About me

Who am I?

I'm a UC Berkeley Haas grad who spent eight years in tech, venture capital, and consulting while running admissions coaching on the side. The corporate work taught me how to take something with real potential and build a strategy that makes its value undeniable. When I officially established The Leeway, I realized I was better at this than anything else I'd done. More importantly, I cared about it far more.

Why admissions?

Before The Leeway, I worked in admissions at Carnegie Mellon and Transfer Alliance Project (TAP) at UC Berkeley. I read thousands of applications. Most of them blurred together. The strongest applicants weren't always the most impressive on paper. They were the ones who had guidance translating who they were into something an admissions officer could fight for in committee.

The students who got rejected often had everything they needed except that guidance. I kept thinking: if these students had the right person in their corner, so many of them would get into their dream colleges and thrive.

What I actually do differently

Here's what it comes down to: I care about this on a level that's probably irrational for a business. I lose sleep over my students' essays. I spend hours on calls I don't bill for. I turn down students I don't think I can place into top schools, rather than take their money.

This isn't a side hustle or something I’m building into yet another soulless consulting company that often feels like a waste of money. I've built my entire professional life around getting students into schools that change their trajectories, and doing it at the highest level I can.

Beyond The Leeway

I'm a Program Lead with Minds Matter, a national nonprofit that coaches high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds toward college access. The system should reward effort over privilege. Working with students who have the most to gain keeps me sharp and keeps me honest about why this work matters.

I'm based out of Berkeley, but I frequently travel for my students up and down California and overseas in Asia.