ABOUT LIFELAUNCHR

Built by a Parent Who Lived It

LifeLaunchr was founded in 2014 by Venkates “Swami” Swaminathan — not as a business idea, but as a response to a problem. When his daughter Grace went through the college application process, Swami saw firsthand how overwhelming, expensive, and unnecessarily stressful it was for families trying to do it right. He knew there had to be a better way.

Twelve years later, LifeLaunchr has helped hundreds of students get into the colleges that are right for them — with coaching that’s personal, affordable, and grounded in real expertise.

About LifeLaunchr - College Counseling. A Picture of Venkates Swaminathan at his daughter's graduation.

The System Wasn’t Built for These Times

The average school counselor in the U.S. works with more than 400 students at a time — across academics, mental health, scheduling, and college planning. There simply isn’t enough time to give any one student the attention the process requires.

Many independent college counseling firms fill part of the gap, but they come with their own problems. Firms that specialize in a particular type of school — Ivies, liberal arts colleges, STEM programs — often steer students toward what fits their model, not what’s actually the best fit for the student. The goal becomes getting students into impressive-sounding schools rather than the right ones.

And most of them are still using the same tools and approaches they used a decade ago.

LifeLaunchr was built differently. Our coaches are credentialed, independent advisors with no agenda other than helping each student find the colleges where they’ll actually thrive. And our Soar platform gives families the tools to navigate every step of the process in real partnership with their coach — not just during sessions, but in between them.

Our College Counseling Is About More Than College

It’s about building a high school experience where students genuinely explore their interests, develop compelling profiles, and discover who they are. Then finding colleges where they’ll thrive — studying subjects they’re drawn to, in environments where they belong — and using all of that as a foundation for careers and lives that are rewarding and meaningful.

That’s what “We Launch Your Teen’s Life” means.

Our Approach

Coaches Who Know the Process Cold
Every student works with Swami and one additional assigned coach — credentialed members of NACAC and HECA — who’ve guided students through thousands of applications. You get people who’ve seen how this plays out, not a first-year consultant working from a checklist.
Soar: Your Student’s Planning Platform
Every LifeLaunchr family gets access to Soar, our AI-powered college and career planning platform. Students can research colleges, explore majors and careers, track scholarships, and prepare for sessions — anytime, on any device. Your coach sees the same information, so every session starts where the last one left off.
Honest Guidance Over Impressive-Sounding Advice
We don’t believe in applying to 20 schools to inflate our acceptance numbers. We believe in building the right list — schools your student will thrive at and can actually get into — and putting together the strongest application possible. That’s it.

Founded 2014

Twelve years helping families navigate college admissions.

4.9 out of 5

Verified rating across 128 reviews on Reviews.io.

300+ Universities

Where our students have been accepted.

Meet the Team

Venkates Swaminathan

Venkates “Swami” Swaminathan is the founder and CEO of LifeLaunchr, whose coaching has helped students gain admission to top universities in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. He also created Soar, the first AI-based college and career coaching platform for IECs and school counselors to use with their students.
He is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA). Within HECA, he serves on the Ad-Hoc Committee on AI in College Counseling and the College Knowledge Committee, and co-leads the HECA AI Learning Lab, helping shape how the profession uses artificial intelligence thoughtfully and responsibly.
Over more than 25 years as an executive across the education and technology industries, he has worked to make expert college guidance more accessible to families everywhere, building LifeLaunchr’s structured, coach-led process and its AI-powered planning tools, including Soar. His webinars and Substack on college admissions reach thousands of families and counselors across the country.
Students coached through LifeLaunchr have earned admission to institutions including Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, and the University of Virginia in the U.S.; Oxford and Cambridge in the U.K.; and the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia in Canada, among others.
Swami holds an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois and a B.Tech in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, and is himself a parent who has been through the admissions process.

Jennifer Turfler

Jennifer Turfler is a LifeLaunchr college admissions coach and NACAC member with 20+ years in education. A former English teacher and UC San Diego advisor, she specializes in essay development, UC applications, and guiding students to highly selective schools, with students admitted to Harvard, Brown, Cornell, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and USC, among many others.

Claire Schadler

Claire Schadler is a LifeLaunchr college admissions coach and NACAC member with nearly a decade of experience guiding students through the application process. She holds a master’s in TESOL from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a bachelor’s from Bard College, and brings 20 years of English-teaching experience to her work on college lists, essays, and financial aid. Her students have been admitted to schools including Stanford, Penn, Cornell, USC, and the University of Michigan, among others. She coaches in both English and Spanish.

Ruth Louden

Ruth Louden is a LifeLaunchr college admissions coach and NACAC member with 20+ years of experience guiding students to selective universities across the U.S. and Canada. She holds a Master of Education in Work and Career from the University of Toronto and brings a background at McKinsey and Deloitte to her focus on best-fit majors and compelling essays. Her students have been admitted to the University of California campuses, Ivy League universities, and flagship state schools including the University of Texas and the University of Illinois. She coaches in both English and French.

Laura Schadler

Laura Schadler is a LifeLaunchr college admissions coach and NACAC member with 20+ years of experience and hundreds of students across undergraduate, transfer, and graduate admissions. An MFA writer, she specializes in essays and narrative and works across the spectrum from STEM and business to arts and humanities. Her students have been admitted to schools including Stanford, Princeton, Brown, MIT, Duke, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Cambridge, among many others.

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