Olivia Nie

Since 2016, when I began advising students as a freshman at Harvard (B.A. in Government, Class of 2020), I've worked with families as early as ninth grade, getting to know each student's strengths and curiosities and helping them shape the courses, activities and summers that let those interests grow into something real. I've also worked with students facing tight deadlines, quickly finding the thread that connects what they've already done and turning it into a focused, compelling application. Either way, my job is to help each student tell their story in a voice that is unmistakably their own. My students have been admitted to Harvard College, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, UChicago, Northwestern, Georgetown, the University of California schools and more. I've also edited essays for successful applicants to graduate programs at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Oxford, as well as to scholarship programs like Rhodes and Schwarzman. I understand the challenge of a multifaceted applicant firsthand, since my own background spanned fine art, architecture, music and science. I graduated from Harvard as the Harvard Orator, chosen to deliver the graduating speech at Commencement, and I bring that same blend of rigorous thinking and compelling storytelling to every student I work with.