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Aurora has a Bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a Master's degree from the University of Miami. Aurora has served as an interviewer and student recruiter for Cornell. One of Aurora's greatest learnings in admissions is that it is crucial to have an angle as an applicant – something that makes you unique and stands out. Being the whole package is not always enough. Professionally, Aurora has over ten years of experience as an educator and has mentored dozens of students through the college application process.

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Aurora loves working with students to achieve their goal of attending the college or university of their dreams. Seeing students light up at all the possibilities college entails is exciting for her. As a coach, Aurora views her student's success as her success. Her greatest strengths include helping students break down the application process, giving feedback on essays and resumes, helping define a candidate's strengths, giving advice on college major selection, and helping students secure scholarships. It brings Aurora great joy to coach students through the college application process, just as her teachers did for her over a decade ago.

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When Aurora isn't coaching Quad applicants, she enjoys reading at the beach.

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Aurora's Pro Tip?

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Ensure you devote significant time to crafting your essays and preparing for your interviews. They are essential aspects of the application process because they provide the admissions team with additional information to form a more coherent picture of you.

Simon has a PhD from Texas A&M University. Simon has since acted as the Advising Dean at Columbia University, the Assistant Director of Advising at Columbia College School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and George Washington University. During this time, he reviewed undergraduate and graduate applications for various programs, and advised students regarding school and major choices, and professional development. 

With years of experience in college admissions and mentorship, Simon has helped students gain admission into top universities such as Columbia, Yale, NYU, UChicago, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Rice, UCLA, and many more. 

Simon is passionate about helping his students through their journey into college. As a first-in-family graduate, he aims to provide his students with valuable guidance at this pivotal stage in their lives. Simon hopes to demystify the process of choosing schools, the application process, and the journey of growth each student goes through. He draws on his experience as an undergraduate, graduate student, educator, and university administrator to help the next generation of students realize their potential and evolving life goals.

As a coach, Simon is an active listener and adaptable in his advising and mentoring work. He has proven to be an asset to students eager to learn and discover what is best for them in terms of their college experience. Having worked in various academic institutions in different geographic locations, Simon has a breadth of experiences to draw from that can help students determine their study and professional trajectory. He has helped his Quad students develop organizational and priority-setting skills while allowing them to explore where their passions and academic focus might best lie. 

Simons Pro Tip?

The applicants that stand out tend to have demonstrated genuine self-awareness, maturity for their age, humility, curiosity, creativity, and a thorough understanding of why they are applying to their chosen schools. Universities are particularly interested in how well students fit and contribute to the diversity of their student body and how applicants express what they think they can contribute during their time at that institution and, ultimately, to society in general. 

Toby has a Bachelor's degree from Tufts University and a Master's degree from Vanderbilt University. During his time at Tufts, he participated in the Tufts Alumni Admissions Program, interviewing candidates and writing detailed evaluations and admissions recommendations. His most significant learning from this experience is that admissions at the highest competitive level go far beyond numbers. Acceptances are not proffered as a reward for past achievements per se, but as the admissions committee's determination of the applicant's odds of success and ability to graduate from their undergraduate program. Professionally, Toby has been coaching and working with college applicants for over 25 years.

Toby's greatest strength as a coach is his ability to custom tailor his coaching to meet the needs of each applicant. Among the hundreds of students he has worked with in his career, he has never used the same approach twice. Every student is different, and thus every strategy must also be unique.

Applicants Toby has recently coached have gotten accepted at Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, UChicago, Cornell University, Oxford University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, UC Berkeley, and MIT.

In his spare time, Toby enjoys racing motorcycles and variety streaming on Twitch.