The list is the easy part.
You've got dozens of schools within a few miles of your home. Similar tuition, similar hours, and websites that all say 'child-led' and 'play-based.' The tour is 40 minutes and half of it is logistics. Meanwhile, the application deadlines are stacked on top of each other, and nobody will tell you what your actual odds are. We've been through it — and have the lens to help you make the right choice.
What a session covers
What the philosophy actually looks like at 10am on a Tuesday
Reggio, Montessori, co-op, immersion, play-based, and which ones fit your kid's temperament rather than your Pinterest board.
The things that don't make the website
Teacher tenure and turnover, real ratios, how they handle the hard stuff, which directors have been there twenty years and which arrived in June.
Schedule reality
Whether the hours, calendar, and closure days survive contact with two working parents.
Your shortlist, ranked
6–8 schools matched to your address, budget, schedule, and child, with a specific reason for each and an honest read on your chances.
A season calendar
Tour dates, application deadlines, deposit dates, and where they collide.
Waitlist strategy
How many to apply to, how to follow up without being that parent, and what to do when the offer you want comes second.
Options
Shortlist Review
$195
Questionnaire in, written ranked shortlist out within 72 hours. No call needed.
Strategy Session
$450
60 minutes live, plus the written shortlist and season calendar. Includes one follow-up email round.
Enrollment Season Support
Priced on a call
September through offer day. Tour prep, application review, waitlist campaign, offer-deadline triage. Limited to a small number of families each season.
Who you're talking to
Founder & Educational Director - I'm a Ph.D. candidate in Language and Literacy at UC Berkeley — where I also teach and research at the School of Education — with dual bachelor's degrees in English and Linguistics from Berkeley, a literacy fellowship from Oxford, and an M.S. in Learning Sciences and Human Development. Over the past five years I've guided students into Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Berkeley, and UCLA, but outcomes aren't the point: I treat students as developing scholars, not applicants, and help them build a clear sense of intellectual identity. ohcollegeprep.com