Kaila Brown

There's a particular kind of energy students often bring into the first session: arms crossed, answers short, clearly waiting to be told what to do. Kaila Brown knows that student. Her goal isn't to give them a formula. It's for that student to leave the meeting more relaxed than they walked in, a little clearer on who they are and what they're actually looking for.

Kaila's students have been admitted to highly selective schools like Yale, MIT, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt University, and University of Notre Dame, as well as Wellesley College, strong Engineering and Business programs at Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, University of Washington, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with acceptances at UCLA, UC Berkeley, Boston College, UT Austin, University of Miami, University of Maryland, New York University, and dozens of other selective universities.

Families who've worked with Kaila describe her as encouraging. That word captures something real: she leads with warmth, but she doesn’t soften the truth. She'll be upfront about where a student stands and what the process actually requires—and then she'll help them build something they can feel genuinely confident about, whatever the outcome.

Kaila’s counseling philosophy, in her own words: “My goal is for a student to feel so confident in their high school career, their process, and their application that when the decision comes back—whatever it is—they know they did their best. I work best with families who aren’t looking for a magic formula.”

Her credentials cover both sides of the desk. After completing her master's at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, Kaila returned to her alma mater, Vanderbilt University, where she spent five years as an Assistant Director of Admissions reading and evaluating applications. She later served as Associate Director of College Counseling at The Marist School in Atlanta, where she managed a caseload of over 100 students annually across the full range of college goals, from highly selective admissions and D1 athletics to competitive engineering programs and performing arts. She also brings two years as a Customer Success Manager for a college admissions management platform, which shapes how she thinks about structure, communication, and what it actually means to deliver for families when the stakes are real.

Kaila grew up in the South and came to this work because she loves high schoolers. Specifically, she loves working with students who are still figuring out who they are and where they want to go. For many of them, college is the first major decision that’s truly theirs. She takes that seriously.

Away from work, Kaila is a board member of the College Consultants of Colorado and serves on Collegewise's Wiser Together professional development team. She has two kids, Wesley, who inherited her height (97th percentile, apparently), and Wynn, born in February 2026. She ends every single day with something sweet. A cookie, a scoop of ice cream, and some peanut butter with chocolate chips. Non-negotiable.

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