Our Founder

About Our Founder

Our founder, Gary M. Heller, has taken a long road to finding his true purpose. A long-suffering attorney for more than 25 years, Gary takes great pride in steering students in a direction where they get to know themselves and find their best path toward success, both in their academic pursuits and for life after college. Being knowledgeable about colleges goes back to Gary’s childhood when he would watch Knicks and Giants games with his father, who would quiz him on the schools attended by the players. Perhaps because he did not finish college, Gary's father took interest in his children's education and immersed himself in exhaustive research on admissions process, which was considerably less crazy in the 1980's. This rubbed off on Gary.

After his graduation from college, Gary eagerly represented his own university at college fairs, which is where he first observed the intense stress and competitive game that the admissions process was becoming, and this was long before the college mania we experience today. Gary embarked to learn as much as he could about the climate and process of college admissions in the 21st Century, with a particular focus on fit, cost and financial aid.

Gary earned his College Access Counseling Certification from Rice University, Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, his certification as a College Guru after an intense course of study with a nationally known expert in the field, and he has supplemented his knowledge and skills by completing coursework in UCLA’s College Counseling program. Gary is a member of the New York State Association for College Admission Counseling and the American College Counseling Association.