Yifei Zhang is a Graduate Coach with InGenius Prep based in New York. Among the most academically accomplished scholars in her cohort, she completed her undergraduate studies at UC Irvine cum laude with three simultaneous bachelor’s degrees — in Criminology, Law and Society; Philosophy (with a specialization in Law and Society); and East Asian Cultures — alongside a minor in International Studies. She then pursued advanced graduate research at Columbia University, earning her MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Yifei’s academic record is defined by sustained, high-level recognition across disciplines. Her honors include the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction, a Departmental Essay Award from East Asian Studies, and the Betsy Tang and Kent W. Ho Buddhist Studies Essay Award. Most recently, she was selected as the recipient of the competitive II Hwan and Soon Ja Cho Fellowship — a $5,000 grant supporting advanced language immersion at Seoul National University in Korea.
Her research spans Chinese literature and film, philosophy, history, and contemporary East Asian society. As an independent researcher at UC Irvine, she led a year-long interdisciplinary study on the concept of “hope” in modern Chinese society, synthesizing Eastern and Western philosophical frameworks with literary and cinematic analysis under the mentorship of two faculty professors.
Yifei’s mentorship experience spans multiple institutional contexts. As a Teaching Assistant at Columbia Secondary School, she coached students through every stage of the research and writing process — from source evaluation to final argumentation. She has also served as a collegiate Learning Assistant, a conference application reviewer for EALAC GradCon, and as the EALAC MA Student Representative to Columbia’s Graduate Council, where she worked directly with university administration on behalf of her peers.
Having lived and studied across China, the United States, and Korea, Yifei brings a genuine, firsthand understanding of the international student experience. She leverages her multilingual fluency and global perspective to help applicants uncover their core academic identity, craft compelling research narratives, and navigate the admissions process with clarity and confidence.
