We built AltView from what we learned as parents.

When our daughter was applying to college, we did what most parents do. We looked for a counselor. What we found was discouraging.

Most “counselors” turned out to be sales operations. They would recommend their own test prep courses. They would push study-abroad loans. They would upsell expensive summer programs. Actual admissions strategy? An afterthought, if it came up at all.

We got lucky. We found a counselor who focused entirely on our daughter: her interests, her story, what she was good at, where she would thrive. The result: she was accepted to both Princeton and IIT.

That experience changed how we thought about this industry. Good counseling exists, but it is rare. Most families do not get lucky the way we did. So we built what we wished we had found from the start.

Our rule: we only do counseling. No test prep. No loan partnerships. No summer program commissions. If we recommend something, it is because we believe it helps the student. Not because it helps our revenue.

There is another part of this that matters to us too. Between us, we come from technology, analytical, and systems backgrounds. That does not mean we treat students like spreadsheets. It means we are uncomfortable with vague advice, borrowed formulas, and random activity lists passed off as strategy.

We like clarity. We like asking what is actually true here, what matters, what is noise, and what decision follows from that. Families usually feel the difference. The process is still demanding, but it becomes less murky and less driven by panic.