Hi, I’m Kate Sonnenberg (she/her/hers), the founder of KS College Success and a college admissions expert who has seen the application process from numerous vantage points. As the mother of two young adults whom I assisted on their college admissions journeys (Amherst College ’19 and Wesleyan University ’21), I know where you are now. I started my career as an educational consultant working in the admissions office at Princeton University, my alma mater. At Princeton, I read thousands of applications each year, so I know what it takes to have an application that stands out. I bring this experience, as well as my background teaching English and my lawyerly eye for detail, to help guide families and empower students. With each student, I focus on academic, extracurricular, and social fit. I hope I can be a part of your student’s journey to college admissions success.

After graduating from Princeton, I had a two-year fellowship teaching English composition at the National University of Singapore. When I returned to the U.S., I attended law school at Columbia University. As much as I loved clerking for a federal judge and practicing law, my favorite part of being a lawyer was in the classroom, teaching legal writing. In addition to teaching at the college and graduate school level, I have been an active volunteer for years. Before launching KS College Success, I provided essay coaching for students who could not afford private counseling and tutored students in Newark, NJ. As chair of the Princeton University Alumni Schools Committee in Essex (NJ) and Hudson (NJ) counties, I coordinated the alumni interviewing program in northern New Jersey for over a decade. My commitment to service continues today in my volunteer role as Executive Director of EdMom Scholars, a non-profit organization that provides free college counseling to high-achieving, low-income students. I supervise and mentor our volunteer college consultants, work one-on-one with EdMom scholars, and support guidance counselors at high schools where they can have as many as 400 students in their caseload.

In addition to working with students, I share my experience and expertise with my colleagues. I am an instructor in the UC-Irvine Independent Educational Consultant Certificate Program, where I teach a course on summer, gap year, and transfer students. I am also a Partner-Mentor in the Wow Writing Workshop College Essay Experience program, teaching consultants how to coach students on essay writing.

As a student of colleges, I regularly visit colleges (over 150 and counting!), where I meet with admissions representatives to get the inside story about college admissions trends. I attend and present at conferences and participate in over 24 seminars and webinars yearly. I completed the IECA Summer Training Institute and have a Certificate in College Counseling from UC-Irvine. I am a certified Wow Writing Workshop essay coach and a professional member of IECA, NACAC, NJACAC, HECA, and NCAG.