About College with Mattie and My Story
When I was 18, I applied to 28 schools. I thought the college admissions process was super fun. I got to write about myself as much as I wanted, …and then someone had to read it? Amazing.
I got into most of the schools I applied to and ended up at Tulane University on a half-ride merit scholarship. There I gained a BA in English Literature and decided I wanted to follow my dreams as a writer.
Following those dreams kind of sucked. I spent most of my 20s working odd writing jobs: editing swimsuit websites or interviewing CEOs of shuffleboard companies. I always enjoyed the writing/editing part of the work, but I hated the low pay, corporate overlords, and the fact that deep down, I knew nothing I did mattered.
While my day job consisted of writing content marketing blogs for a party website, I spent nights and weekends writing what I wanted. In particular, comedic non-fiction essays about myself or things I care about. My highlight came when I successfully wrote for the website Cracked.com. To date, those five articles have accumulated over 20,000,000 views.
By age 25, I knew I wanted to do something different with my life. Then my cousin asked me to help her get into Stanford. I worked hard with her on her essays, and she got in. Then I helped my friend get into grad school, and then another. That year, I took on editing college essays over Email. That went pretty well, too.
The big moment for me came when I took on a job at a college tutoring center in Cupertino. For the first time, I got to meet students 1-on-1 and build their applications with them. I also got to learn about them as people. Early on, I found myself weirded out by how much I enjoyed spending time with my students. I care about every one of them and want them to win in life. Fighting that will seems impossible, so I figured I may as well steer into the skid.
As I worked in Cupertino, I started to get Emails from families requesting my help. We met in cafes and libraries. I found that working “freelance” was the exact same amount of work as counseling a student in the center. Every year I took on more and more students outside the center, to the point that I knew this was something I could do on my own entirely. This is now my fifth year consulting, and I am ready to make the jump to full-time freelance work. It has always been a dream of mine to run my own company, and this is a major milestone toward that goal.
I’m big on helping students find their passion and then gun for it as ferociously and intelligently as possible. I believe in leading by example, and my passion is being the best college admission consultant I can be.
There are many excellent college counselors out there, and if you look hard you’re sure to find one. What makes me different is that I can write and edit at a professional level, I handle every aspect of the work and demand a high barrier of quality for everything I submit, I think differently and will give you advice no one else will, and I love what I do and enjoy every second I get to spend with kick-ass teenagers. I’m excited to prove those attributes to you personally.