Columbia M.Arch · Seventeen years of one-on-one work.
Case Studies
Every engagement runs a little differently, since students start at different points and want different things. Results are listed at the bottom of the page. The examples here are meant to show what our work will look like.
CASE STUDY 1
Starting Early
A freshman with strong ability but no clear through-line.
The student came to me with good grades but was having trouble connecting her coursework, her activities, and her plan for eventual testing. She had an eye toward a competative list of schools, and wanted to make sure she had her bases covered early.
The early years. We focused on a few things. First, we designed a course schedule that would allow for exploration and emphisize academic strength in core subjects. We brainstormed activities, interests, and things to try out. We cut out activities that seemed to just be filler. We worked out what the student was curious about, which took a while to get at. The goal in ninth and tenth grade was just to make choices with an eye toward building a cogent story.
The middle. Junior year was all about emphasis and focus. It's the most important academically, and a really good time to get the bulk of testing completed. Testing got scheduled early: we treated it like another class with similar work load. Course rigor, activities, and interests were all pointing roughly the same direction, which made a lot of later decisions easy.
Application year. Because the groundwork was there, senior year was mostly refinement. Essays, school strategy, final positioning. There wasn't much to repair, which is one reason we started early!
Outcome. Admitted to several highly selective universities, including programs that fit interests the student had been building. The other thing worth mentioning is that the process stayed calm the whole way through.
Earlier stages shape the flexibility and strength of later stages.
CASE STUDY 2
Testing First, Then Everything
A sophomore who came for the SAT.
We started together through test preparation, and occational sessions focused on help staying consistent academically. That's a common way for families to find me, since testing is the part that feels most urgent and most fixable.
Testing. We worked diagnostically by figuring out which concepts weren't solid, which habits were costing points, and which traps the student kept falling into. Then we worked on those specifically by running finely-tuned exercises. The student's score improved 230 points over the year.
The widening. By the winter of junior year testing was substantially finished and wouldn't be competing with applications later. By then we started transitioning to admissions guidence work.
The application year. Over the spring we started work on essay development, school list, letters of recommendation, activities, and application branding. We start by looking at the deep connections in the student's courses, activities, and passions, and use those to guide the application.
Outcome. Admitted to several highly selective universities, including a few top choices.
Test preparation works best inside a longer plan. It's becoming more imporant, but it can also take away hours from the application if rushed.
CASE STUDY 3
Starting Late
A junior, second semester, coming to work on testing and essays.
Testing, coursework, activities, and college planning had all developed separately. We needed to bump the testing up 100 points or so, and at the same time get started on the application in earnest. This is the most common state families are in when they first call me, so if it's where you are, you're in good company.
Triage first. The early meetings were about restructuring the timeline. What had to happen when, what could be simplified or dropped, and where the real priorities were.
Then strategy. The strategy was to focus on testing, trim redundencies from the school list, and find the correct number of hours the student should spend per week on application work.
The summer between junior and senior year. Essay development, application planning, and school list work across a lot of competing deadlines, with a deliberate emphasis on keeping the student moving steadily.
The outcome. The student moved their testing scores by 100 points and was admitted to several highly regarded universities.
Even a late start benefits from sequence and structure. We just need to compress our schedule.
Applying to architecture or design programs?
That can be even trickier because you've got a portfolio to worry about too. I work with undergraduate and masters architecture applicants on the above processes alongside work on their portfolios. It's a good system because portfolios take a long time to build, so the rest of the schedule gets planned around the portfolio schedule. I've written up how that process works, and what it looked like for one student, on its own page.
Students I've worked with have gone on to the schools below. Admissions outcomes depend on a lot of things, including a student's record, the year, and what a given school is looking for. What I can offer is a process that positions a student as well as their record allows.
Selected Acceptances
Yale University
Harvard University
Columbia University
Brown University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Georgetown University
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Florida
University of California Los Angeles
University of California Berkeley
Emory University
University of Virginia
Boston University
Washington University in St. Louis