Admission is not a dream.
It is a discipline.
A four-year playbook for your student, and a parent view that shows every step. Ivy League, the UCs, and Cal State plus transfer, planned one season at a time with the discipline of Korean and Chinese academic tradition. Led by Eric Lee and Karina Zhang, in English, Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Three tracks.
One standard.
Ivy League, the UC system, and the Cal State plus community college transfer path. Same discipline across all three, adapted to each student's target and timeline.
The Ivy Track
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Wharton, and their peers. The original Altior program. Multi-year strategy with mentors from these schools.
The UC Track
UC Berkeley, UCLA, and the UC system. Deep expertise in the UC application, PIQs, and 13-factor holistic review. Test-blind since 2021.
The Cal State + Transfer Track
Cal State universities, community college, and the two-year transfer to a UC or CSU degree. IGETC, ASSIST.org, TAG. The most underrated path in California.
We do not stop at the acceptance letter.
Support does not end at acceptance. Altior families continue with us through college and into first-career decisions.
Five formats.
One standard.
Every track runs through the format that fits your child's grade and timeline.
Every family arrives at a different starting point. A middle schooler beginning the journey early. A junior approaching the year that decides the most. A senior with one urgent deadline. An international family planning a future in the United States. We have built a program for each, held to the same standard of care.
Freshman to Senior
The full playbook. A complete four-year roadmap from the first day of 9th grade through acceptance day. Course strategy, testing calendar, summer planning, extracurricular development, and the application itself. Coordinated, year by year, with one mentor team who knows your child.
International Students
For families abroad who want a partner that handles every part of the journey to a US university. From early planning to applications, from school visits to the first year on campus, and the long arc of life in America after graduation. We walk the entire path with you, from A to Z.
Junior-Year Intensive
Junior year is the year colleges weigh most heavily. Test scores, course rigor, the summer that becomes a Common App essay, and the early decision conversation. We run the entire year as one focused campaign, with a written report to parents every two weeks.
Urgent and Specific Help
For the family with a real deadline. A Common App essay that is not yet working. A deferral letter. A transfer application. A scholarship cycle. We step in quickly, focus on the one outcome that matters, and give it our full attention until it is done.
Middle School Early Start
For 6th through 8th graders whose families want to begin the journey thoughtfully. Reading habits, mathematics acceleration, a first competition or two, and a quiet long view of the high school years to come. Patient, steady, age-appropriate.
The Korean and Chinese method,
applied to American admissions.
In Korea, education is treated as a discipline. Hours are accounted for, progress is measured, and standards are held high by everyone in the room. We bring that framework to US college admissions, and we pair it with mentors who studied at the schools your child hopes to attend.
Every season accounted for
Quarterly planning meetings with your child set the agenda for the season. Brief checkins between meetings keep work moving. We are reachable by email and phone whenever a family needs us.
The bar stays high
We give honest feedback, even when it is hard to hear. We do not call an essay finished when it is not, and we do not call a student ready when more work would help. Children rise to the standard we set, and ours is the standard the schools they want will set in three years.
Mentors who have done it
Our mentors are graduates of Stanford, Duke and Harvard. Each one is introduced to your family by name before the first meeting, and reads your student's work with the standard those schools will apply.
Every step in view.
Ascend is your student's playbook: this week's focus, quests finished and due, service hours, scores, and the next meeting. You get your own view, plus a written report from the counselor monthly in 9th and 10th grade and every two weeks in 11th and 12th.
- What was finishedConfirmed by the mentor, not self-reported.
- What is due, with datesTests, applications, awards and summer deadlines in one list.
- Whether your student is on trackA plain answer in every report, with the reason.
- Where you can helpOne or two specific asks for parents, never a vague "stay involved."
Small on purpose.
Every family gets a named counselor who knows their student. We publish our prices and our cadence, and we never guarantee an admission. No honest firm can.
Starting with our first graduating class, we will publish a yearly report: how many students, where they applied, where they were admitted, and how we define a top choice. No percentages without a denominator.
Eric Lee
Eric grew up inside the Korean education system and has spent his career building disciplined operations. He founded Altior for Bay Area families who want a plan they can see, and a counselor who treats their child the way he would want his own treated.
- Yonsei University
B.A., Seoul - Korea University
M.Div., Seoul - Harvard and Wharton
Certificate programs - UCLA Extension
Certificate, College Admissions Consulting
Eric is based in San Mateo and works with families across the Bay Area.
Read Eric's story →Two lead counselors.
Named mentors.
Eric and Karina lead every family's plan. Each student also works with one named mentor, introduced before the first meeting. Each lead counselor takes no more than 10 new families a year.
Eric Lee
Founder · Lead CounselorEric leads strategy for every Altior family and runs the counselor desk behind Ascend. He works with families in English and Korean.
Karina Zhang
Head of Admissions · Lead CounselorKarina leads admissions operations across all three tracks and turns each plan into submitted applications. She works with families in Mandarin, Cantonese and English.
Named mentors
One mentor per studentOur mentors are graduates of Stanford, Duke and Harvard. Each one is introduced to your family by name before the first meeting, and stays with your student through the season.
What we share with our families.
The same briefings we walk our families through on fit calls, written by our team. Specific, current, and free of the noise that fills most college admissions writing.
The 2026 Admissions Cycle, Decoded
Yale at 4.24%. Stanford at 3.68%. MIT at 3.5%. What the Class of 2030 numbers mean for next year's applicants, and what changed.
The Junior-Year Playbook, Month by Month
What a junior should be doing in September, February, June, and August. Fifteen months of careful planning to the November 1 early deadline.
STEM-OPT and H1B, the 10-Year Plan
How international families should plan major selection, the OPT runway, and the 2026 H1B rules, including the new $100k fee that has changed the calculus.
Begin with a 20-minute fit call.
Tell us about your student. We will listen, show you one thing worth knowing about their plan, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. If we are, most families start with the Family Roadmap.
Book a 20-minute fit call →