Adam has a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University, graduating cum laude of his class. Before receiving his Bachelor’s degree, Adam participated in NYU’s Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service (FELPS) Program.
Adam understands that the college application process can be daunting. Through working with college applicants, he has seen how much support, structure, and guidance can alleviate that stress. Adam is passionate about sharing his experiences to enable applicants to overcome the overwhelming feelings that can come with the application process. He is committed to giving Quad students the space to get excited about their postsecondary prospects and channel that energy into personal reflection, exploration, and developing strong, well-rounded applications. He finds it rewarding to be able to assist others in achieving their goals and putting themselves on a path toward future success.
Adam has formally coached countless students through the college application process, helping students with personal statements, supplementary essays, scholarship applications, and school selection. Having worked closely with students from underprivileged neighborhoods and first-generation college students, he is well-versed in supporting students and their family members in navigating and demystifying the college application process. With almost ten years of experience, Adam has helped students gain acceptance into Cornell University, Brown University, George Washington University, and New York University.
As a coach, Adam excels at active listening and asking questions that help students get a deeper understanding of their challenges throughout the application process. He loves helping students brainstorm and organize their thoughts for personal statements, break down large goals into smaller milestones, and develop application timelines with clear expectations. Adam understands different stakeholder perspectives (parents, family members, students, school counselors, etc.) and helps collaboratively foster alignment to identify the necessary steps for a student’s success.
Adam aims to support the individual needs of each student he has the opportunity to work with. He ensures that Quad students feel confident, excited, and proud about the applications they submit and the programs they target. He is excited to provide this support in collaboration and aligned partnership with parents and family members throughout the process.
When Adam isn’t coaching, he enjoys running, hiking, and reading fiction.
Aimee joins the Quad Education team with almost a decade of experience in highly-selective college admissions and college counseling. She began her career in admissions at her alma mater, Colby College, where she read thousands of applications and advocated for students throughout the reading and committee process. In addition to application reading, her work in admissions ranged from coordinating fly-in programs and events for inclusion and equity weekends, managing tour guides and Diversity Associates, and serving as a member of the athletic recruitment committee. As an admissions officer, she prioritized evaluating each student as an individual and seeing the value in each applicant's accomplishments and experiences.
Aimee's time in admissions sparked her passion for working more closely with students and families and serving as a mentor through the college application process. She has spent the last six years working for the Schuler Scholar Program, a non-profit organization that provides students the necessary preparation to gain access to and succeed at highly-selective colleges and universities. She spent her first four years in the program as a college counselor, creating academic and course selection plans for students, leading them through their college research process, and working closely with them on each aspect of their college applications. Through her strong understanding of and performance in this work, she was promoted to Assistant Director of College Counseling, where she currently manages and mentors a region of college counselors and serves as a regional consultant and expert on the college application process.
Aimee has a deep understanding of the criteria and nuances of private, highly-selective admissions, including small liberal arts schools and larger research institutions across the country. She has also served on athletic recruitment committees and gone through DIII recruitment herself as a college athlete, so she is well-versed in the recruitment process for prospective athletes. Her career has been dedicated to helping students and families from various backgrounds find the best-fit college for them and preparing them each step of the way. While Aimee's New England roots provide her with a straightforward approach to work and communication, she has also adopted the Midwest kindness from her time in Chicago and Illinois. She genuinely enjoys building relationships and better understanding the needs of those she works with and helping them achieve the goals they set for themselves.
Alana has a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Master’s from Yale, where she is pursuing her PhD. She has served as a Scholarship Application Advisor at Yale as well as a Writing Tutor for three years. As a tutor, Alana helped dozens of students prepare application essays for graduate school, prestigious fellowships, and competitive internships. She also assisted students through planning their application process by making schedules and deadlines for them, editing their essays, and helping them brainstorm about big topics and future plans.
Alana is passionate about helping applicants discover and express their authentic selves to admissions committees. She believes that applying to college is a process of self-discovery and professional decision-making that can be exciting and enjoyable. Alana’s favorite part of the admission process is helping students choose which schools to apply to and helping them write their personal statements. She believes this essay is a challenging but incredibly rewarding document that allows students to dive deep into the aspect of their personality and skill set they care about most. This process should be exciting and even enjoyable, and Alana is excited to help students get it done and get it done well.
As a coach, Alana specializes in planning and managing the application process by creating schedules and deadlines tailored to each student's unique needs, aspirations, and plans. Alana is flexible and works with students’ schedules to ensure they receive personalized attention and guidance throughout the application process. She enjoys guiding students and helping them showcase their personalities, skills, and aspirations.
Her greatest strengths as a coach are her enthusiasm, genuine care for students’ futures, and her detail-oriented nature. She conducts thorough research and planning to ensure that her students and their families feel supported throughout the application process. Alana genuinely enjoys helping applicants edit and brainstorm writing assignments, research schools and programs, and make schedules.
When she's not coaching, Alana loves to run with her dog, go antique shopping, embroider, read, take barre and spinning classes, hike, and garden.
Alec has a Bachelor’s degree in both Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Asian Studies from Rice University and an MBA from Stanford University. He has several years of experience helping college candidates get into their dream schools.
As a coach, Alec enjoys helping others find confidence and pride in what sets them apart. Essentially, he loves to see students embark on journeys to further cultivate their individuality. His greatest strength when working with Quad applicants is his ability to help them find their confidence and voice. Alec understands the difficulty in articulating the “why” behind your experiences and decisions when applying to college. He prides himself on his ability to help students dig deep so they can determine the motivations behind their choices, whether it's their reason for pursuing an activity, a school, or a program.
Students Alec has recently coached have gotten accepted into UC Berkeley, Yale University, Princeton University, MIT, Stanford University, Washington University St. Louis, Rice University, and Vanderbilt University.
In Alec’s free time, he enjoys taking courses online, making up games, and solving computer science problems.
Alec’s Pro Tip?
Students do better in the interview when they answer extemporaneously from the heart rather than when they memorize what "should be said".
Alexander has a Bachelor's in Business Administration from George Washington University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is passionate about helping students reach their goals while prompting them to learn more about what makes them unique candidates for any school or program. Most recently, Alexander's coached students have gotten into Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, Yale, UC Berkeley, and other top schools.
Having been a college athlete, Alexander is intimately familiar with the recruitment process for athletes at selective colleges. Alexander also has extensive mentorship and coaching experience in a higher education setting. He held a leadership position as a counselor in the university writing center at GWU, where he was responsible for coaching dozens of students on how to write compelling essays. Additionally, at Columbia, Alexander has been an interview counselor, which has helped him understand how students can best position their academic and extra-curricular experiences.
Alexander also specializes in helping middle school and high school candidates build strong profiles for college applications. In the past, Alexander has worked with Lemonaid, an organization in Washington, DC, that helped middle school and high school students start businesses, which turned into passion projects that they could write about when applying to college.
In his free time, Alexander is an avid cyclist, swimmer, skier, surfer, and Bay Area sports fan. He is a former collegiate water polo player. He also enjoys reading - especially the New Yorker - and doing the NYT crossword (and now Wordle!).
Allan graduated from Cornell University with Cum Laude honors in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with a concentration in Energy and Economics. After completing his bachelor's degree, he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Allan founded an admissions consulting program as the President of a national honor society at Cornell University. He also acted as an admissions mentor at a local high school. As an admissions ambassador, Allan provided feedback to the admissions board on the potential candidate's fit with the school. With over ten years of experience as an academic counselor, he has helped his students gain admission to Cornell University, the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Texas, among many others.
As a first-generation college student, Allan has first-hand experience with how challenging and confusing the admission process can be. This fuels his passion for supporting and guiding his students through the application process. As a coach, he takes a personalized approach–highlighting each applicant's strengths and individuality. He is adaptable and flexible when it comes to what his students need, regardless of what stage in the application process they're in. Allan excels in helping his students develop a robust applicant profile that speaks to what admissions officers are looking for in an ideal candidate beyond test scores and grades. He helps his students turn their shortcomings into strengths, allowing them to shine through.
With his Quad students, Allan breaks down the application process into more manageable steps. He helps his students understand the rationale behind each aspect of their application–specifically, why the colleges ask specific questions and what they want to learn about the students. This, in turn, gives his students the opportunity to build a more meaningful and intentional application. Through coaching prospective college students, Allan hopes to pass on his knowledge and experience to ensure that his students can more easily manage the college application process. He finds great joy in seeing his students' and their families' happy faces and tears when they receive acceptance letters from their dream school. Allan ensures that his students feel confident in their application and works hard to get each of his students to that state of mind and having fun along the way.
When Allan isn't coaching, he mentors high school students and young professionals on career and professional development. He also enjoys playing competitive badminton–and winning!
Allan's Pro Tip?
Students often think they need the perfect resume and breadth of experience to be a competitive candidate. While having these experiences under your belt can be an asset, you can always find strength in your application through your weaknesses and shortcomings, making you much more resilient and competitive throughout the application process.
Allie earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master's in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School. Professionally, she has worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.
She has deep experience in higher education admissions, having served as both a writing coach and alumni interviewer at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also supported the development of two courses, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, that help students translate their academic passions into professional career goals.
Allie’s students have received acceptance into top programs at Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, University of California – Los Angeles, and the University of Michigan. Her greatest strengths as a coach include assisting students with idea generation, identifying differentiating talents, and effectively creating a cohesive story across all elements of an application. Allie particularly enjoys helping candidates transform small anecdotes into a compelling narrative that highlights the unique contributions they can make to a college or university.
In her free time, Allie enjoys ashtanga yoga, hiking in New England, and reading the latest non-fiction books on the NYTimes Best Sellers list.
Amanda has a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. She has over 14 years of counseling experience, having coached her students at top universities such as Dartmouth College, Cornell University, and Georgetown University, among others. Amanda also holds a certificate from Columbia Business School’s Executive Education Developing Leader’s Program.
Amanda is a strong project manager; she meets every deadline and ensures it feels doable for her students and their families. She is also highly perceptive and can understand her students’ strengths and character to tell powerful stories that showcase these character traits. Amanda has applied these skills with her Quad students by helping them develop strong essays and resumes, coaching her students through interviews, and ensuring that their applications are impactful. Amanda knows how important getting into college is for her students; she hopes to honor the importance of this process through her work ethic, commitment, and follow-through.
Her passion for working with students and guiding them through the admissions process comes from her experience of getting into her dream school. Amanda has spent her entire career working in education because she knows how powerful education is as a tool for transformative change. Spending time with her students – hearing their stories, learning more about their skills and passions, and being part of their educational, professional, and civic journeys – is incredibly special to her. She is committed to her students and wants to see them have their moment in the sun when they receive their acceptance letters.
When Amanda isn’t coaching, she loves reading books, starting book clubs, volunteering, kayak, and playing trivia.
Amanda’s Pro Tip?
It’s most important to reveal who you uniquely are as a student. This will allow you to connect powerfully with admissions staff and build personalized strategies for each element of your application.
Amethyst has earned a Bachelor's degree from Columbia University and a Master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She served as an Alumni Representative Committee Member at Columbia, conducting interviews and writing reports for Columbia University applicants. She has also taught and advised at high schools and coached many college applicants applying to top-tier schools. Additionally, Amethyst has extensive experience reading college application essays as an academic writing teacher.
For Amethyst, college was a landscape of great opportunity. She was a small-town girl from Kansas who could live in the beauty of New York City for four years. She feels lucky to have experienced so many beautiful moments through her undergraduate years. Amethyst wouldn't have been exposed to the opportunities that have followed without the support of knowledgeable and caring coaches who guided her through a complicated process. She is excited to help students on this journey and be one of the many keys that can help unlock doors to a bright future.
Amethyst's greatest strengths as a coach are her dedication to learning about students holistically and helping them find their passions, not just for an application or even four years, but for life. She listens deeply and cares about the impact students hope to have on the world. As a coach, she is excited to guide students as they discover their unique strengths and interests.
Amethyst has learned that when it comes to college admissions, universities are looking for intellectually curious students who will contribute to the community, have clear values and interests, and are a good fit for the school. Amethyst understands the importance of identifying these unknown institutional priorities and helping students showcase their best selves.
In her free time, Amethyst loves to stay active with yoga, dancing, cycling, and hiking in Colorado. She also enjoys reading, painting, blasting music, and spending time with her little cousins.
Ankita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Economy from UC Berkeley. Professionally, Ankita has years of experience working at Meta (formerly Facebook) as a Project Manager.
Ankita feels that one of her greatest strengths as a coach comes from her being an empathetic person. This allows her to form deep bonds and make strong connections with the students she coaches. She understands that the process of applying to college is complicated, so she aims to view the process through the lens of a student, enabling her to be extremely intuned to Quad applicants’ strengths, weaknesses, and goals.
Ankita’s own experience as a college applicant 10+ years ago motivated her to start coaching candidates. She moved to the Bay Area in the middle of 9th grade and attended one of the top 50 public high schools in the country, an incredibly competitive one. She navigated the challenging college application process herself throughout high school and succeeded. She was admitted to several top schools, including Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, USC (full merit scholarship), and UC Berkeley (which she ended up attending).
Ankita uses her talents as a Project Manager to manage timelines and break down various parts of the application process into manageable steps. Ankita enjoys helping students craft their stories and narrative for their essays and narrow down which schools they should apply to, given their background.
In her spare time, Ankita can be found browsing Reddit, investing in the stock market, working out at the gym, and watching Indian movies.
Andy has a Master’s degree from UC Irvine and has over a decade of experience in SAT, ACT, and GRE tutoring. Andy loves to see learners push themselves out of their comfort zones and gain the confidence to reach their goals. In working with students of all backgrounds and abilities, from first-generation students to children of Ivy League alumni, their favorite tutoring moments are when candidates spot patterns in tests and therefore realize they have the skills to ace the ACT or SAT. This is why Andy focuses on strategy first, personalizing each learning plan to the candidate's unique strengths and goals.
Andy is passionate about helping students understand different ways to approach a problem or understand a concept - there's never one right way because everyone learns differently. They are skilled at helping students spot the differences between what they learned in classes at school and what to pay attention to on a standardized test. Andy also likes creating graphic organizers and other tools to help applicants stay organized and break the work down visually. Nothing makes them happier than congratulating a graduating senior – especially one who was nervous at the beginning of the school year – and seeing the excitement in their eyes when they talk about what's ahead of them.
Andy's greatest strengths as a tutor include empathizing with students, respecting their learning styles, and developing customized tools and strategies to help applicants stay organized and focused. Andy has helped students gain acceptance to several prestigious schools, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, and Northwestern University.
Outside of their work, Andy enjoys walking around Los Angeles, learning about local history, reading, and watching horror movies.
Claudia holds a Bachelor’s from UCLA and a Master’s from Georgetown University. She has been a professional SAT/ACT tutor for almost 10 years. Students she has tutored have gone on to attend several top-tier universities, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Georgetown, Princeton, Columbia, and Yale.
Professionally, Claudia is a Clinical Research Consultant for the Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In this role, she embarks on various projects with her team so that up-and-coming medications and scientific devices can enter the market. Despite having a fulfilling career in research, Claudia dedicates time to education because she wants to nurture academic interests in young students.
In college, Claudia discovered her love for traveling. She studied abroad in England for two months and then backpacked through various European countries for a month. She also volunteered in Guatemala to provide medical care for the local community, where she discovered that she would like to pursue healthcare as a career.
As a tutor, Claudia is personable and friendly. She prioritizes establishing a relationship with her students and believes a good relationship between the tutor, student, and parent/guardian is necessary for trust and effective communication. She understands that each individual is unique, so she adjusts her teaching methods to accommodate each student.
Outside of her academic and professional pursuits, Claudia spends most of her time exploring the outdoors, discovering great restaurants, practicing yoga, playing the piano/guitar/saxophone, reading fiction novels, or watching anime. She is always looking for new anime to watch, so if you have recommendations, let her know!
With a Master's degree from Harvard University, Eric is a supportive and effective tutor focused on helping students achieve their academic goals. He has over seven years of tutoring experience, working with students from diverse backgrounds, educational goals, and personalities.
Specializing in ACT studies, Eric has traveled the USA giving full-day lectures to schools of students on how to ace the ACT. He has studied psychology (including test construction/test making) and is ready to give students specific help on individual questions and test-taking tips that make taking the ACT much easier. So whether students aim for mastery, just enough for their dream school, or just a little advice, Eric is always happy to meet and work with students to achieve their goals.
When Eric isn't tutoring, he studies for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and plays board games. He loves board games, probably too much. Okay, too much (says his wife). Oh, and he makes a mean cheesecake.
Isaac is pursuing a Master's degree from Vanderbilt University. He has over three years of tutoring experience in STEM and the humanities, specializing in the ACT and SAT.
As a lifelong learner and storyteller, Isaac has spent the past decade working in many educational roles, including at nature centers, community non-profits, and in the classroom. He has also worked in mental and behavioral healthcare, offering services at a dual-diagnosis treatment facility, neurofeedback clinic, behavior analysis center, and jail.
His clinical and educational training supplements his academic abilities: his tutoring approach is a unique blend of clinical techniques and interpersonal skills combined with knowledge and expertise. Isaac’s philosophy is recognizing the whole person, not just a student. Isaac understands that each student has their own motivations, personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Recognizing these perspectives, building a collaborative approach attuned to each student’s style, and capitalizing on their motivations are the keys to success.
Furthermore, Isaac’s perspective extends to standardized testing. The ACT and SAT are knowledge tests, and he encourages students to think about how these tests are designed since it’s just as valuable as knowing the material. Being a storyteller trained in many roles has enabled Isaac to hone this skill, so he can connect to others and help them understand and tap into the proper mindsets to excel on these tests. He aims to empower students to achieve their academic (and other) aspirations!
A fun fact about Isaac is that he hates chocolate! But he loves roller skating, murder mysteries, and puns! One of his favorites? Do you know what you call an upset exam? A: Test-y.