College starts here

名校之路始于此

TOEFL: 115

SAT: 2360 (Math: 800, Reading: 800, Writing: 760)

Hobbies: Physics, Soccer, Basketball, Singing

Accepted by: Columbia University (ED)

I always hear my fellows complain about the college application process because of the cultural difference in Chinese and western countries. They are worried about the uncertainty in the application process. However, I have never worried about these because my counselor Jeremy is an American who has worked in China for years and he is familiar with the college application environment in China. This is absolutely the best choice for applying to American universities and colleges. When I first met Jeremy, he kept encouraging me to discover the activities that I am interested in and spent time on, because I would only have true understanding of an activity if I have spent time and effort on it. From the very beginning, Jeremy has enlightened me and I thus have improved my academic performance through those activities and found my true passions. These also provided useful for writing essays later on. Jeremy always came to Nanjing and chatted with me, not only about my college application but also about his and his friends’ stories in universities. These helped me discover my advantages, find topics for my PS and find my best-fit school. Jeremy’s various experiences helped me come up with various essay topics and better learn about colleges so that I could choose the universities that I love the best. ECL also provided awesome essay editing services. My counselor not only fixed the sentences of my essays but also asked me critical questions so that I could think and improve my essays. If not for him, I would be rejected by Columbia for sure. During the application process, Jeremy was always there to help me with all kinds of questions no matter how late it was. My final essays received suggestions from many ECL counselors and even Jeremy’s father. You can definitely trust this team of excellent people. From my communication with my fellow students, I was so delighted that I met Jeremy. Jeremy respected my “awkward” ideas where many other agencies didn’t. Thanks ECL for helping me so much! Through all kinds of communication with Jeremy, my TOEFL speaking even increased from 24 to 27. Jeremy and his team are definitely not only my counselors but also my life-long friends. Thanks ECL for this wonderful college application season.

TOEFL: 111

SAT: 2220 (Math: 790, Reading: 740, Writing: 690)

Hobbies: Singing, SAGE, Environmental Protection programs

Accepted by: Duke University (ED)

Jeremy has a huge network. He personally knows admissions officers at top universities. Many of his friends and students are alumni or students of top schools. He personally designs and leads amazing trips to visit universities with small groups of his students. When we went on college trips, he provided us opportunities to talk to students from schools we were visiting to help us know more about the schools. Other than that, he also arranged several interviews between us and the admission officers of some of the schools. To us, these were all valuable interview opportunities whether or not we were applying to those schools. Also, Jeremy helped me reach out to a solar energy company in Shanghai, since I am very interested in this booming industry. With his help, I successfully became an intern there and later received a recommendation letter from the CEO of the company. Jeremy is a very creative person. Taking his advice, I adapted a song for Duke and recorded it in a music studio (Duke allows portfolios). This was definitely a huge plus for my application materials.

Jeremy and I are not only counselor and student, but also friends. I have been to his house in New York State, played table tennis with him in his basement, and have even developed great relationships with his parents. When I was debating which school to apply to Early Decision (Duke or Cornell), I struggled for a long time to make a decision. Thankfully, Jeremy is very familiar with US universities, and he wisely advised me to choose Duke because of its academic freedom and flexibility, in addition to its interdisciplinary atmosphere, which is definitely more suitable for me. During the essay writing process, my consultant, Natasha, provided me a tremendous amount of help. Natasha received her Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Columbia University. With her suggestions and revisions, the logic, depth and pertinence of my essays were all greatly improved. The 9-hour personal statement workshop also helped me avoid a lot of mistakes while writing essays. Without the help of Jeremy and Natasha, it would have been impossible for me to achieve such a good result. ECL is definitely the correct choice for all motivated students looking to attend elite US universities.

TOEFL: 117

SAT: 2350 (Math: 800, Reading: 750, Writing: 800)

Hobbies: School Newspaper, Art (Painting and Calligraphy), Volunteering

Accepted by: Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley

For me, working with ECL has proved to be a wonderful and rewarding experience. Beginning in the early summer, ECL organized a PS workshop that helped me tackle the sometimes daunting task of writing a good personal statement. In the class, I learned how to think like an admissions officer, brainstorm topics, and most importantly, choose one and start the refining process. Adam, my essay consultant, is a great writer and teacher. Not only is he able to spot and correct my errors in English usage, but more importantly, he guides my writing in a way that shows who I am, not just what I did. Having Adam as my counselor gave me the confidence to write where my thoughts take me, because I know that if I went off track or missed anything, he’d certainly pick it up.

Aside from the writing process, Jeremy, the CEO of ECL, also helped me prepare for standardized tests such as SAT and TOEFL. An outstanding learner himself, Jeremy was able to pass on both his effective testing strategies and knowledge of English usage, helping me succeed in these tests.

It may sound irrelevant to a college application, but I was thoroughly amazed by the thoughtful arrangements and designs in ECL’s office the first time I walked in. Thanks to Jeremy’s attention to detail, the online application process went smoothly. No item was left unchecked on the Common Application forms and every detail was taken into consideration so that my application reflects my best and true self.

As an additional benefit, I had the opportunity to take three of ECL’s many KFC (Knowledge for College, a catchy name that reflects the care that ECL takes in their work) courses available with no added charge for students. One of my favorite courses is Intro to Ethics, a “must-take” if you’re interested in philosophy. Unlike history or literature, philosophy is not usually covered in the high school curriculum, at least in most local high schools. Luckily for me, I’ve now had the chance to explore philosophy before I start college. So if you’re still looking for someone to help you with the college application process and provide great learning opportunities along the way, ECL is certainly the place to go.

TOEFL: 112

SAT: 2140 (Math: 710, Reading: 640, Writing: 790)

Hobbies: Piano, Cello, Percussion, Reading, Floral arrangement, Language study

Accepted by: Swarthmore College (ED), Bard College (EA)

I visited or called several college application consulting companies in the spring of my junior year, some of which were famous and were almost occupied by students from my school. I chose ECL because of the enthusiasm, energy and professionalism Jeremy showed throughout the hour-long talk on the day we first met.

When we were making my school list, I was already sure about my intended major and ideal vibe of a school. Jeremy helped me choose my list of schools in quite a short time and this list hardly changed over the following few months. I was impressed that although Jeremy and I believe in quite different things and have distinctive personalities, Jeremy was able to think from my point of view and give advice that was best for me. I think this was crucial to our high efficiency.

In the past summer, Jeremy took me and other two ECL students on a college trip to the US. Jeremy drove us to schools in NY, PA and MA. We listened to info sessions, joined the campus tours, had interviews and talked to admissions officers from different colleges. The tour gave us a more thorough and direct feeling of the schools we were applying to. Despite the extremely tiring schedule we had for those 10 days, Jeremy was always unbelievably energetic. We spent several nights at Jeremy’s parents’ home in Niskayuna, NY. His parents welcomed us with great hospitality. What’s more, they gave advice on our future plans. When they came to China a month later, Jeremy’s dad gave us seminars on history and business. My family also invited Jeremy and his parents to dinner. I believe such personal care and friendship are impossible to be found in other consulting companies.

Adam, the ECL consultant Jeremy paired me with, was another highlight of my college application process. He speaks French and Arabic. He has played trumpet in the UAE Philharmonic, written news reports in Jordan, ridden a motorcycle in Shanghai and shot his TV show in Iraq. That’s enough said about the diversity of his skills and experiences. He is my idol. I was excited about working on my essays with him. What’s more, Adam’s dad, Dr. Gerald Levinson, played an important role in my college application process. He’s a music professor at my dream school, Swarthmore College. More importantly, he is one of the major contemporary classical music composers in America. He used to be student of my favorite contemporary composer, George Crumb. He also spent two years in Bali to study Indonesian music and then brought the Gamelan ensemble to Swarthmore, which is a great match with my academic interest in ethnomusicology. Jeremy encouraged me to email Dr. Levinson. Dr. Levinson not only introduced me the music program of Swarthmore, which made Swarthmore my first choice school, but he also put me in contact with his colleagues, who further answered my questions in specific areas. When we visited Swarthmore in the summer, Dr. Levinson spent two hours talking to us in person. He listened to me about my research on Taoism funeral music with great patience and showed strong interest. In addition, he answered my questions on different topics, from submitting application music supplements to fieldwork on folklore. The conversation with him greatly inspired me and helped me perfect my “Why Swarthmore” essay. When we were deciding my ED school, Jeremy suggested Swarthmore with no hesitation. That’s why I applied to Swarthmore despite my concerns on my relatively low standardized test scores and lack of honors and prizes. Based on my result, our decision couldn’t have been wiser. The joy of being admitted by my dream school, which perfectly fits my personality and has the professor who I’m willing to follow, cannot be described by words.

At this moment, I can’t imagine an application season without Jeremy, Adam and Dr. Levinson. I’m so lucky to have their help. However, what I had was more than mere luck: it was ECL’s attention on individuals and connections with the college faculty and alumni, which, I believe, are what applicants need the most from a consulting company.

TOEFL: 108

ACT: 30 (English: 30, Math: 34, Reading: 33, Science: 25)

Hobbies: School Newspaper, Art (Painting and Calligraphy), Volunteering

Accepted by: Haverford College, Bryn Mawr College, Occidental College, Tulane University, McGill University, UBC

ECL was the first consulting company that I had visited and it only took me forty minutes to know that Jeremy and his team would be the best help for my application process. Throughout the one-hour conversation, Jeremy jotted down my interests, the courses I take at school, and my standardized test scores in his notebook. His enthusiasm and willingness to help are reasons that I chose ECL.

My essay consultant Adam is extremely patient and inspiring. When he was confused about the messages I wanted to convey in my essays, he would ask what my ideas were rather than make edits directly. Adam explained comments that I didn’t understand and edited every version of my essays with great patience (for each essay, I had 7-8 versions!). After I was rejected by Bowdoin (ED), Adam encouraged me to keep up my good work and continue making progress on my writing.

Last winter, Jeremy suggested a college trip to attend info sessions and talk to admission officers. The interviews and conversations were great chances for me to show my personality and interests, which cannot be told from my scores, to AOs. Despite the cold winter in the east coast and my sore throat, the experience of the college tour was invaluable and gave me more direct impressions of schools that I had applied to. We stayed at Jeremy’s parents’ house for several nights. Jeremy’s dad asked me what I thought about the SAT history courses he taught the previous summer. We had great laughs in our conversations and Jeremy’s dad gave me guidance upon my confusion about college life. Jeremy’s mom (formerly a pharmacist) gave me cough syrup and pills for my sore throat. Without Jeremy’s mom’s medicine, it would be nearly impossible for me to express myself to AOs with my sore throat.

My college application would have been a mess without Jeremy and Adam. I’m so lucky to have ECL as my consulting company. Thanks to ECL for listening to my thoughts, helping me with my essays, and accompanying me through hard times in my application season!

TOEFL: 104

SAT: 1970 (Math: 770, Reading: 580, Writing: 620)

Hobbies: Piano, Tennis, Business Simulations

Accepted by: UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, Case Western, Skidmore

I had high expectations for Jeremy and ECL, because I had heard that the staff at ECL had graduated from top U.S. universities. When I first began preparing to write my personal statement, I had no idea where to start. But then, I took the Personal Statement Workshop with Adam and he taught me how to construct a great personal essay. I believe that the essay is the most essential part of the college application. I am very thankful for both Adam and Tory for helping me revise and improve hundreds of essay drafts.

After the applications are turned in, there is a long waiting process when you won’t know the results of your hard work. Early in the application process, I was not very confident because I did not have perfect grades. Because of this, Jeremy told me to be patient and wait until all results came out, including results from waitlists. Originally, I was admitted by UCSB, UCSD and CWRU, and Skidmore, and I was planning to go to Skidmore. Jeremy explained to me that Skidmore is in one of the best college towns in America. While most people were celebrating their college acceptances, I didn’t give up on my waitlist schools. I improved my GPA, volunteered, and found a bank internship in senior year in order to show admissions officers that I was working hard to improve myself. Even though I was planning to go to Skidmore, all of my hard work paid off and I was admitted to UCLA off of the waitlist. UCLA has excellent economics and art programs, which is a great match for me.

Thank you so much to Jeremy, his dad (for helping me with SAT prep), and the rest of the ECL staff who helped me immensely with the application process.

TOEFL: 111

GRE: 324 (Verbal: 155, Math: 169, Writing: 3.0)

University: East China Normal U. of Science and Technology, GPA: 3.37

Accepted by: Duke University, Tufts University

It’s my pleasure to be the first graduate applicant at ECL. As a consultant agency, ECL is professional and customer-oriented. When we were making the school list, Jeremy immediately offered detailed information including school features, reputation, environment, and security of the various schools I was interested in. Their advantage is that they have real experience and are in regular contact with US universities, which is a reliable reference to me. Besides Jeremy, I really appreciate the great help Yaniv offered on my essays. ECL will spend a lot of time getting to know you before they guide you. Before we started, Yaniv asked me several questions including my academic performances, future plan, and personal experience, from general plan to project details, to create a solid frame, which is completely different from lots of agencies that directly use templates instead. The final essays were awesome, which was just what I had hoped. Jeremy and Yaniv assisted me to express my background and strong points in a more precise and professional way. ECL made me successfully stand out.

TOEFL: N/A

SAT: 1900 (Math: 730, Reading: 550, Writing: 620)

Hobbies: Chess, Tennis, Badminton, Scientific Research

Accepted by: Cornell University, Tulane University, UWisconsin—Madison

I am very glad that I made the decision to join the ECL family. As I learned more and more about ECL, I realized that it was more like a big family rather than a college consulting company. The CEO Jeremy is an easy guy to talk with. I felt very comfortable talking to him and asking him questions. Even when many of my questions had simple answers, I was taken seriously and was told that these questions were necessary to ask when I am applying to college for the first time.

Unlike many other institutions, which only consider grades, ECL helps us pick schools based on all aspects of our personalities. As someone who does not have perfect grades, but has participated in a lot of strong activities, my focus in my application was to showcase my comprehensiveness. Besides my grades, my writing has always been my biggest worry. However, Natasha is such a good teacher and helped me extensively with all of my college essays. I was surprised the first time she returned my personal statement draft to me. She did not change anything that I wrote down, but only wrote down helpful comments on the side. Natasha taught me how to write rather than change my writing for me. This is what I believe to be the best value of ECL. ECL made me experience the whole process of applying to college firsthand; for example, researching colleges on my own and writing the first drafts of essays by myself. Unlike other consulting companies that do everything for their students, ECL had me participate throughout the whole process. I believe the value of applying to college is not only limited to the result we receive at the end, but also the knowledge and experience we learned throughout the process.

I want to say thank you to all the ECL staff especially Jeremy, Natasha and Tory! I recommend anyone applying to college in the US to join the big ECL family!

TOEFL: 104

SAT: 2030 (Math: 740, Reading: 600, Writing: 690)

Hobbies: Legos, Robotics, Drawing, Model UN

Accepted by: New York University, Boston University, UCSD, RPI

Before I found ECL, applying to a US college was unfamiliar to me; I was both puzzled about and a little bit afraid of the application process. But with the help of Jeremy, the complicated college application process became very clear and I am extremely satisfied with the result.

The consultants at ECL are good at finding out the special characteristics of each applicant and then showing us how to make ourselves stand out in the different application materials. As a robot lover and a Lego fan, Jeremy and Adam helped me modify my personal statement, essays and supplemental materials many times, so that the admissions officers could see the unique "me".

Furthermore, ECL provided me with many precious chances that are even not directly related to the college application. I still remember the summer holiday last year when Jeremy offered me a chance to get an internship in a robot company. Unfortunately, the Cornell Summer College classes that I attended conflicted with the internship, so I had to pass up the opportunity. Those opportunities that Jeremy and ECL provide are not only helpful for college applications, but also very essential for a future career.

Generally speaking, I enthusiastically recommend all students applying to US universities to choose ECL. ECL is an ideal consulting institution that I highly recommend, not only for its professional consultants, but also for their persistence and their unique application style. ECL has been a tremendous help through my application process, and I owe my application success to them!

TOEFL: 111

SAT: 2110 (Math: 800, Reading: 660, Writing: 650)

Hobbies: Math Club, Science Projects, Volunteering

Accepted by: University of Virginia, Bucknell University, URichmond, RPI

Meeting with Jeremy was something accidental but ended up being very lucky for me. At first, my mom and I were trying to find a consulting company for the college application process, and to tell the truth I had almost made up my mind before I met Jeremy at Elite College Link. However, as soon as I met with him I immediately felt Jeremy’s passion for his business. Unlike other companies, the passion of helping students fulfill their college dreams is clear and seems to be unlimited in all of the consultants. I have to admit that without their help, my college application would not have been as smooth as it was.

There are many stages in the application process, so I’d like to highlight a few specific cases here.

I didn’t have much information about the universities or colleges in the US while choosing schools, but Jeremy really knew the schools and their reputations well, as he carefully introduced many schools that might suit me based on my interests. He encouraged me to investigate many schools that were new to me, while also helping me to apply for the Stanford summer program, which was really amazing.

When September came, we started to write application essays. The next few months seemed like the highlight of the service. Phillip, my essay consultant, carefully checked and edited all my essays, and if there was anything wrong with materials inside, he would try to communicate with me through Skype and exchange his ideas. For several specific essays, we wrote several editions and finally chose the best one among them. Those two months were really unforgettable, not only because of the exhaustive writing help, but also from the encouragement and support I got from Phillip, Jeremy and the other consultants at ECL such as Reuben.

Even after the application, Jeremy continued to communicate with me quite often, to make sure that I could make the right decision for the next 4 years. He introduced alumni from Bucknell to me and encouraged me to learn more about each school I was admitted to.

What really impressed me about Jeremy and ECL is far more than the great essay editing service and excellent results, but something more subtle—their passion and enthusiasm for their work. For me, Jeremy is more like a friend than a consultant.

Jeremy once invited me to a Christmas Party which was held by his former student. This really shows how connected Jeremy is with his students, as I can’t imagine that other consultant companies keep in contact with their students in this way.

ECL is like a big family in which everyone likes to help the students in whatever way they can, and I recommend all motivated students to join this family.

TOEFL: 103

SAT: 2120 (Math: 800, Reading: 640, Writing: 680)

Hobbies: Japanese Club, Chamber Orchestra, Flute, Volunteering

Accepted by: Hamilton College (ED)

Thanks to ECL, I got into my dream school ED. Last August, I visited a range of universities and liberal arts colleges in the northeastern part of the US with Jeremy. Hamilton College was the first school that we visited. I wanted to find a small liberal arts college with enthusiastic people, a free curriculum, and a place where diverse courses were provided especially in the academic fields that I was interested in. Hamilton satisfied all of my expectations. Coincidentally, although I had known a lot of liberal arts colleges, I heard little of Hamilton until visiting. It was ECL's college trip which brought Hamilton into my view. After having an interview, looking around the campus and attending the info session, I realized that Hamilton was exactly what I wanted. The bright smiles of the guide who showed us around the campus and my interviewers really impressed me and made me believe that Hamilton could be a place I belong to.

Jeremy scheduled all four of our student interviews at Hamilton, and told us that it would be good practice. Hamilton enrolls very few Chinese students every year, and does not offer interview opportunities in China. Therefore, on-campus interviews are very valuable for Chinese applicants. In fact, the interview ended up being a vital part of my application to Hamilton.

After careful consideration, I finally decided to apply ED to Hamilton. My essay counselor Natasha gave me tons of valuable suggestions on my essays. With her help, I wrote an enthusiastic "why" essay for Hamilton.

Jeremy also helped me a lot. He told me how to fill in various forms, advised me whether to include music supplements, and even previewed every email sent to colleges. It was him who made my application process so much easier than I could imagine.

Jeremy founded Elite College Link (ECL) in 2010 to help talented students be admitted to exceptional universities in the US. Jeremy is a leader and role model for his students and cares deeply about their educational future and well-being beyond the application process. Jeremy graduated from Columbia University in 2007 majoring in Applied Physics and pursuing as many classes as his course work would allow in East Asian Languages and Cultures. As soon as he graduated, he moved to Shanghai to continue learning Mandarin at Shanghai Jiaotong University and quickly fell in love with the city. Jeremy has been a member of Columbia’s Alumni Representative committee in Shanghai. He is a native English speaker and is fluent in Mandarin. In his free time, he enjoys watching ice hockey, playing pingpong, practicing piano, and traveling.