About Us

At BackBenchers, we believe in you. Your dreams and aspirations matter deeply to us. Our team of creative writers, counselors, faculty members, and admissions officers is dedicated to transforming your vision into reality—crafting impactful applications that reflect your personality, style, and ambition. We don’t just guide; we Lead.

With years of experience and a passion for delivering the best for the best (students), we specialize in test preparation, admissions counseling, supplementary essays, and more. We work closely with each student to understand their niche, requirements, and goals, ensuring every application is a true reflection of who they are. From subject selection to offer letters, we manage every aspect of the application process with meticulous attention to detail, craftsmanship, and unbounded commitment to excellence. Our mission is simple: to empower our students to perform at their best and to pursue further learning through customized guidance enriched by our unique teaching methodology.

We strive to build lasting relationships with our students, helping each one excel in their chosen field and live their dream. Our goal is to carve a path for aspirational and visionary students, providing them with nothing less than the Best.

2012

Company Founded

Launched with passion to redefine college applications with guided direction, personalized coaching, and a student-first approach.

2016

To accommodate our growing student base and expanding team of experts, we moved from a visionary yet compact office space to a larger one.

2018

Expansion 2.0

Just when we thought BackBenchers had grown enough, we were met with a flood of enthusiastic young minds eager to achieve new heights with us. It was only natural that our office space expanded to match our growth!

2019

Expanded to Middle East

Driven by growing global demand and our vision for impact, we took our next big leap—launching our second branch in Dubai.

2024

Diversification: iConifer

Expanding our legacy of excellence, we introduced iConifer—a specialized arm to guide ambitious graduates towards global master’s programs.

2024

The Journey Continues...

We're building what's next—with you.

Our Founders

🎓 Parents love him.
😌 Students vibe with him.
♟️ Stress? Blocked. Goals? Achieved.

Founder and Director, Aditya is our head honcho of admissions (and part-time mind reader). He doesn’t just know admissions, he gets it, inside out, upside down, and in three different time zones. With a brain like a finely indexed admissions encyclopedia and people skills of someone who could probably talk a Google Form out of crashing, he’s the real deal.
Aditya’s superpower? Making the complicated feel simple, the chaos feel organized, and the pressure feel… oddly calming.

He’s the one everyone turns to when the stakes are high and the spreadsheets start to blur. His advice? Gold. His instincts? Scarily accurate. His track record? Let’s just say it speaks fluent acceptance letters.

He’s not just the boss—he is the boss. But more than that? He’s the reason the whole team believes big things are possible—and then goes out and proves it.
(And yes, there are extra brownie points if you can beat him at chess. But no one has. Yet.)

Pro tip: If you want to bribe him to get something done, just a home-cooked bowl of rajma-rice would do.

Partner and Director, she’s part admissions ninja, part operations sorceress, part snack fairy, part plant therapist. (We checked – yes, she is just one person. Somehow.)

If Aditya’s the brain, Smriti’s the heartbeat – rhythmic, essential, and completely unbothered by chaos. Whether it’s directing students through master’s admissions, leading operations with precision, handing out surprise treats, or whispering sweet nothings to the office plants, she’s always there, exactly when and where the team needs her. She’s calm under pressure, allergic to drama, and secretly powered by logistics and love. Things don’t just run around her. They bloom.

The Team

Arleen Kapoor

Academic Director

Smitha K.R.

Senior Verbal Trainer (SAT, ACT, GRE, & GMAT)

Sukrit Jaie

Vice President - Admissions

Prerna Melody Stephen

Senior Manager - Operations

Deepa Vaswani

Senior Manager - Operations

Anannya Shinde

Manager - Operations

Sobia Abdin

Head- Learning and Development

Anisha Chhetri

Head- Editorial & Creative Department

Ashi Agrawal

Senior Content Writer

Aakib Mattoo

Senior Creative Writer

Aakanksha Negi

Senior Faculty (Mathematics & Physics) & Product Lead (ACT & AP)

Palak Gupta

Senior Faculty (Mathematics & Physics) & Product Lead (SAT & AP)

Laiba Lateef Khan

Senior Content Writer

Srishti Dwivedi

Senior Content Writer

Vartika Pandey

Verbal Trainer (PSAT, SAT, & ACT)

Tanya Chawla

Faculty – Mathematics & Economics (PSAT, SAT & AP)

Fazil Buchh

Creative Writer

Khushboo Goswami

Senior Executive - Operations

Atul Rajput

Software Development Engineer

Pooja Haldar

Executive - Operations

Vishvkant Goswami

Operations Support Executive

Mahipal Saurot

Manager - Accounts

Jiarul Rehman

Sr. Executive - Facilities Management

Sunil Kumar

Sr. Executive - Facilities Management

Azhar Malik

Executive - Facilities Management

Surendra Yadav

Executive - Facilities Management

Dinesh Gaira

HOD Mathematics

Amodh Jha

Visiting Faculty