Meet Stephanie

My son worked with Stephanie on his college essays, and we couldn’t be happier. It was one of the most positive and productive experiences we’ve ever had with a coach. Stephanie struck the perfect balance. She never did the work for him, but guided him with insightful prompts that helped him develop and refine his own ideas for both his personal essay and supplemental essays.

Her feedback was always thoughtful and constructive, and each session built meaningfully on the last. She also went above and beyond, responding promptly to my questions and creating a clear, organized plan that helped him stay on top of every deadline. Thanks to her guidance, he produced essays that truly reflected his voice—and he was accepted to his top-choice school!

I can’t recommend Stephanie and CTK highly enough.

My son worked with Stephanie to craft an amazing common app essay. She helped him develop an essay about fixing his car, about which he is truly passionate. It ended up warm and funny, and most importantly crafted an exquisite narrative for my hopeful engineer. She had great edits and we were so pleased with the final product. He applied to 15 schools, and we’ve heard from 4 of them so far. All acceptances with merit scholarships attached, including schools like Clemson and Auburn (we’re OOS for both), which had a high deferral rate for early action. I plan to use Stephanie again with my upcoming children!

It's hard to overstate how essential Stephanie was to our son's admissions process. Her engagement went well beyond essay composition. She helped a bright, accomplished, but organizationally challenged kid decipher and catalog a wild array of requirements, track associated deadlines, and monitor the astronaut's dashboard of systems and status alerts that define the college application process these days. Best of all, she gave us strategic counsel from a place of deep experience and insight.

Among the keys to her success is a clear process that puts the student at its center. She established a strong rapport through listening, then responded with confident yet empathic guidance. Together they set well-defined goals, and she followed each session with summaries and clear, achievable next steps. She was generous with insider knowledge and case studies from her experience. Most importantly, her approach was positive and encouraging, which gave him the confidence to take on what would otherwise have been a daunting array of challenges.

We couldn't've been happier with the process, or with the outcome.

Working with Stephanie Nasteff-Pilato took all the stress out of writing a college personal essay for my high school senior! My daughter enjoyed working with and trusted Stephanie so much that she went back to her for assistance on some supplemental essays, too. She is so calm and poised and engaging and truly brings out the best in all the young people she works with. I highly recommend working with Stephanie!