Maddie Alvendia Johnson
Meet Maddie
Maddie’s intro
I've written curriculum for PBS and worked with the Smithsonian on history education projects. I studied at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and earned my Ed.M. in 2019.
Since graduating, I've taught middle and high school history in the Bay Area and won national awards for my work in teaching and curriculum design. I've also helped students get into UC Berkeley, Northwestern, Stanford and Penn. The book chapter I published came from years of thinking about how students engage with historical narratives, and that thinking shapes how I read applications now. A college file is also a narrative, and the ones that work show a student's actual interests rather than a manufactured version of what admissions wants. I can tell when someone is writing about debate because they genuinely care about argumentation versus when they're listing it because selective schools expect leadership. The difference shows up in word choice, in which details a student includes, in whether the activities section matches the tone of the essays.
I read applications the way I read student writing in my classroom: I'm looking for the argument underneath the sentences. What is this file actually saying about who you are? Is the evidence there, or are we just asserting things? I'll mark up your drafts with specific questions, not general encouragement. If a paragraph isn't doing work, I'll say so. If an essay topic is too broad or too common to be useful, we'll find a different one before you waste time on a full draft. I work with students who want direct feedback and can handle hearing that something isn't working yet. If you're interested, book me for free and I'll give you your child's read.
Common questions
Before you book
What does this cost?
We are flexible, and there is a plan here that fits your family. You see every price at the info session, before anything is agreed. What changes between plans is the kind of experience in the room: a current undergraduate at a school your student is applying to, someone who interviewed applicants for a university as an alumni volunteer, or a former admissions officer who read files and sat in committee. Every one of them is somebody we would put in front of our own family.
Do we need to know what we want before the info session?
No, and most families come before they have decided anything. That is the useful time to listen. Thirty minutes, no charge, and you leave knowing what we can do for your student.
How many students does one counselor take?
Few enough that the person you meet is the person who reads the drafts. Every counselor sets their own cap and prints it on their page, so you know exactly how much of their year you are getting. If your first choice is full we will introduce you to someone on the roster who suits your student just as well.
Our student is already a senior. Is it too late?
It is not too late. Several counselors here run compressed engagements and take seniors into the autumn, and there is usually more still open in a file than a family expects. Ask about your student in the small room and we will tell you what we can do with it.
Free info session
How the call is booked.
Maddie reads your student’s file and builds the plan. The info session is 30 minutes on Google Meet and costs nothing.
Meet MaddieMaddie reads what you tell us about your student before the call, so it starts there rather than at the beginning.
If something changes
The agreement is held by Aristo Scholars rather than by Maddie personally. If Maddie cannot finish the cycle we move your student to another counselor on this roster at the price you were already quoted, and everything written down so far moves with them.
Where Maddie’s students got in.
Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Harvard or any other institution named on this page. Maddie Alvendia Johnson is an undergraduate at Harvard, speaking only as an individual, with no role in its admissions office and no influence over any admissions decision.