The Ivy Bloom difference :
1. Ivy-League quality
Instructor quality is the single most important factor in determining how much students will learn.
But believe it or not, but at most other services, instructors don’t have any specific qualifications! At other companies, “training” or “certification” for tutors often means just watching a 30-minute video or passing a 10-question quiz — and most tutors come from lower-tier universities (or are still students themselves!) and didn’t score highly on the tests themselves.
At Ivy Bloom, all of our students work directly with Emily, a Princeton graduate with highest honors, top 1% scorer on both the SAT and the ACT, and an experienced mentor with over a decade of teaching experience. Read more of her amazing qualifications below.
Don’t leave your student’s education up to just anyone — work with the best.
2. No outsourcing
It’s the dirty secret of the test-prep industry: most tutoring companies scale up by outsourcing the actual instruction to a stable of part-time tutors.
These part-time instructors typically earn only a small fraction of the rates that clients pay, as low as $15/hour. You can imagine that it’s hard to hire the best educators, let alone impressive Ivy-League graduates, at those rates! What’s more, families usually don’t have any control over which tutor they’re assigned.
That’s why the quality of instruction can vary so enormously with most educational providers. Maybe you get lucky and are assigned a good tutor . . . but you’re just as likely to get a dud.
Not only can a bad learning experience be a waste of time and money, but it can actually have a negative impact on a student’s confidence and enthusiasm.
I built Ivy Bloom to be different. All tutoring and writing coaching is done only by me, Emily — and I work with only a handful of students each month, so I can provide customized guidance for each student.
Many families have told me that they wasted time with previous underwhelming tutors, but made incredible progress working one-on-one with me.
3. Individualized attention
I’ve worked with hundreds of students over the years to raise their SAT & ACT scores or write powerful college application essays. Every single one of these students has been unique. Every student has different strengths and weaknesses, and every student has a different personality and learning style.
I only work with students one-on-one, because I believe that allows me to best meet the needs of each individual student. High-achieving students who are chasing those perfect scores don’t need to sit there, bored, watching their peers learn the basics. Equally, students who have some gaps in their knowledge (quite common in the wake of the pandemic) can actually get the attention they need to spot and patch up any holes in their educational foundations.
From the lesson plans to the homework assignments, everything is customized and updated week-to-week. We’ll adjust difficulty levels to reach the perfect mix of challenging-but-not-frustrating. Not only is this much more efficient than one-size-fits-all curricula or group lessons, but it’s also more encouraging and rewarding for students!
What students and families are saying:
About Emily
Graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, where she won numerous academic prizes for her research and writing, including the top prize in her major and in both of her minors
Awarded the top graduate fellowship offered by the University of Notre Dame (ranked in the top 20 US universities), where she earned a Master’s degree and taught college classes for several years
As a professional editor, helped professors at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to edit and publish their books
Professional editor for major international academic publishers, including De Gruyter and Princeton University Press
National Merit Scholar (scholarship recipient) — awarded to the top 0.125% of high school students
Top-1% scorer on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT (on the first try!)
Author of forthcoming SAT prep textbook (publication date 2025)
Awarded a Mellon Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, Stanley J. Seeger Fellowship, Notebaert Fellowship, and others; alternate for UK Fulbright fellowship; Gates Cambridge fellowship finalist; Princeton-sponsored candidate for Rhodes and Marshall fellowships
Has lived in six different countries and understands some of the unique challenges of international life
Over a decade of experience helping hundreds of students to prepare for the SAT and ACT or improve their college essays
Regular volunteer service providing music outreach for at-risk children and English language support for refugees
At Ivy Bloom, all teaching and essay reviews are exclusively with Emily, a Princeton graduate with over a decade of professional teaching and editing expertise. After years of working as a top-ranked test-prep and essay coach for some of the most well-known test-prep services, Emily launched Ivy Bloom to better serve the needs of her students.
Here are just a few highlights of Emily’s impressive experience:
Why “Ivy Bloom”?
Did you know that, when it’s truly thriving, the ivy plant (Hedera) can actually bloom and produce flowers?
For years, that’s been my aim with Ivy Bloom. My goal is to not just support students with whatever they need to achieve academic success, but for those students to truly bloom as individuals — to feel confident, creative, and content with themselves.
I’ve had incredible success with my diverse students over the years, and I’ve seen many students succeed in their goals, whether that means building a solid foundation in math where previously they’d felt overwhelmed and discouraged . . . or attending the Ivy-League school of their dreams.
