About Us
Our Services
& Mission
Bay Admissions provides students
with tutoring, admissions counseling, essay help and SSAT preparation.
Our goal is to encourage students to love learning. While school can be
challenging, and there are always academic and social pressures, we want to
make one thing easy: the ability to learn.
That's why we go beyond tutoring. We assist students in the high school
admissions process, employing every tool we can imagine - even the latest forms
of communication, like online chatting and Facebook messages. For us, it's
about ensuring that students feel confident about their own education.
We also put up this
website so all Bay Area people can interact and connect around educational
issues. On the site, you will find an extensive FAQ section about the SSAT, as
well as Discussion Boards covering many subjects of interest. Please take your
time to browse the site – it's for everyone.
Our Experience
As San Francisco natives, and former students of Bay Area independent schools,
we are veterans of the admissions process. We also remember how anxious we felt
in 7th and 8th grades – considering schools, confronting the
transition to high school, and just wondering if we were doing things
correctly!
Now, as graduates of
Vassar and UCLA, we hope to help other students who, like us, want to make the
right choices.
Our English tutor and essay coach is
a published author, professional editor and journalist. She has field
experience in both San Francisco and Los Angeles and her writing has been featured in national
magazines and a college textbook. Additionally, she is a recipient of creative writing and poetry awards. Also serving as our History tutor, after completing her
degree in History with Highest Honors from UCLA, she composed a 160-page
History research project funded by the Wasserman Foundation. Her research
awarded her with the Vice Provost’s Award and was a runner-up for best
History paper that year. She is also our SSAT Verbal and Essay coach and has
experience in tutoring and education.
Our Math, Science and Language tutor
studied Psychology with a focus on Child Development. During her time at Vassar
College, she taught at local schools, including a program focused on biology and Natural Sciences. In high
school, she received a Certificate of Commendation from the National Merit
Scholars Program for her PSAT score. She received the highest possible score
for the Advanced Placement Calculus exam (a notoriously rigorous test) and has
consistently excelled in mathematics. As our Language tutor, she is highly
proficient in Romance languages with experience in French and Spanish. She
received the highest possible score on her AP Spanish exam, studied Spanish in
Ecuador, holds knowledge of French as a former student of French American
school, and received high marks on the SAT II French exam. She has taught in
California and New York and is experienced in working with learning differences,
including ADHD.
Why We're
Different
Bay Admissions offers a
unique perspective: an “insider’s” look into the San Francisco independent
school scene.
When we applied to high schools, we dreamed
of talking to students, like us, who were once in our shoes. Certainly, our
parents and teachers provided indispensable guidance. But we didn't have (and truly craved) the perspectives of people who could relate
to us on a first-hand basis. There were so many questions left unanswered: What
are the high schools really like? How do you decide what's most important in
the admissions process? How do other people stay calm, despite the frenzy, and
deliver the best results possible? What advice do former applicants have for
students in the 7th and 8th grade?
Bay Admissions is our answer. We
offer a service distinct from parental or school guidance: the “insider’s”
perspective. We fill in the gap between the student and parent, providing
assistance based on our knowledge as former students grown into adulthood. From
our infancy, we went through the Bay Area independent school scene, learning
from our experiences and collecting stories from friends and family. We now
know what we did correctly, what we would do differently, and how we can help
other students feel happy and confident about their choices.
Our experiences enable and assist in
connecting with other students. We’ve been in their shoes. Now it’s our turn to
help.
Our Communication
We like fast communication - and we use it. That means we can be contacted by
AIM, for example, or by email. Our goal is to use forms of communication that
kids use today. Only then will they feel fully encouraged to engage in
conversation. Luckily, we have been using this technology for years.
Our Options For You
We are very flexible and like to tailor our arrangements to each family's
needs.
The first offering is a
complete package. This is everything - tutoring, admissions counseling, essay
help, and SSAT help. We discuss prices individually with families, depending
upon the intensity and expectations of the package. Payment can be on an hourly
or monthly basis.
The second is our hourly rate: $50 per hour. It's a reasonable rate compared to our
competitors (and we've got first-hand experience in the SF school system to
boot).
We invite you to
contact us.
