about us

Prospect’s founders Grace Kim and Jared Garland help students become more academically curious, insightful, and socially engaged—and draw upon those qualities to create standout college and graduate applications. Both bring expertise across fields to guide their students towards success.

Grace Kim

co-founder, college advisor

Grace worked for three years in Stanford undergraduate admissions, bringing behind-the-scenes knowledge of how college applications are evaluated. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, she's currently a program manager at Google, where she leads initiatives centered around expanding learning, development, and career opportunities for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. Grace's admissions expertise, EQ-centered approach to advising, and passion for helping students make a greater impact within their communities make her a natural coach and mentor.

Jared Garland

co-founder, essay advisor

Jared brings nine years of experience leading students through the college and graduate admissions process. After graduating Princeton with high honors in comparative literature, he worked with students from the U.S. and abroad before accepting a fellowship at NYU’s M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing. As an essay specialist, he draws upon experience teaching undergraduate creative writing at NYU and leading a workshop in the mountains for incoming freshmen writers at Princeton. He enjoys challenging students to put words to their insights, creating personal statements with curiosity, humor, and heart.

our approach

ahead of the curve

Many of our students elect to work with Prospect years ahead of their applications. We meet regularly to discuss course selection and extracurricular engagement, as well as to plan in-depth initiatives and projects that demonstrate curiosity and leadership. As needed, we also help with applications to summer programs, competitions, or contests. This ensures our students have exceptional resumes when it comes time to apply to college or graduate programs. 

We understand, however, that many students might not seek guidance until later—or may discover a new path by chance. To cater to all prospective applicants, we routinely offer custom packages and hourly services as well. 

individualized support

After helping students apply to college and graduate programs for many years, we understand that great essays don’t always come together on an exact timeline. Some students will work on two or three drafts before finding their story. Others strike inspiration at the first sentence. We believe the best writing comes together with persistent effort and patience—which is why, unlike any other advising team we’ve found, our admissions packages come with a promise to do whatever it takes to prepare standout applications.

a devoted team, with the power of a committee

Prospect’s students come from all over the world. All have unique backgrounds and personal stories. Our role is to help our students hone their strengths and stand out to admissions committees, which means capturing everything from their greatest ambitions to their most off-the-cuff insights. Experience tells us this is most thoughtfully done when students actually know their advisors, and they intuitively understand where each suggestion or piece of advice comes from. At Prospect, students work with just two advisors. Jared will help bring application stories to life, while Grace uses her experience in Stanford admissions to understand how each component of a student’s profile can catch admissions officers’ attention.

Still, we understand that in some cases, students might find value in an outside reader. That’s why, for our undergraduate applicants, we also offer an optional admissions committee review. Upon request, we will send a student’s application materials to up to five former Ivy League/MIT admissions officers in our network to receive impartial, informed feedback.