Juan Carlos Salinas, College Counselor
In a career spanning more than 14 years, Juan Carlos has been helping students achieve their educational goals, gaining acceptances to dozens of colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, and MIT. He’s logged successful stints as the Program Director for South Asian Youth Action, Director of Education for Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, and more recently as Education Coordinator at The New Group Theater, developing college planning curriculum and working directly with each student through the admission process.
Like all great college counselors, Juan Carlos sees his work not as a job, but as a calling. Raised in a Mexican immigrant family in Rio Grande City, Texas, where college opportunities were not a guarantee, he credits the right community organizations—paired with his own relentless work ethic—for helping him find his way to UT Austin, then to Yale for his graduate degree. It was these early experiences that propelled his desire to serve as an advisor and mentor to students, and he embraces one creed daily in his work: pay it forward. Case in point: no student in Juan Carlos’s hometown had been admitted to an Ivy League school since 1994. But once he began mentoring students at his high school alma mater, applicants have been accepted to Harvard, Columbia, and Penn as well as Northwestern.
A tireless champion for his students who bring a variety of college interests and goals to their work together, Juan Carlos particularly thrives when working with students interested in studying the humanities disciplines, and those who embrace the value of liberal arts in a STEM education, the latter group being the subject of our free Collegewise guide, Creativity in STEM: A Key to Education and College Admissions.
An avid enthusiast of the arts in his town of New York City, when he’s not supporting students through the college admissions process, Juan Carlos can most frequently be found museum hopping and supporting the city’s robust theater community.
Education & Experience
University of Texas, B.A.
Yale University, M.F.A.
Education Coordinator, The New Group Theater
Director, Interim Executive Director, La Unidad Latina Foundation Program
Director of Education, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
Program Director, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA)
Professional Organization Memberships
IACAC: International Association for College Admission Counseling
NACAC: National Association for College Admission Counseling
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