Our Tutors

Charlie has spent over two decades helping students master standardized tests and navigate the college admissions process. His methods draw on cognitive psychology research alongside his own unconventional techniques.

He holds a B.A. in English Literature from Skidmore College, where he also took Stanford's Language, Proof, and Logic course, which introduced him to how standardized test questions are constructed. He's been reverse-engineering these tests ever since.

Charlie currently lives with his wife and two vigorous toddlers in Upstate New York, where he founded Peak Prep and is building custom software tools to help students hone the specific skills standardized tests demand.

More about Charlie →

A graduate of Harvard cum laude with a B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Liz has been tutoring for the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests for over 10 years. She also has an M.F.A. in Acting from NYU and is a professional improviser and visual artist.

At Peak Prep, she mentors newer tutors and has been working to develop efficient, targeted practice for the SAT and ACT. While she's at her best building a plan with a student from the outset, she's also a turnaround expert, often called in after a student has an unsatisfactory experience with another tutoring company.

A perfect scorer on the GRE, SAT, and many other tests (but still a nice person!), Jen has helped over 2,000 students attain admission to universities, selective high schools, and graduate schools.

She is an author/contributor to numerous test prep books published by Manhattan Prep (now part of Kaplan) and designed Manhattan Prep's GRE curriculum.

An Ivy League graduate (B.A. Philosophy, Dartmouth College), she later obtained a Masters in Education with a focus on applied neuroscience for teaching and learning.

She loves meeting new people through coaching and watching them go on to great things!

A graduate of Williams College and Oxford University, Jeff has worked as senior editor at Penguin Press, assistant editor at Premiere Magazine and The New York Review of Books, and editor at Vintage and Anchor Books, where he worked on books by Charles C. Mann, Jonathan Haidt, and Robert Reich, among others.

He currently resides in the Catskills, where, in addition to being a writing coach to high school students, he works as a freelance ghostwriter for corporate executives, politicians, and science researchers.

Lindsy graduated valedictorian from her high school in Upstate New York and went on to earn her B.A. in Behavioral Biology from Boston University, where some of her favorite courses were graduate seminars she was invited to take as an undergrad, focused on the evolutionary link between the behavior of great apes and humans.

She first discovered her love of tutoring as the go-to math and physics helper among her high school friends. During the pandemic, Lindsy worked as a nanny for three elementary-school-age girls while they attended class on their computers. She saw firsthand how little they learned in a large virtual classroom, and how much they retained when she worked with them one-on-one.

At Peak Prep, she tutors SAT, ISEE, SSAT, and SHSAT, and remains a go-to helper for middle and high school math. Outside of tutoring, Lindsy loves cooking vegan cuisine and volunteering at animal shelters near her home in Cambridge, Mass.

After graduating from Yale with a Bachelor's in History, Nick worked as an associate producer on Fareed Zakaria's documentary team at CNN, pitching and developing narrative scripts that brought historical insights to contemporary news issues and winning two Emmy Awards for Outstanding News and Analysis.

He discovered his love of teaching at the Early Scholars Learning Center, where he instructed middle schoolers in parliamentary debate and improvisational comedy. Helping students perform under pressure led him to standardized test prep. At Peak Prep, he tutors SAT, SSAT, and ISEE as well as chess and creative writing, all with a thoughtful balance of rigor and fun.

Cleo has been tutoring for over 12 years in NYC, LA, and beyond, helping students prepare for standardized tests, apply for high school, college, and graduate school, and boost their understanding and grades in their academic courses. She loves guiding students to improve their skills, gain confidence, and see results that make them proud, and she's especially fond of helping them find their voice and realize their vision for personal essays. Her students have gone on to highly competitive schools and universities all across the country (and globe)!

Cleo double-majored in Theater and Psychology at Yale, then continued her training in acting and musical theater writing in NY. She's an avid creator who spends her time working in film and television or writing songs when she's not teaching. And she's always accepting recommendations for great music, movies, and matcha lattes.

For her, teaching is all about fostering an environment that allows students to feel comfortable and get inspired, so they can gain the confidence to trust their instincts, challenge themselves, and expand into new territory with a sense of empowerment and adventure.