Allison is 2005 graduate of the University of Redlands where she studied English and creative writing.  As an undergraduate, she began working in the admissions office and decided that the world of college admissions was her calling.  She spent two years after graduation as a University of Redlands admissions officer where she personally reviewed over 1,000 college applications, then joined Collegewise as a college counselor in 2007.  In college, Allison had a part time job as a barista at Starbucks.  And let's just say that along with great information about college, Collegewise families now enjoy vanilla lattes (with or without whip, and with or without foam) at our Saturday morning seminars.  Allison is also a Taylor Swift fanatic, though she does admit (reluctantly) that Taylor's performance and choice of attire at the 2010 Grammy's were both disappointing.  It's hard for a true fan to say that, but as Allison intends to tell Taylor, "Best friends are honest with each other."   

Margot is a 2005 graduate of Pomona College where she volunteered in the admissions office and gave tours to prospective students and parents.  After graduation, Margot completed UCLA’s "College Counseling Certification Program" and brought her college knowledge to Collegewise in February, 2007.  A former member of the Pomona College tennis team, Margot can serve a tennis ball with deadly accuracy.   She is also the only Collegewise counselor to have ever pole vaulted and once held the girls’ pole-vaulting record at her high school back in Pennsylvania.  That was the first year the school had ever allowed girls to pole vault, so the record came more from a willingness to try new things than it did from pole vaulting proficiency.  Still, she held the record.  In February, 2010, Margot earned her Collegewise "Master Counselor Certification," an honor bestowed on our most experienced counselors who have helped at least 100 students apply to college.  She also runs marathons, bakes cookies (lots of them) and still serves the ol' tennis ball in an adult tennis league.   

Every member of Amy’s family dating back to the fourteenth century attended USC.  So imagine their shock dismay when Amy disgraced the Trojan lineage and became a UCLA Bruin.  Her family eventually made peace with the decision and allowed Amy back into the house (although their relationship does remain tense during college football season).  Since her graduation from UCLA with a degree in English in 2003, Amy has surrounded herself with words, first as an advertising associate for GQ magazine, and more recently, as an Account Manager at Google.  In fact, her official job-title at Google is “Maximizer,” which really has to be just about the coolest job title ever created.  A self-proclaimed “grammar snob,” Amy joined Collegewise as an essay specialist in 2007 and has since helped over 80 Collegewise students brainstorm and complete their application essays.  When she’s not busy correcting past participle errors or moving misplaced modifiers, you can either find Amy at the ballpark, Angels rally monkey in-hand, or at the Googleplex enjoying free lunch.  

Tyler has a pet chinchilla named Tim.  Tim Finnegan.  This isn’t the type of thing we usually bring up this early in a bio, but when someone has a chinchilla with both a first and last name, well, you’ve just got to lead with that.  A 2003 graduate of Cal State Long Beach (Tyler, not Tim) with a degree in comparative literature, Tyler went on to Chapman University where he earned both a masters in English literature and an MFA in creative writing.  Tyler considers himself a lifelong student of writing, communication, and debate, and he intends to earn his PhD in comparative literature (a program in which Tyler swears he will not be a lifelong student, but rather, an eventual lifelong graduate).  He is also a teacher, more specifically, a creative writing instructor at the Orange County High School for the Arts, and a rabid Red Sox fan who brings a baseball glove to games in the hopes of nabbing the elusive foul ball (not unlike his attempts to nab the elusive PhD).  It’s not easy to catch a foul ball, but now that the Red Sox have won two World Series rings, Tyler believes that anything is possible.       

Jessica is a 2004 graduate of California State University, Long Beach where she majored in English education. She later earned her masters in English and an MFA in creative writing at Chapman University where she also co-founded “The Pub Club,” a club that encouraged fellow students to not only write, but also to send work out for publication. When Jessica isn’t at Collegewise brainstorming with students or editing essays, she’s either at the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce where she holds the title of Public Affairs Director, or out shooting weddings.  And just to be clear, “Shooting” is artsy-speak for “taking pictures” (yes, Jessica is also a photographer).  Aside from public affairs directing, college essay editing and wedding photographing, Jessica also enjoys writing fiction; so much so that she’s determined to write a novel that will make it into Oprah’s Book Club one day, an accomplishment that will either make her former Pub Clubbers incredibly proud or incredibly ravaged by Oprah’s-Book-Club envy.  Fiction is apparently quite a tough business and not for the faint of heart.