Into the clearing

There is a moment in every family's college process when the noise gets loud: rankings, rumors, other people's children, other people's choices. My job is to quiet it. Not with shortcuts or secrets, but with experience, honesty, and a plan built around one student: yours.

I have spent 38 years in education. For more than 25 of them I chaired an English department, and for 5 I served as an associate head of upper school. I have taught, coached, advised, and led, which means I have watched thousands of teenagers grow up, and I have sat with their parents through every kind of triumph and worry along the way.

For the past 20 years, I have also guided a small number of families each year through college admissions at Clearing. I keep the practice deliberately small. Every essay draft, every list conversation, every late-October phone call is with me.

I hold a BA in English and a master's degree in marital and family therapy. That combination shapes everything about how I work. The English teacher in me knows how to help a seventeen-year-old find their real voice on the page. The therapist in me knows that college admissions is never just about the student. It is a family transition, and families navigate it best with steadiness, structure, and someone in their corner who has seen it all before.

Philosophy - fit over prestige. My belief is simple: the best school is the one where your student will be challenged, supported, and known.

Sometimes that school is famous. Often it is not. The right question is never "what is the best college?" It is "what is the best college for this student?" A student who knows why a school fits writes better applications, makes better decisions, and arrives on campus ready to thrive. That clarity is what we build together. 

How it works - clarity at every step

Every family is different, but the path generally looks like this:

We begin with a conversation. I meet with you and your student, usually in the spring of junior year, though earlier and later both work. I listen first. Who is this student? What matters to this family?

We build the list. Together we develop a balanced list of schools chosen for genuine fit: academic, social, financial, and personal. No trophy lists. No safety schools nobody would actually attend.

We do the real work of applications. Essays are my specialty. After 25 years chairing an English department, I know the difference between an essay that impresses and an essay that reveals. We work until your student's applications sound like your student, at their best.

We manage the process. Deadlines, testing decisions, teacher recommendations, interviews, demonstrated interest. I keep the trains running so that dinner conversations can be about life, not logistics.

We decide together. When the acceptances arrive, I help your family weigh them with clear eyes, and celebrate the choice.

I work with families across the country by Zoom, and have for years. Distance has never once gotten in the way of the work.  

Beyond the acceptance letter - and the life that follows

The work does not end when a student commits. The first year away is its own transition, for the student who is leaving and for the family that is letting go. Drawing on my training in family therapy, I coach students and families through what comes next: the homesick October, the roommate negotiations, the gap year done well, the quiet recalibration of a household with one fewer chair at the table.

Getting in is a milestone. Growing into the life that follows is the point.

Take your first step out of the woods

The best way to know whether we are a fit is to talk. I offer every prospective family a free introductory conversation. No pressure, no obligation, just a chance to ask your questions and hear how I think.