UCLA Admissions Counseling From Former Admissions Officers

Chris has a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA. Additionally, he has also worked as an admissions committee member for undergraduate and graduate school applications at UCLA. 

Having worked as an educator and lecturer with many driven pupils, Chris genuinely enjoys having discussions with his students about their futures and learning about the place in the world they want to carve out for themselves as they mature. Chris is most excited to build a meaningful discourse with his Quad students about how to get into college while figuring out what they want in life and how best to achieve that moving forward. He deeply values his role as a coach and understands that learning from a mentor is a vital asset in the college application process. He aims to help his students tactically prepare for their college journey, giving them the space to craft a sense of who they are in a way that would help them succeed in the future.   

As a coach, Chris’s greatest strength is working with students holistically, helping his Quad students synthesize different elements of their life, skills, and experience to create a unified vision of who they are and what they can bring to a school. Chris possesses various academic and professional life experiences–pursuing multiple passions within seemingly disparate fields of interest. His breadth of experience makes him highly perceptive to his students’ needs, working with them to bring out a sense of what makes them unique, what matters to them, and how they can better shape their lives.

When Chris isn’t coaching, he is creative writing, building his YouTube channel, traveling, exercising, and learning more about history and current events. 

Chris’s Pro Tip? 

Admissions committees assess differences amongst an extraordinarily competitive applicant pool and have a clear picture of what sorts of applications genuinely stand out. As an applicant, it is essential to understand how to craft your story through effective writing styles, self-described life trajectories, letters of recommendation, and the overall personal tone of your application to stand out.

Nicholas has earned a Master’s and PhD from UCLA and has extensive experience in admissions and the higher education field. He has served as an Admissions Reader for the honors college and medical school at the University of Arizona and master's and doctoral admissions at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Chicago. In addition to these admissions roles, he has contributed his expertise as an SAT/ACT instructor and tutor. Over the course of almost a decade, he has mentored and guided numerous students on their journey to academic success.

With nearly a decade of experience as an editor, Nicholas has overseen undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses, guiding numerous students to achieve their academic goals. Having navigated the entire college trajectory himself, he brings a unique perspective. He has also served on admissions committees for master's, doctoral, and medical programs and faculty hiring committees, lending him a keen eye for evaluating application materials.

As a dedicated higher education scholar, Nicholas is deeply passionate about the college experience. He knows that a quality education can change a person's life, and he loves being a part of that experience, whether as an instructor, advisor, or mentor. Nicholas always finds it fun to get in on the ground floor of shaping a student's educational trajectory! As a lifelong learner, he eagerly anticipates each encounter with prospective students, ready to learn about their interests and aspirations. 

Throughout his career, Nicholas has garnered invaluable insights into the admissions world. His greatest learning revolves around the importance of "fit" in the application process. He firmly believes that identifying why students aspire to attend a particular institution and how it aligns with their values is pivotal in securing admission.

His exceptional track record extends to helping students secure acceptances at esteemed institutions, including UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, NYU, Brown, and Columbia, among others.

Outside of his professional pursuits, he is a literary critic and a talented author of murder mysteries. He maintains a daily gym routine and enjoys spending time with his loyal canine companion.

Noel earned a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MEd from NC State University, an MA from UCLA, and is currently pursuing a PhD from UCLA. Noel worked for the international student office at UNC as an essay reader and liaison for newly admitted students and coached students through the admissions process at UCLA, providing feedback on prospective graduate students’ essays. Students Noel has coached have been accepted to Duke, Emory, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UNC at Chapel Hill, among others. 

Through his experience, Noel learned that admission truly is a holistic process—every part of an essay can make a difference. His experience as an essay reader helped him gain much insight into how important these items can be, especially when serving as "tie-breakers" for students with similar GPAs and test scores. Successful students, from his experience, presented themselves confidently and authentically, grounded in their own unique, specific experiences. Noel has been a writing instructor and coach at UCLA in recent years and excels at helping students develop and present themselves and their accomplishments in a memorable way they can be proud of.

Noel’s passion for coaching stems from his love of celebrating the moments when students achieve the goals they have worked so hard for! He loves to see how students grow during the process, learn new things about themselves, and be able to embrace their strengths along the way, even if the process is stressful. He believes we learn from stress as long as it is managed well; Noel hopes to be a stress mitigator and support system for students. 

Noel takes an assets-based approach to student counseling, which focuses on each individual's strengths and accomplishments rather than what they haven't done. He knows it can be easy for students to compare themselves to others and lose sight during competitive processes like admissions. Noel sees his job, first and foremost, as identifying, developing, and helping students present the strengths they already have in the most effective way possible.

Noel’s greatest strength is his positive and pragmatic outlook. His approach helps students build confidence, leading to tangible results on their final application materials and setting them up for success beyond college. While positive, he understands the many complicated steps required for acceptance in the current highly competitive admissions landscape; Noel breaks down these large tasks into more manageable items for students. He delivers honest and direct feedback to push students to develop themselves and their materials in a healthy way, but one that requires work on both ends of the counseling partnership. 

When he’s not coaching, Noel enjoys cooking, running, and hiking, traveling to new places, practicing language skills (French, Spanish, Italian, and a little Arabic), and watching a wide variety of movies.