Hear what our clients have to say

Cutting to the chase, I have to say that Cindy’s guidance with my daughter’s college essays and application process was invaluable. From brainstorming essay ideas, to guiding my daughter through multiple rounds of drafts, edits, and rewrites, Cindy’s feedback was thoughtful and insightful. Not only did my daughter end up with an engaging, totally unique essay, she also became a better writer through the process. The same held true with the many supplemental essays my daughter had to write. Each one was different and captured my daughter’s personality and ambitions. Beyond the essays, Cindy was enormously helpful in putting together my daughter’s college list and in crafting a one-page resume. My daughter was accepted to 10 out of the 12 schools she applied to, including Washington University-St. Louis (attending), Cornell, Tulane, and University of Michigan. I unconditionally recommend Cindy.

-Rick G. (New York, NY)

Cindy provided valuable advice to my girls as they completed both their undergraduate and graduate college applications. The end result was they both gained admission to their first choice schools, undergraduate at Boston College, followed by graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania's School Of Veterinary Medicine. They are both now employed veterinarians and to this day they still value Cindy's lesson - that your writing conveys a powerful message to the world as to how you wish to be perceived. To be plain, Cindy's BS detector is set high and my children were much more inclined to listen to Cindy's advice concerning the content of all those essays, than they ever would have listened to me! She suggested edits that brought the essays in, under the required word limits, with interesting cohesive messaging. She was always very willing to confer and was very helpful in a kind, no-nonsense, knowledgable manner.

-Janet B Garden City, NY

Towards the end of my child’s junior year, I came across Cindy’s website. After speaking with her, I was taken aback by the ins and outs of her knowledge about schools and the college application process. Having been a teacher and a parent, she understood where I was coming from. I called Cindy so many times over the course of the application process. In addition to her knowledge, her passion to help younger minds was evident, and we knew we would get more personal attention from her as she only works with a handful of seniors. She helped us with brainstorming essays, always reminding us of the due dates and deadlines especially when time was of essence helping tremendously with time management. Her comments on essays were thoughtful and insightful and helped us avoid many potholes. Ultimately, my child was accepted into his SCEA school Stanford thanks to Cindy’s advice.

-PAS, New Jersey

My daughter was my first child to head off to college. Our situation, while not unique, was this: I’m divorced, and money is tight. Bottom line: we needed merit-based financial aid. My daughter intends to major in accounting and was looking for schools with a business major. Cindy helped her put together a list where her chances of merit aid were high. She also guided my daughter through the application process, starting with the essay. (My daughter’s English teacher told my daughter hers was the best essay she’d read in years.) Best of all, Cindy took on the job of nudging my daughter as deadlines approached. Cindy helped me understand how financial aid works and identified several outside scholarships my daughter could apply for. My daughter was accepted to all the schools she applied to and is now happily attending Marist with a very generous merit scholarship.

-Christine C. (Long Island)

I think Cindy is the best! Last fall, I contacted her for assistance in helping my son, William, prepare for upcoming college applications. Our first contact was at a coffee house, and right away from this initial informal gathering, William walked away with some excellent ideas for his college essay, and a timeline for moving forward with the application process. Just as importantly, Cindy was an absolute pleasure to work with, and my son and she got along excellently. The path forward, not only in terms for completing his essay but also for choosing colleges and ranking them accordingly, was all completed with much less stress than I had envisioned. Cindy guided Will through the process from start to finish, right up to his acceptance at one of the first colleges that she had recommended. Everything, especially the generation of ideas for his essay and his college ranking, were tailored especially for Will based upon Cindy’s knowledge of him, and her excellent recommendations and experience. Overall, we couldn’t have been happier.

-Greg S. (Westchester)

Cindy far exceded my expectations in what she accomplished with my son. She worked with him to brainstorm and develop his ideas by asking questions and suggesting edits. Her responses and feedback were almost immediate allowing for his ideas to flow and maintain momentum. Her approach to guiding his writing reflects Cindy's experience working with young writers as well as her insight into the college admission process. After completing his Common App essay and being admitted to Connecticut College, Cindy continued to work with us. She helped my son to reformat his resume to showcase his sailing accomplishments and to revise his college essay for a variety of scholarship and grant applications. Most of the scholarships were based exclusively on the writing piece and resume. My son was awarded several competitive scholarships worth over $10,000. We could not have done it without Cindy's help!

-Laura H. (Long Island)

When our daughter was applying to colleges, we sought out a coach to help her through the tedious process. Cindy Dale was recommended to us by a friend. Cindy made our daughter feel comfortable when she came to our home in NYC for our first meeting. There, Cindy got to know her and honed in on her strengths in order to help develop a list of schools that would be the best match, considering her interests and qualifications. Cindy helped us identify safe, target, low and high reach schools, with comments on high and low matches considering our daughters ACT scores, GPA, career and major interests. She provided written breakdowns for each school of the scores needed to be considered, the acceptance rates, the deadlines for early decision and early action, and other important commentary such as honors requirements and due dates. This helped our daughter develop a manageble schedule to make sure she stayed on track to meet application deadlines.

She helped us with an honest assessment of the chances for acceptance at each school. With her experience, Cindy was also able to add to our list or eliminate schools. With Cindy's help, our daughter was able to successfully navigate the Common Application and the complex FAFSA and CSS applications. When it came time for our daughter to prepare the school applications and write the numerous essays, Cindy was generous with her time and was available by email, telephone, and occasional personal visits to respond to questions and provide valuable advice and guidance. As an English teacher, Cindy provided helpful grammatical comments. As the schools began to send their acceptances, Cindy assisted in helping our daughter consider her choices, including the scholarships that were offered, in order to make a final decision. From a parent's perspective, Cindy helped us save time and money, and provided a realistic financial blueprint with advice on contacting our daughter's chosen school for scholarships, grants and appeals. We recommend Cindy wholeheartedly as a coach in the college admissions process.

-Karen and Jerry N. (New York, NY)

Applying to college these days is an incredible task to undertake, but Cindy makes it stress-free by guiding you and your child through the entirety of the process. Doing this for the first time as a parent, I really was not sure how the application process worked. Fortunately, Cindy held my hand the whole way through. Cindy first referred my son, Thomas to a proven SAT/ACT tutor who helped him take his test scores to the next level (He still raves that the tutor was a serious gamechanger). Next, Cindy talked to Thomas about his academic and personal interests, helping him construct an original list of schools for him apply to. She stressed the need to have a diversified list of safety schools, match schools, and reach schools. Together they brainstormed essay ideas for the many essays required. Then started multiple rounds of editing and revising. She also guided him on creating a resume which he could present during college interviews.

Cindy stayed on top of the deadlines and ensured he did not miss them. While Thomas was working on the application process with Cindy, she was simultaneously working with me on the financial side of things. She helped us apply for aid and analyzed college costs to help us pick a school we would be able to afford for him to attend. His results speak for themselves: Admission to Carnegie Mellon, The University of Michigan, The University of Pittsburgh (invited to interview for Chancellor’s Award), Binghamton Honors, and several others. Thomas is now happily attending the University of Virginia. To my family, Cindy is invaluable, and I am excited to work with her again when my daughter is ready to apply for college in 2 years. Honestly, you really can’t afford to NOT use Cindy’s expertise.

- Kathleen W., (Long Island)

I would 100% recommend Cindy. We were overwhelmed with the college process for our daughter Maggie, our first child to go to college. I was so happy when my sister told us about Cindy. As soon as we met Cindy, we knew we would be able to get through all the work involved in college applications. From critiquing Maggie’s initial college list, to guiding Maggie through the editing and re-editing process on the essays, to helping us debate the pros and cons of ED, Cindy was there. Her input was exceptional. She is very responsive and helped Maggie stay on top of deadlines. I was actually able to step away while she worked hand in hand with Maggie. It was such a relief to know that everything was getting done. She brought out the best in Maggie, who needed the push that Cindy was able to provide. The final essay and supplementals really showed what Maggie is all about. Maggie early on identified American University as her dream school. Cindy provided a great sounding board as we discussed the pros and cons of applying ED. We are very happy to say that Maggie decided to apply ED and was accepted! She will be attending American University this fall. It was Maggie’s first choice. One nice aside, Cindy made sure that Maggie had all her other essays and applications ready to go before American’s ED decisions were released. In fact, Maggie already had several acceptances from safety schools. This helped us keep calm while we waited for the ED decision. We cannot say enough about Cindy and the service she provided.

-Jeannie G., (Massachusetts)