in or whether the school you're writing for is even the right one. I know that feeling, and I know the parent's side of it too, watching someone you care about navigate months of uncertainty.
What I can do is remove some of that uncertainty before the essays start. I read your child's file the way a Harvard reader would: activities, honors, transcript, everything they've built so far. Then I tell you what the file shows, what it's missing, and whether the essay can carry the weight it needs to. I study applied math and computer science at Harvard, so I know how STEM files get read and what makes one lab writeup stronger than another. 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. We share pricing on the free call, it is the same for every counselor, and it is in writing 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 free call?
No, and most families book before they have decided anything. That is the useful time to listen. It costs nothing, and you leave 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. Ask about your student in the small room and we will tell you what we can do with it.
Free one-on-one call
How the call is booked.
Riya reads your student’s file and builds the plan. The first call is one-on-one on Google Meet and costs nothing.
Meet RiyaOr text Riya firstRiya 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 Riya personally. If Riya 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.
Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Harvard or any other institution named on this page. Riya Hegde is an undergraduate at Harvard, speaking only as an individual, with no role in its admissions office and no influence over any admissions decision.