Meet Abby!

Abby Maguire, College Counselor

Celebrating ten years at Collegewise in 2025, Abby has become one of the most experienced and accomplished counselors on our team. In 2024, she was selected as a Counseling Team Lead at Collegewise, a role in which she oversees a team of counselors to ensure they are successful and engaged at work. She has also made significant contributions to Collegewise's resources and training, co-authoring our Collegewise Guide to STEM Programs and delivering internal professional development training for counselors on how to advise students around activities, STEM programs, and athletic recruiting.

Abby’s students have been accepted to more than 110 colleges and universities, including MIT, Tufts, Middlebury, Trinity College, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Wellesley, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, Purdue, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Asked to name her counseling superpower, Abby (to none of her colleagues’ surprise) cited building rapport with students and families. For Abby, truly getting to know each student and their family is central to her work as a counselor, as it enables her to have honest and direct conversations, even when those discussions might be challenging. Her counseling approach centers on making the college admissions process as enjoyable and pressure-free as possible. In fact, Abby consciously begins every meeting by checking in with her students about their lives, activities, and anything happening beyond college planning, as she finds this helps take some of the pressure off what can feel like a daunting process. 

At their core, all great college counselors must enjoy working with teenagers. And for Abby, her students are the very best part of her work. As she puts it:

High schoolers are the coolest! They are so interesting and complicated and there is never a dull moment in supporting them. I love being a mentor to my students, but so often I find myself learning from them.

Before joining Collegewise, Abby served as an admissions counselor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). During her time as an undergraduate at St. Lawrence University, Abby was a four-year starting goalkeeper on the soccer team and served as a tour guide for the admissions office. While she initially began her professional career at RPI coaching women's soccer, her passion for admissions led her to convince the admissions office to let her help out and learn the ropes, eventually turning what started as a side interest into a full-time career as a college counselor.

When she’s not counseling students, Abby can most likely be found spending time with her family, planning social gatherings with her colleagues, and channeling her unwavering support as a diehard fan of the US Women’s National Soccer Team—U.S.A! U.S.A! 

Education & Experience

St. Lawrence University, B.A. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Admissions Counselor

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Women’s Soccer Coach

St. Lawrence University, Admissions Ambassador

Professional Organization Memberships

NACAC: National Association for College Admission Counseling