Hi, my name is Abu Mian.

Since graduating from Notre Dame, I've spent close to ten years advising students and families, first through nonprofits and later at some of the country's top private admissions firms.

I got my start while I was still in college, as an Advising Fellow with Matriculate, working with high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds. Since then I've worked with hundreds of students. Some were homeschooled and some were seniors at elite private schools. I've worked with refugees, first-gen students, kids doing serious research, and Ivy League legacies.

A lot of what I bring to this work came from jobs outside admissions. With AmeriCorps, I was a Depression Care Manager supporting patients. I've also worked with small grassroots nonprofits in Kansas City, London, and Cuenca. Those jobs taught me to listen before I give advice. Most people already have a sense of what they need, and my role is to help them see it clearly and then stay with them while they make the hard calls.

I studied philosophy, and it still shapes how I approach this. I don't see admissions as a game to win. For most students, it's the first time anyone has asked them to explain who they are and what they care about, and I take that seriously.

My approach rests on three ideas, which happen to spell my name :-)

[A]uthenticity. We start with who you actually are. My background is in existential philosophy, and I spent time tutoring student-athletes in it, so I'm used to taking big, abstract questions and making them manageable. With students, that means a lot of conversation. Somewhere in those talks, their real voice starts to come through. It's rarely the voice they assume colleges want, and it's almost always the stronger one.

[B]lueprint. Once we know what you want to say, we plan how to get there. I build every student a Notion dashboard with the whole process in one place: weekly tasks, college list research, essay prompts, scholarship deadlines, and recommendation planning. I borrowed this way of working from my time in nonprofit consulting and design thinking. The point is simple: you should always know what's next and why it matters.

[U]plift. This process is stressful for students and for parents. I try to be the steady person in the room. I want students to come out of it as better writers and clearer thinkers, and I want families to feel like they had someone in their corner the whole way.

Click “Let’s Chat” to schedule your free 1-hour orientation meeting, or get in touch with me:

abu@askabu.com | +1 (201) 241-5656