Mike Roberto
 

Motivated, college-bound students, and past that they vary a lot. Some come in with a clear direction and want someone to help them think strategically about it. Some are capable but scattered, with a record that doesn't add up to anything yet. Some are just approaching testing or applications and want someone experienced to walk through it with them.The thing they have in common is that the work goes better when the student is actually in it. I ask a lot of questions, and I treat students as the people running their own process.

No.Tutoring solves a specific problem. A grade, a test, an essay due Friday. My work is advisory. I help a student and a family make good decisions over several years, and then I carry everything I know about that student into testing and eventually the application. Test preparation is part of what I do, but it happens inside a longer plan.The practical difference is that a tutor gets hired over and over, task by task, and I get engaged once and the relationship changes shape as the student moves through high school.

About five per application cycle, plus a small number of younger students in earlier stages.The work depends on knowing a student well, meaning their record, their interests, how they think, and what they'll actually follow through on. I don't think that survives volume, so I keep the practice small on purpose.

Earlier than most families expect.Starting early isn't about doing admissions work sooner. Freshman and sophomore year shouldn't be about applications at all. It's about making ordinary decisions well, like which courses to take, which activities to stay with, how to use a summer, and when testing should happen. Those decisions quietly shape what's available later, and they're much easier to get right the first time than to fix in hindsight.That said, students come to me at every stage, including seniors starting in the fall. The work compresses, it doesn't disappear. If you're not sure whether it's too early or too late, that's a good thing to talk through in a short conversation.

Deliberately, and early.I try to get testing substantially finished before application season starts, ideally by the spring of junior year. Testing and applications are each demanding on their own, and when they run at the same time in the fall of senior year they compete for the same hours at the worst possible moment. Sequencing them properly is one of the more valuable things early planning buys you.The preparation itself is diagnostic. Instead of assigning endless practice sets, I try to work out what's actually costing a student points, whether that's a concept gap, a habit, or one of the particular traps these tests are built around, and then we work on that. Most students work with me over months rather than weeks, because that's what it takes for scores to move and stay moved.

The work gets more focused and more intense. School strategy, essay development, application planning, deadlines mapped out.My part is strategy, structure, and feedback. Doing the work and meeting the deadlines stays with the student and the family. If something is slipping I'll say so, but I won't chase, and I've come to think that's part of why this works. Students who run their own application tend to arrive at college able to run the rest of it.

It depends on where they are. Early on, every other week is often about right. During active test preparation it usually moves to weekly or twice a week. During the application year the engagement has its own rhythm, and it's heaviest in the early fall.I recommend the cadence rather than offering a menu, since knowing what a student needs is part of the job.

Involved in some places and deliberately not in others.Sessions are for students. Independence and candor both develop better when the room belongs to them, and students say things they wouldn't say with a parent sitting there. Parents stay informed through brief, regular communication, and when there's something substantial to work through, like strategy or a concern or how to think about the school list, we schedule a proper conversation instead of squeezing it into the margins.Families sometimes assume more parent access means more value. In my experience the structure that protects the student's ownership is the one that gets parents what they actually want.

Yes, this is a specialty of mine. I have a Master of Architecture from Columbia GSAPP, and I worked professionally in architecture and exhibition design before I started coaching full time.Students applying to architecture, design, and art programs have an additional requirement most applicants don't, which is a portfolio, and the portfolio is usually where these decisions get made. I work on portfolio development, meaning concepts, projects, sequencing, and presentation, and it happens alongside the rest of the application rather than on a separate track.[More about design-track admissions →]

No. A lot of my students apply to highly selective universities, but selectivity isn't so much the point as a good fit.Some of the better outcomes I've seen involved a student figuring out that the right program for them wasn't the most famous one on the list. What I care about is that the list gets built thoughtfully, that the applications represent the student well, and that the family understands the choices they're making.

Yes. Some students work with me mostly on testing or academic strategy without going on to full admissions guidance. In practice these things tend to connect over time, and most relationships broaden as a student moves through high school.