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Trusted Advisors Since 2022

About Us

Kingsman was founded by Yale grads Michael London and Eli Smith in order to drastically improve the college consulting model.

Our Story

Built for students who deserve more.

Prior to founding Kingsman in 2022, Michael London and Eli Smith saw the extent to which the college consulting industry was flawed. Boutique consultancies had become high-volume practices designed to churn through hundreds of students a year, recycling their essay templates and cherry-picking their students to boost their admissions statistics.

Having successfully navigated elite admissions themselves, Michael and Eli decided to help other students tailor their applications to what they knew admissions officers were looking for. With their insider knowledge, they sought to design a multi-pronged system aimed at giving individual students as much personal attention as possible.

They believed a fundamentally better model was possible: one that pairs every student with both a peer mentor and a former admissions officer — combining genuine personal attention with insider knowledge that gives each student a real edge in admissions.

What Kingsman built is a dual-layer model that no one else in the industry offers. Every student works with two advisors: a peer mentor who attended their target school and lived the experience firsthand, and a former admissions officer who read files from the other side of the table. The combination closes the gap between aspiration and application in a way that neither perspective can achieve alone.

Since then, that conviction has held. Kingsman has worked with hundreds of students and never once used a template. It takes on only the students it can genuinely serve — and the outcomes reflect it: students are 5.9× more likely to gain Ivy-level admission, and 71% are admitted to a T30 university.

The industry is still broken. Kingsman is the alternative — and has been, quietly, since 2022.

Our Philosophy

Three beliefs that shape
everything we do

01

The people who read applications should help shape them

Most firms leave the framing of an application to consultants who have never sat on an admissions committee. At Kingsman, every student works with both a peer mentor who lived the experience and a former admissions officer who read files from the other side of the table — and the admissions officer weighs in on how the application is framed, not just how it's polished.

02

We build applications that we stake our reputation on

We don't stop at “good enough.” We develop a passion project with every student, place students into research programs, and push their work toward real, independent recognition — publications, conference presentations, press coverage, and organizations that put it to use. By the time an application is submitted, every part of it has been made as strong as it can be.

03

The right connections make all the difference

Over the years, we've built a network that most firms can't match: past Kingsman students, past parents, and current students at the schools our students are aiming for. We put that network to work for every student — opening doors, making introductions, and offering perspective that only people on the inside can give.

The Team

The People Behind the Results

Every Kingsman advisor has navigated elite admissions personally. We don't just know the process — we've lived it.

Role

Adr--- P-

Adr--- P-
college attended
Yale
specialty
Economics

CEO & Head of Consulting

I built Kingsman because I'd seen firsthand what the industry was getting wrong. Every student deserves a strategy built around who they actually are — not a template.

Adr--- P-

Role

Michael B

Michael B
college attended
Yale
specialty
Economics & Mathematics

Director of Sales & Marketing

Having read files from inside Yale's admissions office, I know exactly what readers are looking for — and what causes even strong candidates to be passed over.

Michael B

Role

James Harrington

James Harrington
college attended
Stanford
specialty
Consulting

Senior Admissions Consultant & Former AO

The students who get in aren't always the most accomplished. They're the ones whose applications make a reader pause. That's what we build toward in every session.

James Harrington

Role

Priya Nair

Priya Nair
college attended
UCLA
specialty
Consulting

Senior Admissions Consultant

STEM applicants often underestimate how much narrative matters. The strongest profiles I've seen are the ones that make the science feel personal — not just impressive.

Priya Nair

Role

Marcus Webb

Marcus Webb
college attended
NYU
specialty
Essay Coaching

Test Prep Tutor

A great essay doesn't sound like a college essay. It sounds like a person. My job is to strip away everything that doesn't belong until what's left is genuinely them.

Marcus Webb

Role

Sofia Reyes

Sofia Reyes
college attended
Columbia
specialty
Consulting

Test Prep Tutor

International applicants face a harder version of the same problem: standing out in a pool where context is assumed and yours is invisible. Making that context legible is the work.

Sofia Reyes