ABOUT US
What We Do
Magnolia Advisors coaches applicants who aspire to pursue higher education around the world. Our experienced team offers highly personalized advice to help candidates shine in an increasingly competitive admissions process. With Magnolia Advisors’ support, applicants have been admitted to a wide range of top global institutions. In order to provide unsurpassed counseling advice, Magnolia Advisors takes on a limited number of applicants every year. The key to our success has been investing time in getting to know our advisees and uncovering together their intellectual and extracurricular passions. We then help advisees find the best ‘fit’ universities to apply to and guide them through the process from initial brainstorming to final editing of all application components.
Who We Are

Margaret Wells
Founder and Admissions Advisor
Ms. Margaret Wells has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Margaret has coached applicants informally for over eight years and advised both undergraduate and MBA clients in association with The Red Pen from 2013-2015. In 2015 she founded Magnolia Advisors to focus on Singapore-based students. Margaret is passionate about helping her advisees achieve their educational goals and understand themselves better through the application process. Margaret serves on the Executive Committee of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of Singapore and is responsible for hosting events with visiting professors. Before working in higher education, Margaret held business development, strategy and operational roles at Gap Inc. in the U.S. as well as Reliance Brands and Isharya in India. She lives in Singapore with her husband and two daughters and has previously lived in Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Mumbai.

Pek Shibao
Admissions Advisor
Mr. Pek Shibao was born and raised in Singapore. He attended Yale University on a full scholarship, graduating with a BA in Global Affairs (Development) in 2015. Pek achieved a perfect score on both the SAT I and SAT II, and as a Singaporean, he is highly familiar with what it takes for Singapore-based students to qualify for top universities in the United States. Over the past few years, he has worked with students on several admissions cycles, achieving successful admissions from top universities in both the US and the UK.

Naumita Chopra
Admissions Advisor
Testimonials
“Thanks for all your help with the application! You have been so thorough and wonderful with the entire process.”
Brown University, Summer program 2015
“Thank you for your help without which these acceptances would not be possible!”
Cornell University, Class of 2020
“Magnolia Advisors helped guide my independent ideas into essays that had great impact!”
NYU, Class of 2020