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College Admission Guidance

We empower students to create unique, memorable, compelling college applications.
Navigating the process

Applying to college is a complicated undertaking. Today's college admissions environment is more competitive and complex than ever before. In order to increase one's chances of admission, it's critical to present the best possible application. We're here to arm students with the support, information, and feedback they need to maximize their chances of admission into their desired school.

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Working Together
Our program

Our college application program guides students through every step of the process. Our counselors will work with you to:

 

  • put together a balanced list of schools

  • highlight your strengths 

  • write compelling personal narratives

  • ensure that your applications are complete and free of errors

Meet our college counselors

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Bethany G.

College Consultant

Bethany brings with her over a decade of experience as a college consultant, with a keen focus on guiding students through the complex college admissions process. Having graduated as a first-generation college student from the University of Chicago, she intimately understands the hurdles and nuances of college admissions. Her strong writing skills, combined with her expertise in college matching and organizational abilities, make her exceptionally equipped to advise high school, undergraduate, and graduate students through all parts of the admissions process, from initial college research to application packaging and final decision guidance. Her valuable insights and advice have been showcased in respected publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, Newsday, and USA Today.  Beyond her Bachelor's from the University of Chicago, Bethany holds a Masters in Education and a second Masters in Nonprofit Management.

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Elisa S.

College Consultant

Having worked on admissions committees at top universities, Elisa has helped many students get into their top choice schools. She helps students to create a balanced list of schools, navigates them through the complexities of the application process, and helps them craft compelling personal narratives.

 

Highly sought after by undergraduate and graduate school applicants alike, Elisa attended the University of Pennsylvania's School of Education for her own Master's in Higher Education. She is also a graduate of University of Virginia's Law School and New York University (summa cum laude). 

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Justin N.

College Consultant

Justin taught writing and the humanities for 17 years between the high school and college levels. An independent admissions consultant for 13 years, he is the author of the 2014 book “Is It Easy Being Green? Writing the New College Application Essay.” The book teaches college applicants the genre of personal narrative, his specialty.
 

A native of Southern California, Justin holds a BA in French and English from UC Santa Barbara, an interdisciplinary master’s degree in the humanities from The University of Chicago, and a PhD in English from the State University of New York, Binghamton University.

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Corinne "Coco" G.

College Consultant

Corinne (Coco) has been a college admissions counselor for more than six years. She considers herself to be a cheerleader for students’ higher education dreams and especially enjoys helping clients to discover and celebrate their strengths. Her guidance has helped students to be accepted to Ivy League universities, public university/college honors programs, dozens of elite liberal arts colleges, and top graduate programs in law, medicine, business, and the humanities. 

 

Coco has been certified by Columbia University in college advising, and she has been certified by Harvard University in editing/publishing. She received her Master’s in writing from the University of Texas at Austin on a fellowship and also studied at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop on a fellowship. Her undergraduate degree is from U.S.C., where she majored in English, was a Thematic Option honors scholar, and studied, through an exchange program, at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

 

Coco is an award-winning author; she won the National Poetry Series and has had two books published by Viking Penguin. Six of her poems have been included in Best American Poetry. She also has won multiple teaching awards, including honors from the University of Texas at Austin’s alumni association. She is the proud mother of two seniors at Columbia University and enjoys hiking, sculpting, and gardening.

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Krista S.

College Consultant

Krista S. (B.A., English & Linguistics, Northeastern University; Ed. M., Prevention Science and Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education) has been guiding students at public, charter, and independent schools through the college admissions process for over ten years. Krista started her career as an AP Literature and Honors English teacher, and after years of helping all of her students write personal statements for college, she transitioned to college guidance counseling full-time.

 

At Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Krista focused on the intersection of college counseling and adolescent development. She loves helping students craft their personal statement so that they can present themselves to colleges from a position of strength. Krista is a member of several regional branches of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling, through which she actively participates in committees to improve the college admissions process for both colleges and applicants. 

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Farrah A.

Med School Consultant

Farrah is a MD/PhD student at Penn State Medical College where she serves on the MD/PhD Recruitment and Admissions Committee. Currently in the PhD part of her training, she is pursuing studies in immunology at Penn State and the National Institutes of Health. As a scientific researcher, she has been published in the prestigious journal, Nature, for her work in pulmonary regenerative medicine. In medical school, her reflective essay about one of her patients awarded her the selective John W. Combs Memorial Student Award, which is given to medical students whose writing demonstrates compassion and empathy, “out-of-the-box” thinking, and reflects not only the patient’s experience of living with an illness but also their life as a person. 

 

Farrah graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 with a BA in Biology and minor in Psychology. As an undergraduate, she served as a student representative at Penn's Pre-Professional Career Services for law, graduate, and medical school admissions and was an Executive Editor for Synapse, Penn's undergraduate biomedical journal. After graduating, Farrah worked for Penn Alumni Recruitment, interviewing over 50 prospective applicants for University of Pennsylvania. Since then, Farrah has been helping other applicants follow in her footsteps of getting into some of the most selective medical schools in the country and pursuing their dreams of becoming a doctor. 

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Our track record of success (2022-23 Admission Cycle)

% Admit: Of the students who applied to at least one school in respective category, the percent indicates the number of students who were admitted into at least one school in that category. Rankings based on U.S. World & New Report’s College Rankings. Table based on survey results.

Our expert college counselors have helped students get into:

  • Harvard

  • Princeton University

  • Columbia University

  • MIT

  • University of Chicago

  • Yale University

  • Stanford University

  • Duke University

  • University of Pennsylvania 

  • Johns Hopkins University

  • Northwestern University

  • California Institute of Technology

  • Dartmouth College

  • Brown University

  • Vanderbilt University

  • Cornell University

  • Rice University

  • University of Notre Dame

  • UCLA

  • Washington University in St. Louis

  • Emory University

  • Georgetown University

  • University of California, Berkeley

  • University of Southern California

  • Carnegie Mellon University

  • University of Virginia

  • Tufts University

  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  • Wake Forest University

  • New York University

  • University of California, Santa Barbara

  • University of North Carolina

  • University of California, Irvine

  • University of Rochester 

  • Brandeis University

  • Georgia Institute of Technology

  • University of Florida

  • Boston College

  • College of William & Mary

  • University of California, Davis

  • University of California, San Diego

  • Boston University

  • Case Western Reserve University

  • North Eastern University

  • Tulane University

  • Pepperdine University

  • University of Georgia

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  • University of Texas at Austin

  • University of Maryland, College Park

Testimonials

"Application time is a widely stressful period for both students and their parents, but with Potomac Tutoring, that stress is cut to a minimum.... I was able to reach my potential and gain acceptance into not only my dream school, but many other "reaches" as well! I strongly recommend utilizing Potomac Tutoring's services for anyone applying to college."

- D.K., Winston Churchill HS

Admitted to NYU with a full scholarship, UMD with a full scholarship, Carnegie Mellon University, and Cornell University

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