About the Founder
The Founder & CEO of Cogent College & Career Counseling, Rummana Alam, brings more than 25 years of corporate leadership experience and a passion for helping students and families navigate high school, college, career, and beyond with clarity and confidence.
Rummana leads Cogent’s vision, strategy, growth, and operations, overseeing programs, client relationships, partnerships, sales and marketing, and counselor and mentor recruitment.
Her interest in college counseling grew through supporting her two children as they navigated the highly competitive admissions process. Their journeys resulted in admissions to MIT, Brown, UPenn, Cornell, Tufts, Williams, and Boston University, among others, along with merit aid and external scholarships; giving her valuable firsthand perspective on the complexities and decisions families face.
She understands the academic pressures, family expectations, competing priorities, and social pressures students often navigate, shaping Cogent’s focus on supporting the whole student, not simply the college application.
Before founding Cogent, Rummana spent more than 25 years in leadership across finance, strategy, human resources, business, and legal functions. As CFO of RAGE Frameworks, Inc. and Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Legal, she led financial strategy, institutional investment and investor relations while overseeing talent, organizational, contractual, and legal matters. Her experience evaluating, hiring, developing, and leading people shaped her belief that success goes beyond credentials—it requires understanding your strengths, making thoughtful choices, recognizing opportunities, and developing the skills and judgment to succeed.
After stepping away from corporate leadership to focus on family and care for her aging parents, Rummana founded Cogent to combine her executive experience, strategic approach, and firsthand admissions perspective with her passion for education and mentorship.
Her philosophy is simple: success is not about attending the most prestigious college, but about finding the college, career path, and life trajectory where each student can truly thrive.
Through Cogent, she helps students and families make thoughtful, informed choices about college, career, and the future beyond—with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Meet the Consultants
Peter
Helped high school students earn 80+ college acceptances, including Harvard, Princeton, Penn, Cornell, and Georgetown. His own achievements include admission to Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Tulane, UC Berkeley Haas, Vanderbilt Owen, and Carnegie Mellon Tepper, along with Congressional nominations to U.S. service academies and $380,000+ in undergraduate scholarships, including a four-year Army ROTC full-tuition scholarship.
Arjun
Princeton University graduate in Operations Research & Financial Engineering and an Investment Analyst at a leading private equity firm in NYC. He has coached 60+ high school students, helping students gain admission to Ivy League and Top 20 universities. His expertise spans application strategy, essays, school selection, and positioning students’ unique strengths to stand out in highly competitive applicant pools.
Amy
Stanford graduate and trained educator with 10 years of high school English teaching experience, she specializes in compelling personal statements, supplemental essays, and strategic application support, with students recently admitted to Stanford, Rice, and UC San Diego. Passionate about helping students find their authentic voice, strengthen their writing and reading confidence, Amy empowers students and families to navigate the college admissions journey with clarity and confidence.
Aditya
Harvard Biomedical Engineering & Mathematics graduate and current University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine MD student. An experienced college counselor, he has helped students gain admission to top universities including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Columbia, and Brown. With extensive experience in mentoring, research, nonprofit leadership, and teaching, he guides students across admissions strategy, essays, school selection, interviews, and application development.
Anne
College Essay Coach, Editor & Writing Mentor with 20+ years of creative writing experience, specializing in Common App personal statements and supplemental essays, with students admitted to MIT, Brown, Duke, and UPenn. She helps students uncover the stories that best reflect who they are and their potential, elevating their essays while preserving their authentic voice. Anne provides thoughtful, personalized guidance that helps students craft compelling stories and confidently navigate the college application process.
Allie
Incoming Harvard Law School JD candidate and Cornell University magna cum laude graduate, with nearly three years as a J.P. Morgan Public Finance Investment Banking Analyst. She has successfully coached numerous students to admission at Top 20 colleges and brings expertise in elite admissions strategy, compelling essays and personal storytelling, and LOCIs.
Tsering
University of Pennsylvania PPE student and Head Advising Fellow at Matriculate, she has helped students gain admission to highly selective universities including MIT, Stanford, Penn, Brown, and Cornell. She also serves as an official Penn College of Arts & Sciences Ambassador, guiding 1,600+ prospective students and families annually.
Mohnish
M.D. student at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and UC San Diego summa cum laude graduate and Regents Scholar, with 8+ years of tutoring and college/premed counseling experience. A former high school science teacher and President & CEO of a 150-student international health organization, he guides students in college strategy, applications, essays, and STEM/pre-med pathways.
Ansh
Has helped candidates earn 25+ offers across tech and consulting and mentored dozens of students navigating competitive career paths. A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Finance & Data Science graduate, he brings experience from Microsoft, Stout, and Illinois Consulting Group and is an incoming Capital One Business Analyst. His expertise includes career exploration, resume building, networking, internships, and interview preparation.
Maggie
Dynamic finance professional, accomplished mentor, and highly rated college & career coach with experience at Cboe Global Markets, Bloomberg, and J.P. Morgan. A UT Austin McCombs graduate and incoming MBA student, she combines professional experience and strategic mentorship to help students identify their strengths, build confidence, tell their story, and create a clear academic and career roadmap.
More About the Team
Cogent's counselors and mentors are experienced, accomplished, and carefully selected for their expertise and ability to connect with students. Across diverse majors and career paths, they bring strengths in admissions strategy, academics, college and major selection, extracurriculars, essays, leadership, and communication.
They are thoughtful listeners, strategic thinkers, and relatable role models who provide candid, ethical, and personalized guidance, while sharing firsthand insights into college life, internships, research, recruiting, emerging careers, and effective use of AI for learning, problem-solving, and future work.
This combination of experienced guidance and current, real-world perspective helps students build authentic applications while developing confidence, judgment, independence, and future-ready skills to thrive in college and beyond.