Ivy Coach College Admissions Experts

Jose Magaña served as an admissions officer at Stanford University’s Office of Undergraduate Admission.

Over the course of three years, Jose reviewed over 4,000 undergraduate applications for admission to Stanford, primarily from New York City, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Upstate New York, and the entire state of Arizona. Jose participated in many Stanford committees as a voting member, covering applications from the U.S. and countries around the world.

Jose received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College.

Chad Faber served as an admissions officer in the Harvard College Admissions Office.

Over the course of five years in the Harvard undergraduate admissions office, Chad served on the full undergraduate admissions committee and developed and oversaw recruitment strategies in his assigned territories, which included New England, Pennsylvania, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon. During his tenure at Harvard, Chad reviewed thousands of applications and served as the liaison between the Harvard College Admissions Office and various undergraduate special interest groups. Additionally, Chad ran West Coast recruiting within Northwestern University’s undergraduate admissions office for nine years.

Chad holds a master’s degree in history from Brown University and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Hannah Skaran served as an admissions officer at the University of Chicago Office of College Admissions. Over two years, Hannah reviewed 2,500+ applications for the undergraduate College at the University of Chicago and evaluated applicants originating around the world, from the Washington D.C. metro and the Bay Area to Japan, South Korea, and India.

In addition to advocating for students on the admissions committee, Hannah also sat on the committee to write and select the infamous UChicago Supplemental Essay prompts.

Hannah is an outspoken thought leader on the elite college admissions process. Have a gander at recent quotes she offered to Bloomberg on racial diversity on college campuses after the fall of Affirmative Action and to Town & Country on how summer enrichment programs do not confer an advantage.

Hannah holds a Bachelor’s in English and a Master’s in Humanities from the University of Chicago.

Jayson Weingarten served as an admissions officer at the University of Pennsylvania. Within the University of Pennsylvania’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Jayson rose through the ranks from Admissions Counselor to Regional Director of Admission to Assistant Director of Admission over the course of four years.

Jayson cuts through the perceived complexity and simplifies the admissions process for students and families. Jayson has been quoted in The New York Times Magazine on how Affirmative Action is still in effect — for men and in US News & World Report on pre-law programs. He’s discussed how America’s elite colleges are backtracking on test-optional admissions with EducationWeek and how a potential looming recession can impact applicant pools with Bloomberg.

He’s made solo and roundtable media appearances discussing the elite college admissions process on NewsNation, Scripps News, Newsy, and many more. He proposed this fun idea for an SAT question with Penn’s Dean of Admissions in The New York Times. And he is credited with coining the term “ED 0” in reference to the University of Chicago’s Summer Student Early Notification policy.

Jayson holds an MBA from The Wharton School as well as a Master’s in Education from the Graduate School of Education in addition to a Bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben Schwartz served for three years as an Assistant Director of Admissions at Dartmouth College. In the Dartmouth admissions office, Ben was responsible for evaluating applications and recruitment for applicants from the mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to other regions. During his time in the Dartmouth admissions office, Ben read and evaluated over 3,000 applications for admission.

Ben holds an undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Dartmouth College as well as an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Bethany Hewett served as a senior admissions officer in Duke University’s Undergraduate Office of Admissions.

During her tenure, Bethany evaluated over 3,500 applications and spearheaded recruitment initiatives, particularly focusing on Houston, TX. She played a pivotal role in the office by leading one of Duke’s largest yield programs and managing key recruitment partnerships.

Bethany is a graduate of Duke University.

Jen Duran served as an admissions officer at Columbia University.

Over the course of three years, Jen reviewed thousands of undergraduate applications for both Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering from across the United States and Latin America.

Jen received her bachelor’s degree in history and sociology from Columbia University.

Deirdre Duckett served as an admissions officer at Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has worked at HBS, HGSE, GSAS, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

In her over 22 years at Harvard University, she focused on admissions, recruitment, academic requirements, student services, and administration across several Masters and Ph.D. programs in collaboration with graduate schools across Harvard. In all of her roles, she has served with a diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion mindset, increasing pathways for all students and alumni to access academic and career opportunities.

Deirdre holds two master’s degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, including licensure in school counseling.

Dr. Fran has over 20 years of ACT and SAT tutoring experience. In addition to a vast amount of one-on-one tutoring, Fran has taught SAT classes at British boarding schools and tutored students in the ACT through the Fulbright Commission.

Fran provides her students with just the right blend of encouragement and challenge. On the math side, she makes sure they have a solid foundation in the strategies they need to succeed, such as testing out the answer choices. When it comes to reading comprehension, Fran helps students focus on the big picture and understand how the style of a text — punctuation, word choice, structure — helps it accomplish its meaning. Fran’s approach is highly personalized for each student, and her homework assignments draw on their natural interests.

Fran holds a BA in History from Brown University and a MPhil and PhD in English from the University of Cambridge.

If you’re a regular reader of the most widely read admissions blog, its author, Brian Taylor, has served as a tell-it-like-it-is thought leader in college admissions for the last two decades. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he has debunked commonly held misconceptions about the admissions process and used the platform to speak truth to power, issuing a clarion call for a better process.

Brian has been quoted in The Harvard Crimson on the waitlist, The Yale Daily News on the role of private college counselors, The New York Times on the male advantage at many top schools, and Le Monde on how great grades aren’t enough, among many others. He’s appeared on TV programs from Nightline to Morning in America, addressing topics ranging from the Varsity Blues scandal to college enrollment.

Brian knows how to shape great stories, which is foundational to Ivy Coach’s approach to college counseling. He won a Peabody Award for producing Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, a series the American Film Institute deemed one of America’s greatest screen stories for its “contributions to America’s cultural legacy.”

Each year, Brian works with America’s veterans on a pro bono basis to help them earn admission to the colleges of their dreams.

Bev Taylor’s name is synonymous with helping students beat colleges at their own game and earn admission to the colleges of their dreams. A trailblazer in private college counseling, she’s debunked the myth of need-blind policies, called for an end to Asian American discrimination in admissions, and demystified so many other hot topics in elite college admissions. Over the last 30 years, there has been no more outspoken, ubiquitous, and candid voice in highly selective college admissions.

Bev is a former longtime high school college counselor on Long Island. She regularly conducts workshops on college admissions — presenting seminars to school counselors, admissions officers, students, and parents at Columbia University, the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, NACAC, Peterson’s, NYSACAC, NJACAC, College Week Live, and more.