Top Tier AdmissionsA Senior Private Counselor at Top Tier Admissions, Kate has nearly 20 years of experience in the fields of both college counseling and college admissions. Most recently, Kate worked for five years as a Seasonal Reader at Stanford evaluating undergraduate applications. She is the former Director of Admissions and Assistant Director of College Counseling at Stanford Online High School. In her independent school college counseling role, Kate guided many students and families through the selective college application process, culminating in admission to a wide variety of top colleges. Kate has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Middlebury College, where she also served for many years as an Alumni Interviewer. She holds a Master's degree in Higher Education Administration from Harvard.
In the 2025-2026 application cycle, colleges made some of the most significant changes to essay evaluation in a generation. The reason? Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some schools have dropped numeric essay scores. Others have begun to warn applicants that AI-generated text could cost them their admission. And a growing number of universities have added supplemental prompts […]
As a young teen, I often went on family outings to the now nonexistent bookstore, Borders. While my siblings wandered off to peruse the fiction and sports sections, I usually found myself wandering in the direction of the college guidebooks and U.S. News & World Report college rankings list (perhaps I was always headed in […]
As 2026 begins, many high school seniors are breathing a huge sigh of relief, having clicked the “submit” button on their Regular Decision college applications. Although the hard work is done for students, the work is just beginning for the admissions officers reviewing those applications. At Top Tier Admissions, we are often asked by curious […]
As a Senior Private Counselor and former Seasonal Reader in the Stanford Undergraduate Admissions Office, I was thrilled to host our recent live webinar, “Is Your Student Stanford Ready?” We had an excellent turnout and an incredibly engaged audience who asked thoughtful, insightful questions throughout the session about many important topics, including course selection, the […]
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities suspended their requirements for applicants to submit standardized test scores. Post-pandemic, standardized testing requirements have gradually returned. As we enter the 2025-2026 admissions cycle, many of the most selective colleges in the country, including Cornell, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania, will […]
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