College counseling, illuminated
Counseling backed by data from hundreds of thousands of past admissions outcomes.
Recent placements
Where our students go
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Students counseled
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Essays analyzed
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Schools indexed
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Combined years counseling
In their words
What students say
Andy was an incredible college counselor throughout the entire process! He was always patient, easy to talk to, and you could really tell he was passionate about writing. His advice was thoughtful and practical, and he took the time to answer my questions without making me feel rushed. I'm really grateful for his help!
I liked Andy because he kept it real but constructive. Couldn't have gotten into my dream nursing school without him.
Andy was so insightful during the process and he did everything from essay brainstorms to college lists to making my essays sound more polished.
What other counselors won't tell you
The Ivy grid is a marketing trick.
Big firms only take students who'd get in anyway. We work with the borderline kid.
Other counselors advise from memory.
Ours is trained on hundreds of thousands of past applications.
Most haven't updated their playbook.
Admissions priorities shift every year. We rebuild from scratch each cycle.
How to evaluate any college counselor.
Five questions worth asking before you sign with anyone. Including me.
- 01
Is the person you hire the person who does the work?
Big firms hand you off to a junior counselor after the contract signs. Ask who specifically reads your student's essays.
- 02
Can they show you something they've built or written?
Writing samples, published work, tools they've made. You can read the work yourself before you commit.
- 03
Are the costs and deliverables transparent?
You should know what's included before you sign anything. Package deals where the work thins out after the check clears are the most common complaint about consulting firms.
- 04
Can you quit if it isn't working?
Hourly or per-session pricing is more honest than a full-cycle lump sum. You should be able to walk away after any session.
- 05
Are they honest about what counseling can and can't do?
Anyone guaranteeing admission to a specific school is selling you something that doesn't exist. Anyone telling you essays don't matter is selling you a discount. Both are red flags.
A letter from the founders
Why we built Illuma
We've been on the receiving end of bad college counseling advice. Each counselor has their own experience, and college admissions is a high-variance topic.
After counseling for years, we realized our limit wasn't experience. It was data, and the ability to spot patterns at scale. When a student received conflicting advice from two different experienced educators, it was difficult to identify the right answer.
Most counselors recommend schools from memory or generic Common Data Set based admission rate buckets. Their tools spit out the same list for any high-achieving applicant. Personalization matters not just for identifying the schools you have the best chance at getting into. It matters for revealing yourself, and underneath that, it's key for fit, which is often the deciding factor in college essays.
We decided it was time to stop relying on memory, so we built our own tooling. We tested and validated thousands of students' experiences. We read, tagged, and identified the consistent recurring themes we used to create our system. Our software digs far deeper than simple SAT and GPA requirements. It discovers style, patterns, and minute details admission officers actually look for in essays at any given school. We can calibrate and account for over a dozen admission factors per school. We're not replacing counseling judgment, we're making every conversation about your student grounded in solid information.
Whether you're a student or a parent thinking about the application process, we'd love to talk. Families receive bespoke recommendations, tailored for the quirks of every applicant. We offer free 30 minute consultations to introduce our system to you.
— Andy & Ethan
The team
Andy Wu
Co-counselor, Engineering & STEM track
UC Berkeley graduate, now a software engineer at a top tech firm. Builds the technical side of our tool. Counsels students applying to engineering, CS, and quantitative majors, from the path he walked himself.
Ethan Huang
Co-counselor, Humanities & Pre-Health track
UCLA history graduate, now at UCSF dental school. Leads the essay side of our work. Specializes in pre-health, BS/MD, and humanities applicants, with three years of writing-coach experience.
FAQ
Common questions
Most counselors give advice from memory. Our software is trained on hundreds of thousands of past applications, so every recommendation comes from real data, not guesswork. You get a college list with actual probability estimates for each school, plus essays sharpened against patterns from admitted ones.
We've tested our system against thousands of real admissions outcomes and the students we've counseled ourselves. When we recommend a school, we can show you why. Every cycle, the data gets stronger.
We work with high school students across California, both first-year and transfer applicants to public and private universities. We also offer high school road-map planning for students in the earlier stages of their education.
That's where counseling matters most. Students with very strong stats and clean profiles often get admitted regardless of who they hired. Borderline students get in because of strategy: which schools to target, which essays to invest in, what to write about. We work with both. The difference is more visible for the borderline kid.
Yes. We provide direction proposals grounded in our collection of admitted essays, plus structured feedback using the techniques we've codified from years of admissions reading. We look for common threads through each application and coach students to lean on them to create highly personalized, impactful essays.
Tell us what you're looking for and we'll scope to it. We can do school-list-only consults, essay-only support, or activity/awards review as one-offs. We'll quote based on what you need.
Transparent rates. We coach, we don't ghost-write.
Free 30-min consult
No commitment. We'll look at your profile and target schools.
- Profile review
- Honest read on which schools fit
- Walkthrough of our system
Per-hour
Essay writing, brainstorming, or one-off strategy.
- Single-essay coaching
- Brainstorming sessions
- School-list or activities review
By essay or by school
Help on one essay or one school's full application. Async over email if you prefer, no meetings required.
- One essay or one school as a set
- Email-only option, no meetings
- Best results on a full school
Full service
Everything. We run your application alongside you.
- Apply to as many schools as you want
- Weekly coaching, unlimited feedback
- Activity, awards, and ED strategy
- Every deadline, every essay, August to spring
Not sure which fits? Book the free consult.
Your first consult is on us
30 minutes, free, no obligation. We'll look at your profile, your target schools, and where we'd focus first. You leave with concrete next steps whether you hire us or not.
Or email counselor@illumacounseling.com · text (925) 683-1390
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