Searching for a college can be an exhilarating and a daunting experience at the same time. As you prepare to leave the comforts of home and the routines of high school, your mission should be to find a college or university which will offer you the programs that will challenge you yet match that feeling of comfort and security you are leaving behind. How can you possibly know where to begin your search? Pursuing family tradition and legacy relationships is a good place to start, and seeking the advice of an experienced college counselor is a natural next step. This is where I can help; the process begins as early as the end of your sophomore year in high school.

Following the completion of my BA and MAT degrees, I have combined successes during a three-decade career in teaching English and French, with a two-decade career of independent college counseling to guide students through a process that is continually evolving. Students have used my advice and instruction to submit successful applications to colleges throughout the United States and some in Europe. Working in public and private high schools and colleges in the Northeast, the Southeast and in Texas has given me a perspective that spans beyond state or region; visiting hundreds of college campuses adds experience that will help students match their dreams with the realities of the schools they are investigating.

Having worked with students applying to a wide variety of well-known colleges as well as regional gems that offer the perfect program or ambiance, I have encountered many colleges that have generous merit scholarship programs. It has become tradition that the students with whom I work have collectively been offered over one million dollars in merit scholarships each year, usually by early March.

With the advent of common applications on state and national levels, the number of applications that are submitted to colleges has exploded making competition tighter than ever before. The time I spend getting to know my students and their families leads students to form a list of colleges where they are likely to be competitive among the applicant pool. My training and experience in teaching English from regular to Advanced Placement/college levels has proven helpful in preparing students for the verbal sections of the SAT and ACT and guiding them to write essays that show who they are and capture the attention of the readers from the first sentence.

Don't go through the college search alone. Let me help you define who you are, what you want to learn and where you will succeed.