Meet Kelly!

Kelly’s 23-year career in college admissions has included stints as the director of admissions at Penn State University, an application reader for Cornell University, and the owner of her own independent college counseling business. This experience evaluating applications at both a large public school and a highly competitive private school, combined with her student advising, make her the college counseling version of a triple threat (if you’re not a sports fan, trust us, a triple threat is a good thing). Her college counseling students have gone on to some of the most competitive colleges in the country, including Dartmouth, UCLA, USC, NYU, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Northeastern University. 

Kelly lost count long ago of just how many applications she’s evaluated, but over 20 years, that number is easily in the tens of thousands (the number of college essays she’s read is even higher). Evaluating a student’s college admissions candidacy is part science and part art. Transcripts and test scores? That’s the science. But who are you? What are your stories? How can you present them compellingly to colleges? How will all this resonate with the human being reading your application? That’s the art. And in this regard, Kelly is both a college admissions scientist and an artist.

Speaking of art, Kelly’s time in admissions also included experience managing enrollment for highly competitive, direct-admit, talent-based majors including architecture, landscape architecture, theatre, musical theatre, acting, and music. From engineers to artists, Kelly has evaluated—and advised—them all. 

Asked to describe her college counseling style, here’s what Kelly had to say:

“It is a privilege to work with high school students and to share my experiences. Over the years, I have learned no student is the same, and I find joy in learning about each student. I look forward to partnering with a family on the journey to college.”

Kelly is also a sports mom (when she’s not counseling, she’s probably shuttling her kids to and from baseball practice) and a budding caregiver to a sourdough starter (which we’ve been told is also part art and part science).