About
Who I Am, and How I Work
I have spent twenty years in a high school classroom. I currently teach IB
History to juniors and seniors, which means I see the college process from
the inside every single year — not as a consultant reading about it, but as
the person in the room when a student realizes in October that they have
nine supplemental essays and a physics test.
That is most of what I bring. I know what a transcript looks like from the
school's side. I know what a teacher recommendation actually says and how
little time the teacher had to write it. I know which parts of this process
genuinely matter and which parts families lose sleep over for no reason.
I have also been on the other side of it. My twin daughters went through
college applications at the same time, in the same house, which is an
education of a different kind. I have sat at the kitchen table as a parent,
not an expert, and I remember exactly how that felt.
How I work
I take ten students per grade level. That number is set by what I can do
well while teaching full time, and it is the reason I can answer an email
in the first week of November.
Nearly all of my work happens over video and shared documents, including
with families who live a few miles away. That is not a pandemic holdover
or a compromise — it is simply how the work gets done. We talk, I read
drafts in the student's own document and leave comments, and we talk again.
Families anywhere can work with me.
I work with students at every grade level, from freshmen who are three
years out to seniors who called me in October.
What I believe about this
A college list that does not include schools a student would be glad to
attend, and that the family can afford, is not a list. It is a wish.
I can help a student present themselves honestly and well to a reach
school. I cannot tell you what will happen there, and I will not take money
from a family whose plan depends on my being able to.
The essay has to be the student's. Admissions readers can tell, and so can
I. My job is to ask better questions, not to write better sentences.
Financial fit is not a limitation on the list. It is part of the list.
Every school on the final version should be one you could say yes to.
Background
I live in Washington, DC and work with families across the District, Montgomery County, and Northern Virginia, as well as with families well outside the area. Since almost all of the work happens over video and shared documents, geography stopped being a limit a long time ago.
I grew up in La Paz, Bolivia and attended high school there. I am fluent in English and Spanish, and I work with international applicants alongside American families.
Start with a conversation
Initial consultations are free and virtual. They are genuinely conversations, not sales calls — if I am not the right fit for your family, or if you do not need what I do, I will tell you.