About Us

Michael Goran, J.D. - Director & Educational Consultant

Michael Goran is a top independent educational consultant who founded IvySelect to serve high-ability students and student-athletes seeking admission to selective and highly selective colleges. Mr. Goran's background as a member of the Secondary School Committee and Admissions Interviewer for the University of Pennsylvania lends a real-world experience that is fundamentally important in navigating the admissions and college match process at top tier and other top 100 colleges. He is also a graduate of Penn.

In addition to being a top private college counselor (who completed UCLA's Graduate-Level Certificate Program in College Counseling), he has been an investment real estate consultant and a practicing attorney. Mr. Goran brings the skill set he honed as a lawyer — advocacy, counseling, research and writing — together with the specialized background, training and experience of a college admissions consultant to the selective college application process. His legal experience also provides an invaluable added dimension for the law school applicant.

Not all writers are great and not all great writers are great teachers of writing. Mr. Goran is both. His background as an award-winning writer translates into expert help for students in shaping essays and personal statements. Mr. Goran's training and skill set allow him to help students brainstorm ideas for college essays that they probably would not have thought of themselves. In turn, he also provides professional guidance in crafting personal statements, which elevates the students' writing and gives them the best chance of achieving their college goals.

As the father of a college graduate and a high school student, he brings a parent's compassion and understanding of the pressures inherent in the process. He meets the educational, experiential and good practice standards to belong to major college counseling associations — NACAC, WACAC, HECA, and as an IECA Associate Member. Many individuals who hold themselves out as college consultants lack these qualifications. He maintains memberships in these organizations and participates in conferences that contribute to his ongoing professional development. Mr. Goran visits colleges throughout the country, with an emphasis on top tier and other top 100 schools. Finally, he has served as a pro bono college counselor at Calabasas High School, a National Blue Ribbon School.

Qualifications: Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• Superior Education
  • Ivy League Graduate: University of Pennsylvania, Dean's List With Distinction
  • Top-Tier Law School Graduate: Emory University
  • Graduate-Level UCLA Certificate Program in College Counseling
  • Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) Summer Training Institute

• Superior Writing Abilities
  • Editor: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich
  • Postgraduate Writing Program: UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television; Professional Program in Screenwriting
  • Winner, UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television Screenwriting Award
  • First-Place Winner, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Legal Writing Competition

• Superior Credentials, Insights & Professional Development
  • Served as Admissions Interviewer, University of Pennsylvania
  • Served as Member, Secondary School Committee, University of Pennsylvania
  • Member, Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC)
  • Member, Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA)
  • Member, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC)
  • Associate Member, Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA)
  • Member, New York Bar
  • Admitted to Practice, United States District Court, Southern District of NY
  • Admitted to Practice, United States District Court, Eastern District of NY
  • Pro bono College Counselor, Calabasas High School, a National Blue Ribbon School
  • Colleges Recently Visited Include: Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Tufts, Wellesley, Boston University, Northeastern, Brown, Amherst, Williams, Hampshire, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wesleyan, Yale, Colgate, Hamilton, Skidmore, Syracuse, Union, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, USC, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Scripps, Cal Tech, Occidental, Stanford, Georgetown, George Washington, American University, University of Mary Washington, University of Maryland-College Park, Johns Hopkins, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Rutgers, New York University, Columbia University, University of Texas - Austin, University of Washington, Emory, Georgia Tech, Washington University in St. Louis, Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, University of British Columbia
  • Exploring College Options Seminar: Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Penn & Stanford
  • Conferences: Regional Admission Counselors of California, WACAC, University of California Counselor Conference, USC College Counselor Conference, NACAC, IECA, HECA
  • Featured Expert Speaker: Johns Hopkins University Pathways to College Program; Princeton Review, The Highly Selective College Admissions Process; Junior State of America Conferences & more
  • Interviewed & Quoted College Admissions Expert: Brown Daily Herald, Daily Pennsylvanian, Harvard Crimson & a variety of other national publications

• Superior Skills & Philosophy
  • Counsel students throughout the U.S. & internationally
  • Research, organization, good listener, understand high-school students (not only as a counselor, but as a parent)
  • Fervent about academic success of students in garnering a top college best fit
  • An impassioned advocate & caring professional to help the student realize their goals
  • Make a match that complements the student's emotional, personal & academic needs
  • Highest ethical standards
  • Loyalty that translates into a bond of trust
  • Professional insight into what it takes to be successful in the narrow strata of the highly selective college admissions process
  • Minimize stress inherent in college admissions process
  • Parents need not be the "admissions police" — we serve as a buffer to sustain family harmony
  • Keep communications open
  • Involved throughout the process

Dee Blackman, M.A., M.B.A.
Senior College Admissions Consultant

Dee Blackman has had a long and varied career over the 30 years she has been in the field of college admissions. She herself was an Ivy League student, achieving a B.S. from Brown University and a M.A. in psychology from Yale. After spending some time as a psychotherapist, she returned to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to earn an M.B.A. in marketing. She regularly claims that, in her work as an independent consultant, her psychology training helps her in understanding the needs of her student and family clients, aiding her in helping them make the best choices in applying to college, and her marketing training helps her to present that student in a manner most likely to lead to acceptance.

Dee has worked in every facet of the college admissions process. She has spent years in various admissions operations, starting as an admissions counselor and working her way up to turns as a director, dean, and a vice-president of enrollment management. She has a firm grasp of college financial aid, athletic recruitment and legacy admissions, having supervised the departments responsible for admissions decisions in all of these areas.

When Dee served as Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid at Columbia, she estimates that she read in excess of 15 thousand applications every year. As Dean, she ultimately was responsible for who was admitted and she understands just what an individual student application must contain for serious consideration by selective colleges. There are clear tips and strategies that a public or private high school guidance counselor or college admissions officer will usually be unfamiliar with that, through her insider knowledge, can be brought to bear on the student's behalf.

In her tenure as Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid for Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, she read each application for all forty-five departments. This experience reinforced her understanding of how a trajectory established as a high school senior can have a long-range, life-altering impact.

Dee has also had tenures as a Dean of Admissions at a state university and a VP of Enrollment at a specialty college. She has consulted with several institutions in improving the quality of their entering classes but, most pertinently, she has spent time as a freelance college admissions counselor aiding families in navigating the college admissions process to highly successful outcomes.

The breadth of her long experience makes her a highly desirable resource for high school students and their families who have the determination to have a good college fit at the best possible college. With her insider's understanding, she is able to make what may seem mysterious more predictable and bring what may seem impossible to within reach.

Bill McClain, M.Ed., Ed.D. — Athletic Consultant

Dr. Bill McClain, an experienced tennis coach and educator, has developed three NCAA Division I college tennis programs, which produced: 14 All-Americans, numerous individual conference singles and doubles champions, four conference team championships, an NCAA Indoor Team Championship, and a 310-118 dual match record. His teams were ranked in the NCAA Top 10 three times and the Top 20 nine times. He is proud of his record in achieving 100% graduation rate for student-athletes recruited during his two decades of college coaching by motivating students to excel academically. His students have gone on to achieve prominence as successful professionals, businessmen and athletes.

Dr. Bill has coached three U.S. Junior Davis Cup Teams, which included three national junior champions, two NCAA singles champions and numerous All-Americans. He has developed and coached many sectionally and nationally ranked junior players, including a National Junior Girls' Champion. Bill has assisted many of these players in obtaining opportunities to play college tennis at top-tier universities such as Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth and Duke.

He is both coach and educator, holding a Masters in Education, majoring in guidance and counseling. Bill also holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Alabama, where he coached men's tennis under the athletic director, the legendary Bear Bryant. He has also been the men's tennis coach at the University of South Carolina and Southern Methodist University. Among his many professional affiliations, Bill has been Vice-President of the NCAA Tennis Coaches Association, Chairman of the NCAA All-American Selection Committee and is currently a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association, with a Pro 1 Rating. In addition to being the Athletic Consultant for IvySelect, Bill is Director of Tennis at The Warner Center Club in Woodland Hills, California.