Kristen Senior is the founder of The Brass Ring. She graduated from Kenyon College (A.B.), Illinois State University (M.A.), and Marquette University (PhD), spending her junior year abroad at Oxford University in England. She has taught high school and college writing and literature and worked in the field of educational publishing as an editor and writer at McGraw-Hill and Shakespeare Squared. Kristen is a life-long learner and considers herself a “student of colleges.”
Kristen loved Kenyon as it was the perfect fit for her, but her freshman roommate transferred to a large state university after one year. When Kristen taught at the university level, she found that many students were unsatisfied with their college choices. As a high school teacher, she saw how challenging the college search process was for her seniors.
Knowing there had to be a better way, Kristen graduated from UCLA’s Certificate in College Counseling program with Honors and started her educational consulting business in 2012. Her priority is to help students learn about themselves, identify their interests and possible future careers, and find the “best fit” college that will help them thrive. Additionally, she understands how challenging it can be for parents to launch their children into the world. Her approach to college counseling often focuses on the entire family. She routinely meets with students and keeps parents in the loop with regular emails and phone calls. She can offer students and families a comprehensive college search experience, as Kristen consults with financial aid and test preparation experts.
Kristen is a professional member of IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association), the nation’s most respected professional organization for college counselors.
She has a wonderful husband who also graduated from Kenyon and three hilarious children. Their oldest just moved to London to start an MFA program. When he was looking at colleges, he considered dozens of undergraduate art schools before picking a small film department in a “rah rah sports and fraternities” kind of university. Their middle is about to graduate from college. She didn’t want to pick between her love of music and her love of science so she chose a liberal arts school that would let her do both. Their youngest is a sophomore in high school and is figuring things out. He loves gaming, building stuff, and might look into engineering programs or chemistry or geometry . . . or something else entirely. In her free time, Kristen enjoys swimming, molecular gastronomy, going to the movies, traveling, and playing with her labradoodles Princess Buttercup and Fezzik.
The Brass Ring 