Tarun Malarvasan
Book a free call with TarunTarun’s intro
Hey I'm Tarun, an engineering student at Penn State and a three-time ISEF Grand Award winner. I've done research at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Wharton, and the Wyss Institute. I've also held growth roles at two venture-backed startups, including a Y Combinator company. I've since helped students earn admission to multiple T20 universities. I know what it takes to actually land a research position, turn a summer in a lab into a competition-level project, and help applicants build their extracurriculars to strengthe their portofolio the best. On the essay side, I help students build their application to let them highlight who they really are. Essays are where most strong applicants lose ground, usually because they write what they think admissions wants to hear. I don't hand you a formula, rather I ask questions until we find the thing you actually care about, then help you get it on the page in your own voice.
Common questions
Before you book
What does this cost?
We are flexible, and there is a plan here that fits your family. You hear your number on the first call, before anything is agreed. What changes between plans is the kind of experience in the room: a current undergraduate at a school your student is applying to, someone who interviewed applicants for a university as an alumni volunteer, or a former admissions officer who read files and sat in committee. Every one of them is somebody we would put in front of our own family.
Do we need to know what we want before the call?
No, and most families book before they have decided anything. That is the useful time to talk. An hour, no charge, and you will come off the call knowing what we can do for your student.
How many students does one counselor take?
Few enough that the person you meet is the person who reads the drafts. Every counselor sets their own cap and prints it on their page, so you know exactly how much of their year you are getting. If your first choice is full we will introduce you to someone on the roster who suits your student just as well.
Our student is already a senior. Is it too late?
It is not too late. Several counselors here run compressed engagements and take seniors into the autumn, and there is usually more still open in a file than a family expects. Tell us where your student is on the call and we will tell you what we can do with it.
Book a call
How the call is booked.
Tarun books the call, and it runs an hour on the phone.
Book a free call with TarunTarun works from what you tell us about your student, so the call starts there rather than at the beginning.
If something changes
The agreement is held by The Scholar’s Bureau rather than by Tarun personally. If Tarun cannot finish the cycle we move your student to another counselor on this roster at the price you were already quoted, and everything written down so far moves with them.
The Scholar’s Bureau is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Penn State or any other institution named on this page. Tarun Malarvasan is an undergraduate at Penn State, speaking only as an individual, with no role in its admissions office and no influence over any admissions decision.