Candice and Annie first met as roommates at Yale, drawn together by countless shared interests, from their love for Mediterranean food to their passion for helping younger students achieve their goals. Throughout college, they both tutored and mentored high schoolers, guiding them through SAT prep and the college admissions process. They found the experience deeply rewarding—not just in watching students grow academically, but in building their confidence and helping them reach milestones they once thought were out of reach. That sense of purpose ultimately inspired them to start Nextier Prep, with the goal of bringing personalized guidance to even more students.
Our Story
Our team
Candice Wang
YALE UNIVERSITY ‘21
SAT: 2350/2400
Candice graduated from Yale University with a degree in the History of Science and Medicine, and a focus on journalism, and then moved out to NYC to become a radio producer at NY Public Radio. She loves all things writing, editing, and reading, and has helped students break through their writing struggles and achieve their goals, gaining admission to T20 schools.
On campus, she served as Editor-in-Chief of The New Journal, a literary nonfiction magazine covering Yale and New Haven, where she led a team to publish monthly issues featuring investigative journalism and creative nonfiction pieces. While at the magazine, she mentored and supported young, emerging journalists. In 2019, she won the Paul Block Journalism Fellowship, which allowed her to spend a summer engaging in local reporting in Sacramento, California. After graduation, she was a finalist for the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes at TaiwaneseAmerican.org.
Annie Yang
HCHS ‘17, YALE UNIVERSITY ‘21
SAT: 2380/2400
Growing up in NYC, Annie graduated from Hunter College High School, where she started her own community service organization and won academic awards from both the English and Math departments. Later, she attended Yale University, where she majored in Statistics & Data Science. On campus, she continued to dedicate a significant amount of time to leading community service initiatives.
After college, she moved back to NYC to work full-time as a data scientist consultant for 3 years. Now, driven by her passion for education and helping students achieve their academic goals, she has been tutoring and mentoring the next generation of learners. Her students have improved their SAT scores to 750+ in English & Math and have gotten into their dream schools.
Victor Lin
STANFORD UNIVERSITY BS ‘21, MS ‘22
SAT: 2360/2400, 800/800 (Math II SAT)
Victor graduated from Stanford University in 2022 with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, where he specialized in computer systems and theory. While at Stanford, he was a Computer Science Course Assistant, which gave him experience teaching difficult concepts and tailoring pedagogy to better fit students’ understanding. He has applied these skills to help his students achieve admissions to competitive T20 universities.
Victor is also an avid classical pianist; he was one of 11 Chopin Foundation Scholarship recipients in 2015 and also won prizes at several international competitions. He was admitted to The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory for piano performance. He graduated as valedictorian from his high school with an unweighted 4.0/4.0 GPA.