Our Team
Experienced. Knowledgeable. Proficient.
Because most dreams these days begin with a college degree, MIT graduates Ernest and Yvette created LighthouseU to satisfy a need in the Metroplex (and now Chicagoland!) for dedicated college consultants to help students achieve their dream of going to college. As a student or parent, you can count on our team to be on your side, proactively guiding you toward the best possible college acceptance results.
We also recognize that dream colleges come with a price tag, so be sure to ask about how they can help you navigate the world of financial aid and scholarships.
Tambien hablamos español!
Ernest Alba, Ph.D.
Over the past eight years, I have had the distinct pleasure of helping hundreds of Dallas/Fort Worth area students achieve their dream of going to the college of their choice.
While there is no formula - no one thing one can write on his or her application to guarantee a spot at a particular university - there are many ways to create the best application possible. From working at the MIT Admissions Office to establishing a dedicated college admissions office at my former high school, I have had the opportunity to work with counselors, interviewers, alumni, and admissions committee members to gain a better understanding of the process and make the dream of going to a top tier school realizable for students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The competition is tough. Every school in the Top 100, as determined by US News, has an acceptance rate at or below 31%. By utilizing the most recent research on the admissions process and past results, we have developed best practices for gaining the advantage over the competition and a second sense for what works and what doesn’t. There are many common pitfalls and traps that students tend to fall into when applying to college. We are here to help you avoid those pitfalls early on and maximize your acceptance rate.
Background:
Dallas area native
High school Valedictorian (1/432)
National Merit Finalist
ACT 36
Accepted at Harvard, MIT, Rice, Tulane, and University of Pittsburgh (100% acceptance rate) with full ride scholarships and financial aid
S.B. MIT ‘09
99th percentile GRE
Full ride - M.A. University of Texas at Austin ‘11
Full ride - Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin ‘17
11+ years teaching experience
17 years college admissions counseling experience
Yvette Beben Leahy, M.S.
A Bachelor of Science from MIT, a Master of Science from Duke University, and several years of experience tutoring test prep and college essays make for a powerful combo.
Not only have I successfully applied for top notch schools on my own, I have helped many students do the same. I started by counseling and tutoring family and friends, some of which went on to attend great schools such as UNC, Marquette, and Northwestern University. A lot of my counseling work over the years happened while I concurrently explored a career in biomedical engineering. Last year, I decided to try tutoring full time, teaching students in some of the most competitive school districts in Silicon Valley while my husband finished a fellowship at Stanford.
My passion to do college admissions counseling for a living stems from wanting other students to have what I didn’t have in high school - an adviser that understood and supported my ambitions, a person that knew what questions I wasn’t asking and how to find the answers, someone to tell me if the choices I was making would make me a contender for a top 30 university. I feel I was lucky to have made enough right choices: these days there is an ever shrinking margin of error, making proactive preparation your best chance to get into your dream school. You definitely want our team in your corner, and I look forward to meeting you!
Background:
Tutored/counseled in Wisconsin, California, Texas, and North Carolina
Accepted at MIT, Rice, Notre Dame, Marquette, Purdue, and Milwaukee School of Engineering (100% acceptance rate) with over $90,000 of combined offers for scholarships
S.B. MIT ‘10
M.S. Duke University ‘13
8 years of teaching experience
12 years of college admissions counseling experience