About Us

MEET THE EXPERTS

Ryan "CHOICE" Choi

Founder & Lead Consultant

Ryan Choi graduated from Columbia University with degrees in English and Business Administration and the Walter A. Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He has taught more than 30,000 students and reviewed over 100,000 applications and 250,000 app-related essays. In addition, he is a public speaker, author, and education strategist. He is currently pursuing advanced degrees in Media & Communications at Columbia University and in Intellectual Property Law at Cornell Law School; he enjoys golfing and is a proud father.

Aaron Blumenthal

Essay and Literature Specialist

Aaron Blumenthal graduated from Harvard University with a BA in English and the New England Conservatory with a MM in Jazz Performance. He is an avid writer of fiction and poetry, with five years of essay and application consulting experience and over ten years of teaching experience; his students have gone to schools such as Oxford, Princeton, Columbia, and Berkeley. In his spare time, he plays jazz saxophone and piano and is working on a music theory book.

Mike Zhuang

Math & Science Specialist

Mike Zhuang graduated from UCLA with a BS in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution and has obtained a teaching credential in foundational math and biology. Prior to joining Sapient Academy, Mike taught high school science and served as a head badminton coach.

At Sapient (a Ryan Prep Company), we are a small group of elite test-prep instructors, school subject teachers, and college admissions consultants with one mission in mind: empowering students academically. We have worked ardently for more than 15 years to help students maximize their potential and make their way to the colleges of their dreams. Today, as a team, we bring more than 50 years of combined experience and have, so far, taught more than 30,000 students in live sessions, counseled more than 1,500 students, and reached out to more than 2,000,000 online students to help them reach their academic goals.

Our mission does not stop there. We believe that academies must stand for something and offer an array of solutions to meet today's competitive study environment. Our Socratic method of teaching can equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to tackle even the most challenging questions, not by the process of elimination but by fundamentally dissecting the problems at hand and confidently answering without guessing. We call this process the XO Strategies: finding self-reliant ways to go from WRONG to RIGHT.

We have designed our services to challenge those who aspire to excel in their specific fields of study, those who want to revamp their bad study habits, and those who wish to raise their academic standards. Again, we are not your traditional academy. We stand for helping students become self-sufficient, we push our students to their limits, and most importantly, we do everything in our power to help deliver the results students deserve.

So, join us if you are ready for a challenge; join us if you want to change. Together, we can challenge the norms, raise the bar, and help you become a better student, a better test taker, and an irresistible candidate to colleges.

At Sapient, we help students build strong academic as well as professional portfolios, guiding them to present themselves as competitive college applicants. Our programs push students to think outside the box, encouraging them to crystallize their passion and strategically work toward their goals, no matter how big.

WHO WE ARE

At Sapient, we are a small group of elite instructors educated at top universities. We aced the tests, we made it through the admissions process with, and we’re passionate about helping you do the same.

WHAT WE DO

We know this is an incredibly important time in a student’s life, and that’s why we’ve worked so hard for more than fifteen years to help students maximize their potential and make their way to the schools of their dreams.

WE THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Is it possible to answer an entire reading comprehension section correctly without reading the passage? Our teachers can do it (not that we recommend it, of course!) Our time-tested, logic-based strategies will give you the keys to decode those tricky SAT questions, whether its modifiers, math, or main idea.

NOT JUST TEST PREP!

We help students build strong academic and extracurricular portfolios. Our programs encourage students to crystallize their passions and strategically work toward their goals, no matter how big, no matter how unorthodox. We’ve worked with all types, from clarinetists to CEOs (yes, really!) to help craft show stopping college applications.

LET US SERVE YOU

Today, as a team, we bring more than 50 years of combined experience and have, so far, taught more than 30,000 students in live sessions, counseled more than 1,500 students, and reached out to more than 2,000,000 online students to help them reach their academic goals.