About Us

How Cortex Can Help You

Our mission is to guide you through the college admissions process and empower you to develop to your fullest potential.

Unlike traditional college consultants, we don’t simply polish essays and compile college lists.

In addition to these services, we’ll help you:

Define college and life goals
Build essential productivity habits
Discover your intellectual curiosity
Initiate exciting passion projects
Make an impact on your community

This leads to powerful applications that open doors of opportunity in college and beyond.

The Founders and Consultants

As three siblings who attended Mission San Jose, one of the most competitive high schools in California, we know what it takes to succeed in a high-pressure academic environment.

Cortex’s innovative approach was born when we realized that self-reflection and personal growth, not just grades and scores, are essential to college admissions, career, and lifelong success.

As a result, we were admitted to schools like Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, Duke, Caltech, Cornell, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, and every UC.

Together, we founded Cortex to guide you through your personal and academic journey.

Amy Do

Degree in Economics and Brain Sciences (BA)
Worked at Google for 10 years, specializing in education and knowledge management
Developed the Cortex approach to help students become the best versions of themselves and gain admission to top universities

Daniel Do

Degree in Cognitive Science (BA)
Spent 6 years applying neuroscience and psychology to personal growth and achievement
Created the Cortex curriculum, used by dozens of consultants to help hundreds of students

James Do

Degree in Human Biology (BA), Doctor of Law (JD)
Co-founded Perfect 1600, the Bay Area’s leading SAT prep company
Trained team of consultants with expertise in medicine, law, engineering, and business

The Cortex Founders have been featured by…

Our Advisors

In addition to the founding team, our former consultants and advisors have shaped the Cortex approach, with years of experience in education. They are role models who have helped us bring out the best in our students.

Together, they represent a wide range of career paths, including medicine, law, engineering, business, and the humanities.