Acerca de

1-on-1
College Counseling

Who We Are

Ignite Academy is a private college counseling service based in Singapore, with offices in Bangkok, Thailand and Guangzhou, China. We coach 10-12th grade students in the skills and the knowledge needed to prepare them to apply to, and succeed in, their best-fit colleges. We specialize in working with students attending top international schools in Singapore, China and the United States. Our team includes counselors who have gone through the rigors of the British and American education systems, and we can speak from experience about what high school students need for educational success.

Applying to college is nerve-wracking, both for students and (perhaps even more so) parents. There’s lots of information out there, but all too often, very little seems useful. Students and parents often go haring off in a direction that they feel is right, but which turns out to be very, very wrong. Either that, or they throw their hands up in frustration, unable to see a path forward.

At Ignite Academy, we believe that it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. We shed light on the murky world of higher education, showing that the seemingly opaque process of college admissions is actually made up of many small, concrete steps. We develop customized, one-on-one coaching solutions to help students in three areas: middle and high-school academics, extracurricular activities, and applying to college.

What We Do

Academic coaching

The “international” education system, which prepares students for the rigors of overseas study, is a minefield of confusion. Which curriculum (International Baccalaureate; Advanced Placement; A-Levels etc.) should my child choose? What courses are appropriate for my child’s intellectual level and future career direction? How can my child best demonstrate his academic abilities to colleges?

Ignite Academy helps students and parents to answer these questions, and more. We coach students in the foundational skills needed for success in higher education, such as time management, public speaking skills and critical thinking skills, in both group workshops and one-on-one sessions. Finally, if your child has academic interests that exceed the bounds of the classroom, we can help him to further develop those interests through our independent research program.

Extracurricular coaching

Extracurricular activities are vital for a student’s personal and intellectual development. The best activities allow a student to showcase his strengths and offer room for personal growth, while also being of interest to him. However, many students don’t choose the activities that suit them best. They may do too much, producing a laundry list of activities without focus and efficacy; or they may do too little, wasting precious time. Furthermore, we give students a career orientation and encourage them to get a head-start on exploring different fields and college majors.

We meet with students on a regular basis to advise them what activities to choose, how to organize their time, and how to take their participation in these activities to the next level. We also keep in touch with students as they deepen their involvement in their activities, advising them behind the scenes to help solve any problems and handle time management issues.

Applying to college

Your child is more than a test score, and a university is more than number on a ranking. We don’t believe in rankings, which reduce a university – a complex hive of intellectual and social activity – to a number, often in a most unscientific way. We instead help identify the best-match schools for your child, looking for the institutions that will help them best develop into a mature human being, according to their individual needs.

As the college admissions deadline looms, time and knowledge become your most valuable resources, and we will help you harness them. We advise you in planning your child’s path forward, by laying out a timetable for standardized test prep, demystifying college major selection, and guiding him through the twists and turns of writing the college admissions essay. While the majority of our students go to the U.S. for college, we have also successfully helped students apply to top U.K. universities, and tailor our services accordingly.

Our Approach

Every student is unique. Thus, we do not have a one-size-fits-all approach. Before taking on a case, we hold intensive discussions with parents and students, often lasting over several meetings. We present our clients with a menu of services, from which we “mix-and-match” to piece together a bespoke program that suits their child’s unique needs. Clients then pay according to the services needed, typically for one school year at a time.

At the core of our services is the personalized, one-on-one “coaching sessions” between a coach and student. During each session, the coach will guide the student in one aspect of their academic life, extracurricular activities, or college admissions. These sessions are structured as private tutor sessions, with pre-arranged syllabi, homework and deadlines.

We understand that the needs of students and parents will differ. If a client is interested solely in our college essay advisory services, we’ll be more than willing to accommodate them; if he instead wants the full package, we’ll be happy to oblige, too. While we will have our recommendations, we will not pressure parents to buy services that they believe their child will not need. It’s all up to you, as the client, to ask for what you want. We will not patronize our students, and will treat them as mature, self-directed individuals.

We believe in transparency and clear communication with clients. After each coaching session, we send a detailed summary to parents. We schedule meetings at regular intervals, ensuring that we will not be out of touch with students for too long. We also update parents monthly by phone on their child’s progress, and are always available to answer parent and student questions over Line, WeChat, Whatsapp or email.

As far as possible, the advice that we give our students will be based on hard evidence. Our team is data-driven, and we combine statistics from university admissions, international schools in China and client profiles to put together a bigger, more objective picture. We do not accept the “gut-feeling” approach toward higher education. This will ensure that our students will get the best quality of advice, and participate in top-quality academic and personal development programs, in keeping with current trends in academia and the economy.

Academic honesty

There are no shortcuts for success in higher education. Dishonesty or cheating in any form will greatly harm a student future in the long run. We therefore hold ourselves, and our students, to the highest standards of academic honesty. We do not ghostwrite anything that students will submit for college admissions, nor will we falsify any material. If clients choose to engage in dishonest practices, we will not participate in them, and will not be held legally or financially responsible for any consequences of such behavior.