The admissions process
is challenging.
We make it navigable.

Astra Advisors is a boutique academic counseling practice for all students seeking secondary, postsecondary, and graduate admissions. We believe every student has a constellation of strengths worth illuminating. Our job is to help them, and the right schools, see it too.

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sic itur ad astra Virgil, Aeneid
such is the way to the starts
Our students have been admitted to:
Harvard✦ Yale✦ Princeton✦ Columbia✦ Penn✦ Brown✦ Dartmouth✦ Cornell✦ MIT✦ Stanford✦ Duke✦ Chicago✦ Northwestern✦ Johns Hopkins✦ Vanderbilt✦ Rice✦ Notre Dame✦ Emory✦ Georgetown✦ Tufts✦ Michigan✦ Virginia✦ Carnegie Mellon✦ NYU✦ Boston College✦ USC✦ UCLA✦ Berkeley✦ Amherst✦ Williams✦ Middlebury✦ Bowdoin✦ Macaulay Honors✦ Barnard✦ Wesleyan✦ Swarthmore✦ Harvard✦ Yale✦ Princeton✦ Columbia✦ Penn✦ Brown✦ Dartmouth✦ Cornell✦ MIT✦ Stanford✦ Duke✦ Chicago✦ Northwestern✦ Johns Hopkins✦ Vanderbilt✦ Rice✦ Notre Dame✦ Emory✦ Georgetown✦ Tufts✦ Michigan✦ Virginia✦ Carnegie Mellon✦ NYU✦ Boston College✦ USC✦ UCLA✦ Berkeley✦ Amherst✦ Williams✦ Middlebury✦ Bowdoin✦ Macaulay Honors✦ Barnard✦ Wesleyan✦ Swarthmore✦
✦   Our Approach

What we believe
about this process

The college application is not a bureaucratic obstacle. It is one of the first real opportunities a young person has to articulate who they are, what they value, and where they want to go. Done well, it is clarifying. Done without guidance, it is needlessly hard.

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." John Wooden

Strategy without anxiety

We help families understand what top schools are actually looking for and build a plan around each student's genuine strengths.

Find your voice

With deep expertise in narrative craft, we help students find their voice rather than polish it into something unrecognizable.

No pretense, just results

We are direct, honest, and thorough. We tell students what actually works, not what they want to hear.

✦   About

About Astra Advisors

Astra Advisors was founded on a simple belief: every student deserves the kind of guidance once reserved for a lucky few.

We are a boutique practice led by Lillianne Montague, an educator, scholar, and EdTech professional whose career has been shaped by a single question: how do we help young people reach their full potential?

We offer a combination of academic and practical expertise to every student we work with. We understand what competitive schools look for in a personal statement. We have studied how educational institutions work from the inside and use that knowledge to give students a genuine edge. The modern college process is demanding. With the right guidance, it is entirely manageable.

Our Leadership

Lillianne Montague headshot
Lillianne Montague
Founder & Lead Advisor
  • University of PennsylvaniaB.A.
  • University of CambridgeMPhil
  • Harvard UniversityMEd

Lillianne has developed a deep understanding of narrative craft and what it means to write with genuine voice and has demonstrated how to translate theory into practice in the classroom. Her graduate degrees at Harvard and Cambridge explored how institutions shape young learners and enabled her to consult with major public school districts on improving ESL integration metrics.

That arc, from writer to scholar to educator to EdTech operator, gives her an unusually complete perspective on the college process. She knows what admissions offices are reading for after working with hundreds of students and giving feedback on thousands of essays.

Lillianne brings the cultural fluency and intellectual rigor competitive applicants need, delivered with the warmth and directness students deserve.

✦   Services

How we work
with students

Focused, hourly sessions tailored to where a student is in the process, whether building a school list sophomore year of high school, or refining a personal statement the week before a deadline. Every session is one-on-one with one of our advisors. No handoffs, no templated feedback.

Essay Coaching

Finding Your Voice

From the personal statement to school-specific supplements, we help students form essays that are specific, honest, and memorable. We don't rewrite. We help students write better. The voice in the final essay is entirely their own.

School Selection

Building the Right List

A well-built school list is one of the highest-leverage decisions in any admissions process. We help students think clearly about fit, selectivity, and strategy to produce a list that is both ambitious and realistic.

Application Strategy

Presenting the Full Picture

Activities lists, recommendation letter strategy, demonstrated interest, Early Decision versus Early Action: the application has many moving parts. We help students see it as a coherent whole and present themselves accordingly.

Interview Prep

Showing Up With Confidence

Competitive internships, graduate programs, and full-time roles depend on strong interviewing skills. We run realistic practice sessions and help students develop the clarity and composure to represent themselves well in any room.

Academic Tutoring

Strengthening the Foundation

A strong application starts in the classroom. We offer subject-level tutoring across core academic disciplines in secondary and postsecondary schools, as well as SAT and ACT tutoring for students looking to deepen their understanding, improve grades, or prepare for standardized tests.

Honors Program Advising

Beyond the Ivies

We help students identify, apply to, and make the strongest possible case for programs that are often overlooked and frequently transformative.

"The doors of wisdom are never shut." Benjamin Franklin

✦   Tutoring Subjects
Sciences
  • ✦Chemistry  AP
  • ✦Biology  AP
  • ✦Physics  AP
  • ✦Biochemistry
  • ✦Organic Chemistry I & II
Mathematics & Economics
  • ✦Algebra through Calculus  AP
  • ✦Economics
Standardized Tests
  • ✦SAT
  • ✦ACT
  • ✦GRE
Writing
  • ✦English Literature  AP
  • ✦Writng/Summer Work
  • ✦Foreign Languages

Don't see your subject? Reach out. We work with students across a wide range of coursework and can discuss whether we are the right fit.

We work with students at every stage, from freshmen mapping out a four-year plan to seniors in the final push, to college seniors and beyond planning graduate education. We also work with international students navigating the U.S. process, and first-generation applicants for whom the system is genuinely unfamiliar territory.

Ready to get started?

Book a 15-minute consultation. We will talk through where your student is and whether Astra is the right fit. Reach us at info@astraadvisorsgroup.com

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