We have heard more than a few private college counselors in Fairfield County suggest that students should focus on either the SAT or the ACT.  While we respect most such counselors, our experience has been that most college counselors are not test prep experts.  This issue creates another example. The SAT and ACT were never […]

Katie was accepted into a top liberal arts school and surprised her parents by thanking them for all the math tutoring they supplied. Katie had first started working with us as a freshman while at a prep school in Fairfield County.  She entered our sessions very reluctantly. But she had not mastered fractions, ratios, percentages […]

“David said he finally is learning math concepts due to your SAT class.”  A parent of a student from Fairfield, CT said to me a few years ago. Perhaps the biggest misconceptions propagated by those who do not understand the SAT (or ACT) is that the test can be beaten by “strategy.” Certainly there are […]

Since we work with students from schools throughout Connecticut, we have a deep comparative understanding of the strength of different Connecticut High Schools. If your child attends one of the stronger schools in the area – Darien, Greenwich, Westport, Ridgefield, New Canaan, among others that come to mind – I have some good news and […]

The University of Connecticut has become an increasingly attractive option to Fairfield County, Connecticut parents and students for two big reasons: (1) UCONN has become a much more desirable college than it was when parents from Connecticut attended/applied and (2) UCONN is a far better value than many private colleges due to its in-state tuition […]

Great Big Think video: Fareed Zakaria on universities as employer filters The simple summary is that we live in a knowledge economy.  College provides a filtering mechanism for employers to quickly sort out who to interview among thousands of applications.  Zakaria uses the example of a Wall Street investment bank with 20,000 plus applicants and a […]

   “What is the smallest thing you could do differently that would lead to better grades?” I asked Rob, a sophomore in Darien, CT. Like most boys, Rob was bored during class, distracted during his homework, and unmotivated about what he needed to do for college. The big shifts that his parents demanded were not working. […]

“One of my friends told me…”  a client told me in relation to one of her friends in a soccer-mom clique in Darien. Much like investment advice from random people makes no sense to follow without due diligence, advice from fellow Connecticut parent circles should follow the same guidelines. Parents dealing with their first child’s […]

My natural people pleasing tendency coupled with my great worry of ever appearing self-serving has caused me to give flawed advice over the years. Budget conscious clients would contact me about what they should do for SAT prep. They knew me or of me so they trusted that I would give them honest advice. And, […]

Through 15 years of providing college counseling to parents and students in Connecticut, I have observed a dramatic uptick in anxiety among parents in relation to both the college and career paths of their children. Several reasons for increased college anxiety: 1.) The Great Recession: Actual Economic Effect After 2008, Americans, even in prosperous states […]