College Connections

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Introduction: I believe that what makes my tutoring, college application assistance, and career development services stand out is my ability to get to know my clients and their backgrounds, interests, and needs for assistance very quickly and very well. This ability of mine to zero in on a client and their particular educational or career situation and needs makes it possible for me to quickly revise a client's resume, find and suggest terrific options for them, whether that be the list of colleges that I believe they should consider applying to or the employers to which I recommend that they send their resume in search of their next job. In addition, I not only have strong interpersonal skills and can usually immediately connect with a client, but I am a good listener with excellent follow-up skills and a strong network of contacts that I readily call upon on behalf of my clients. I also was an A+ student during my entire K-12 education, & was Valedictorian of the Class of 1985 of Sacred Heart H.S. in Kingston, MA. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University & a Master of Education degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. In short, I can help both your chlld w/ their specific academic issues and/or their overall study skills so that they not only do better in school, but graduate and go onto college successfully, AND yourself with regard to updating your resume & assisting you with developing an effective strategy for job search or career change. I love helping students improve how they do in school, both from a grades perspective and a confidence perspective. Seeing a student achieve success when they had not been successful before is incredibly gratifying to me. And showing students how to turn around their performance on their own is even more gratifying! I also love helping high school students increase their S.A.T. scores and apply to college. It is very rewarding to not only help students figure out where they should apply, but even better when I can help them not only get in but also get the best financial aid package possible that will enable them to attend their top-choice college. I also enjoy helping adults w/ careers in transition b/c there are so few places to get assistance when one has been out of the job-search world for a while and needs help revising their resume and writing that killer cover letter.

Overview

Hired 10 times

Background checked

1 employee

21 years in business

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2.0

1 review

100%

John C.

Mar 17, 2015

Hired on Thumbtack

Although Mary is very likable and appears to be an affective tutor, we found ourselves becoming frustrated with her tardiness. Mary was late by 15 to 20 minutes each session and finished early. She would frequently change the schedule time and still was not be punctual. Unfortunately we felt the amount of money we spent was not appropriate for the services rendered.

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Mary Ellen Bavaro

FAQs

What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
My tutoring rate is $65 per hour, and I do a two-hour session and charge a transportation fee of $10-20 per session depending on the distance to be traveled in meeting with a client at their home. I also offer clients the choice of meeting me at a public spot (i.e., the local Starbucks where we can work & talk comfortably in a relaxing atmosphere with just enough background noise to make it possible for my students to concentrate & complete their work with me. I also offer a discounted, standard month of tutoring sessions in Math, Study Skills, & other subjects (4 sessions total) and a discounted, complete 8-session, 16-hour course to prepare HS Juniors & Seniors to take & score well on the SAT. For my career development assistance services to adults, my Resume Creator package includes 4 hours of assu
What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
I always follow up preliminary phone calls or emails of interest with an email of information on my background, qualifications, services, results, & rates; flyers on whichever service potential clients are interested in; and background questionnaires for the parent & student to complete and return to me at the complimentary introductory meeting I always offer as a next step if the potential client is interested in talking further.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I was an A-plus student my whole life in school and I was valedictorian of my class @ Sacred Heart HS in Kingston, MA in 1985. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University (1989) and a Master of Education degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education (1992). I worked for 10 years for Boston-based, national, non-profit organization Jobs for the Future, that is working to reform this country's education & training system, in a variety of roles leading to Director of Communications, PR, & the National Leadership Forum, the organization's national conference for educators, business people, & community practitioners implementing school-to-career programs for high school students. Since leaving Jobs for the Future in 1999, I have had a variety of experiences which prepared me for and led me to start my own tutoring & college application assistance business called College Connections in 2003. Since 2003, I have helped many students of all ages & academic levels improve their grades in Math & their overall study skills, and many high school students increase their SAT scores by an average of 100 points per section or 300 points total and a record-high increase of 540 points total, which both made my client's list of schools to which she applied much more selective and competitive and resulted in many top-quality acceptances & excellent financial aid offers. Having spent the first 10 years of my career in the non-profit sector with a mission of improving education generally, my mission with College Connections has been to focus specifically on helping students thrive throughout K-12, college, and their careers.