about
Making elite admissions knowledge accessible to all students
Most college advice is unhelpful. "Be yourself." "Follow your passion." But you need specifics: What activities should you pursue? How should you write about them? What actually matters to admission officers?
We provide those specifics.
Experience from Both Sides of the Desk
I'm Michael Short. I recruited, read, and voted to admit Stanford's Class of 2015. Our team includes former admission officers from Harvard and Dartmouth. We've evaluated thousands of applications. Now we teach what we learned.
Over 500 Students Admitted
Our students have earned admission to every Ivy League school, Stanford, MIT, and other top institutions. Some secured full scholarships. Some come from public schools, international backgrounds, first-generation families.
To be clear: Students get themselves into college. They do the activities, win the awards, write the essays. We help them present their most strategic, compelling student-selves to admission officers. These students got in on their own merit, hard work, and luck. Did we help? Yes. But the credit belongs to them.
Students Admitted
To every Ivy League school, Stanford, MIT, and other top institutions.
Full Scholarships
Students have secured full scholarships to top institutions.
Personalized Coaching
Built on clear principles with guidance tailored to each student.
1-on-1 Personalized Coaching to Build a Compelling Application
Our coaching goal: to help students feel proud of their applications. We want them to explore ideas and activities they genuinely care about that are also strategic for college admission. Every student receives personalized guidance based on their unique situation and aspirations directly from me or my team.
We work with a small cohort each year. If our ethos aligns with yours, we might be a fit. Learn more on our Coaching page.
Our Mission
Admissions Masterclass teaches you everything you need to make your application compelling. Start there. If you're smart and apply yourself, that course is all you need.
My goal is to license Masterclass to public schools and nonprofits to make it available to all students for free. Until that happens, we'll continue coaching students who can benefit from personalized guidance.
College admissions knowledge shouldn't depend on your zip code or family income. Every student deserves access to specific, honest advice about how this process actually works.
YOUR TEACHER
M.C. SHORTI'm an attorney, educator, and former admission officer. I recruited, read, and voted to admit Stanford's Class of 2015. I was the regional admission counselor responsible for schools in most of the Northeast and Silicon Valley. I also served on the International and Transfer Committees.
I clerked for Judge Burns, U.S. District Court, S.D. California. I litigated for Latham & Watkins and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. I taught philosophy and history at Cheshire Academy and Phillips Academy Andover's Summer Session. I attended the U.S. Naval Academy, Boston College, and Michigan Law.
THETEAM@ADMITIUM.COMCollege coaching shouldn't exist. But colleges offer unhelpful advice like, "Be yourself." But you want to know the specific steps you should take that will help you earn admission to college. What activities should you do? What should you write about? Why? We created Admitium to provide access to specific and candid college admission knowledge for all.
Our first project: Admissions Masterclass. Masterclass offers you a logical, thoughtful, and specific approach for how you can demonstrate those compelling student-traits in your applications. By training with me, and using Stanford and Harvard's demanding standards to push us, you'll be in fighting shape when you apply to any school in the country.
The Team
2015-2018
2017-2021
Speaking Events
I speak about college admissions to audiences all over the world. From nonprofits, to law firms, to schools. Below are a few schools I've spoken at with some links to samples of my talks.
Coverage
The Stanford Daily: "Social Media Boosts Access to Higher Education" (Nov. 2022)
Stanford student Alondra Martinez highlights how resources like @admitium on TikTok helped her get into Stanford and "give prospective students, especially low-income and first-generation students, information that they normally would not have access to."
College Confidential: "Former Stanford Admissions Officer Answers Your Hardest Questions." (Nov. 2020)
In this Ask Me Anything, I tackled many of the tough questions you might want answers to: How students from different schools, cities, and states are evaluated; test-optional; APs and SAT scores; Early vs. Regular Decision.
Partnerships
If you're a school, nonprofit, or mentor organization interested in working together please reach out: theteam@admitium.com. We currently work with RoundPier: One of the best online platforms for students to build compelling extracurricular activities. Want to start a philosophy club? Don't limit it to your school. Post on RoundPier and establish an international philosophy club with students from Los Angeles, London, and Lyon.
