Mike Roberto
 

Hi, I'm Mike.

​

I've spent seventeen years working one-on-one with students as a college admissions coach, an architecture mentor, and a test prep instructor. I work with a small number of families at a time, usually over several years, starting with academic strategy or testing and continuing through the applications themselves.

​

I studied physics and the philosophy of science and mathematics at Columbia, where I received the David H. Siff Prize in the Philosophy of Science, and I have a Master of Architecture from Columbia GSAPP. Before coaching full time I worked in architecture and exhibition design at Thinc Design in New York. I've done research with Columbia's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and I've written and edited for The New York Observer and a few academic publications.

​

I think that range matters for this work. The students I work with are still figuring out what they care about, and it helps to have someone who has spent real time in the sciences, in writing, and in design, and who can see how the pieces of a student's record connect when they don't look connected from the inside.

​

My architecture background is also the basis for a specialty. I work with students applying to undergraduate architecture and design programs, and I develop their portfolios alongside the rest of their applications. There aren't many admissions advisors who can critique a drawing, and there aren't many portfolio instructors who know how an admissions committee reads an application. I've spent years on both sides of that.

​

My students have gone on to schools including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and Dartmouth, along with many other highly selective universities. Admissions outcomes depend on a lot of things, including a student's record, the year, and what a given school happens to be looking for. What I can offer is a process that positions a student as well as their record allows, and someone steady to talk to during a stretch of life that families often find harder than they expected.