Ivyleap Leadership

Barbara Weltman

Co- founder and Premier College Admissions Counselor

Barbara is one of the leading independent university admissions counselors in the world. She is the co-founder of Ivyleap, a boutique educational consulting company with expertise in admissions counseling, test preparation and school research.

Barbara has worked as a Guidance Counselor at top US and UK schools. She has also worked as an Admissions officer at various top US universities. She brings more than two decades of counseling experience to Ivyleap. During her career as an admissions officer, she has reviewed thousands of applications giving her an insider's perspective to the admissions process at highly selective colleges. She uses her expertise to provide in-depth and highly personalized college counseling services to high school students and their families. Barbara's extensive experience as an admissions officer, counselor and editor allows her to evoke and refine the qualities and strengths that make each applicant unique.

Barbara graduated with honors from Yale with a BA in English and went on to obtain a Ph.D.in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. She is an unrivaled strategist, providing insight into the elements required for success in the highly selective college admissions process. She regularly visits campuses of top colleges across the country and throughout the world.

Barbara co-founded Ivy Xelerate in California, a company which focused on getting students into Ivy Leagues and other top highly selective colleges. Prior to Ivy Xelerate, Barbara was the founder of Weltman College Consulting, a company which helped high school students in the college application process and provided tutoring for standardized tests.

Barbara is a highly sought out speaker at various events and conferences on college admissions. She has been featured in various newspapers and publications in the US. She is a member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).


Sukhdev Singh

Co-Founder and College Counselor

Sukhdev provides college admissions counseling to students throughout the United States and world. He has extensive experience in admissions at highly selective institutions. He provides highly personalized and customized services to help students and families through the complete college admissions and financial aid process with a goal to helping each student find their dream college.

Sukhdev is also an entrepreneur and business leader. He was the co-founder of a Silicon Valley startup that grew from a small team to a multi-million dollar company at the time of exit. He has been involved with the design and development of industry-leading online learning platforms for delivering complete graduate programs over the internet. He has designed and developed several components of Pearson's MyLab product suite. These are currently used by over 5 million students in several countries.

Sukhdev is a graduate of Stanford University. He also holds a B.Tech. in Engineering from IIT Bombay. He has been active on the admissions committees of various top colleges which gives him an insider's perspective to college admissions. He has crafted a unique angle for assisting students in gaining admission to the most selective colleges.

Sukhdev is also a co-founder of Career Alphabet (currently in the beta phase), the World's First Career and College Counseling Network. It is a cloud based platform that will bring together Students, Parents, Academia, Counselors, Professionals and Employers and will enable the stakeholders to connect and derive benefit from each other.


Frank Baron

Frank Baron brings more than fifteen years of admissions counseling experience to IvyLeap. He was the founder of IvyReach, one of the top college admissions counseling companies in the US. At IvyReach, he has counseled thousands of students and helped them to identify their strengths, create dynamic activities resume and write creative and effective admissions essays. He is among just a handful of consultants in the entire country to have the ability to help his students elevate their essays dramatically, irrespective of whether they are talented or not.

Prior to this, Frank has served as an admission officer at various top universities. He has evaluated hundreds of applications for admissions and sat on college scholarship selection committees. In addition to reviewing applications from many parts of the US, Frank recruited and evaluated international students too. He has a deep understanding of the international and transfer applications in the undergraduate admissions process.

A graduate from Princeton University, Frank’s career in education has spanned the globe over the past three decades.

I found myself struggling to put together a creative and persuasive personal statement. It was only thanks to Barbara's remarkable skills and her genuine desire to help students that I was able to organize my ideas, accentuate my achievements, and present a creative and articulate statement to the schools. Barbara and the entire team at Ivyleap were extremely helpful and made the process much less stressful.

David G
Student - Admitted to Yale University

We interviewed several professionals as prospective admissions counselors. Mr. Pradeep and Ivyleap were the best of all the companies that we researched. They completely eliminated the stress relating to applications, essays, and deadlines. Pradeep guided us throughout our daughter's high school career, from which classes fit her needs and interests, to when and how to take the ACT. During the college application process, Pradeep and his essay review team offered superb and organized feedback, maintained a manageable timeline for completion of work and kept our daughter motivated throughout the process.

Ashwin P and Rashmi A
Parents of Student admitted to Princeton University

College Acceptances over the last 5 years