Princeton Admissions Counseling From Former Admissions Officers

Amina holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and currently works as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company. She has over 6 years of admissions counseling experience, taking applicants through the process from drafting a college list and writing the Common App essay and supplements to drafting extracurricular lists and preparing for interviews. Amina has also coached low-income first-generation students in Brooklyn, New York, through Princeton University's Brooklyn College Awareness Program. Students she has coached have been accepted into Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cambridge, Oxford, Duke, UCLA, and UPenn, among others.

Amina’s passion for coaching college applicants is driven by her own experience of applying to top U.S. universities as an international applicant. She was applying from Pakistan, did not have a lot of guidance initially, and felt quite lost. Ultimately, she decided to work with a college counseling firm who patiently helped her understand the process. The team ensured her genuine voice, passions, and interests shone through her application, and she was accepted to Princeton University through single-choice early action. Now, Amina wants to pay this forward. She believes many students with immense potential could use generous and competent coaches to help them realize their ambition of gaining admission into a top college, and she wishes to be that coach for them.

Amina believes her single greatest strength as a coach is her empathy. She realizes that college admissions can be an incredibly stressful experience, and it can feel like one's entire future hinges on a single decision. As a coach, she likes to remind students that there are more options than they realize. She also believes in gently nudging students rather than being harsh or critical. Amina works hard to give students a safe space to express themselves authentically. She gives detailed, actionable, and honest feedback and truly believes that applying to colleges can be enlightening and empowering. Amina would love to accompany students on this extremely rewarding college admissions journey. She knows how it feels and would love to give applicants the support they need to demonstrate their full potential in their applications!

Outside of coaching, Amina really likes spending time with her family and dog. She has lived in four countries and has friends scattered all over the globe, so she loves to catch up with them virtually. She has also recently fallen in love with reformer Pilates and has added that to her workout routine in addition to cycling and hiking. Lastly, Amina loves good food and good music!

Fedjounie has a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a Master’s degree from Columbia University. While at Princeton, Fedjounie served on the admissions team as Liaison to the Princeton University Preparatory College Admissions Program, facilitating application review and mock-interview workshops and hosting informational panels with admissions officials from the world’s top colleges and universities.

As the first person in Fedjounie’s family to attend and graduate from college, they believe everyone deserves a world-class education. After gaining acceptance to Columbia and Princeton University, their alma mater, Fedjounie realized they could help other students achieve similar successes. They are passionate about assisting students in identifying their interests and finding quality undergraduate institutions where they can nurture their passions and actualize their dreams. 

Fedjounie’s goal is to put students and families first. As a coach, their focus is centered on honoring students’ agency and recognizing the medley of mixed emotions students experience throughout the college admissions process. As a first-generation immigrant, Fedjounie knows firsthand how confusing and unclear the US education system is. They have spent the past decade learning the college admissions process inside-out while directly guiding hundreds of scholars to their best-fit schools. 

Fedjounie’s greatest strengths are breaking down the application process into manageable steps, helping candidates determine their strengths and identify growth opportunities, and supporting all students through the ups and downs of their application process.

Students Fedjounie has recently coached have gotten accepted into several top-tier universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, and Princeton University.

When Fedjounie isn’t coaching, they love to hike and spend time with their family and cat. Fedjounie is also an avid anime fanatic and poet. They love cooking, traveling, learning new languages, and exploring restaurants. Fedjounie also enjoys reading to learn more about international education systems and attending educational conferences.

Fedjounie’s Pro Tip?

One of the more important but often overlooked aspects of the college application process is cultivating a rich candidate profile and deftly articulating your interests through a clear and cohesive narrative throughout your qualitative application materials.

Jessica has a Bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a Master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Jessica has extensive experience supporting students and families in applying for and getting an offer from highly selective independent private schools, colleges, and universities. 

Jessica is passionate about ensuring all students reach their full potential by enrolling at their best match school. There is no better feeling than guiding students through the application process so that they, in the end, can find the perfect match. 

As a coach, Jessica's greatest strength is walking students through the journey of clarifying what they want out of their college experience from an academic, social, and experiential standpoint. She loves to pressure test college lists and ask in-depth probing questions so that an applicant's list tells a story of who they are, including their interests. Jessica excels at helping students identify their strengths so that they can ultimately bring that out in their resumes and college essays. 

Jessica's goal is to provide structure to a process that, at times, can seem overwhelming and daunting. She prides herself on her ability to provide a space for Quad applicants to be reflective and thoughtful so that they can stand by their college choices and approach the process confidently. 

Students Jessica has recently coached have gotten accepted into several top universities, including USC, UPenn, Columbia University, and Princeton University.

When she's not coaching, Jessica likes to listen to podcasts, go on walking trails, and spend quality time with her family.

Jessica's Pro Tip?

It's important to build your application profile in a way that, at minimum, one person on the admissions team will be willing to vouch for you during deliberations. You must do this by sharing a coherent story and accounting for any gaps in your profile. If you get at least one person to advocate for you in the admissions space, you at least will be in consideration.