The College Atelier is…

Hailing from a family of lifelong public-school teachers and administrators, Megan has been educating high school age students and beyond since 2006.  After studying jazz saxophone at Interlochen Arts Academy, the world’s premier arts boarding high school, she earned her BA in History, African American Studies, and Secondary Education from Princeton University and her MA in History of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2014.

Since 2014, Megan has worked with students from all over the world, establishing herself as an industry leading college admissions consultant in the process.  As a founding Admissions Strategist at one of the industry's leading global firms, she spent the last 8 admissions cycles creating and growing a college counseling program that now serves thousands of students from across the globe. Additionally, in her more recent role as a Platinum Strategy Consultant, Megan provided elite services to VIP clients seeking the most comprehensive level of college guidance, subsequently working with students from elite high schools like Exeter, Lawrenceville and Sidwell Friends.  Literally hundreds of students applying to Ivy and top-20 universities have consistently achieved exceptional success rates working under her guidance, including 100% of her students gaining acceptances to Ivy and top-20 schools in 2022 and 2023.

Megan’s approach to college admissions is uniquely defined by her time as a classroom educator, having taught at Gill St. Bernard’s School and then Morristown-Beard School, where she and Atelier co-founder Christian Rabin pioneered an innovative humanities curriculum for 9th grade students.  She also taught at Montclair State University as an instructor of “Rap and Rock,” where she co-authored the music history textbook, These Distorted Times.

As both an Admissions Strategist at Crimson Education, and a College Essay Advisor at The Ivy Dean, Christian has consistently helped students build exceptional profiles, as well as craft truly unique applications that stand out in an increasingly crowded and competitive environment.  In his time as a college advisor, he has helped students from various backgrounds across the globe, including multiple first-generation college applicants, gain admittance to top-20 universities in the US. His student’s continual success demonstrates an effective grasp of how to truly help young people tell their stories to colleges in compelling and striking ways, to find and express that extra intangible something that gives an application its special individuality.

Christian is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy ’98, holds a BA in Religious Studies from Brown University ‘03 and an M.A. in English Literature from SUNY New Paltz (where he was selected as an Outstanding Graduate). 

His approach to helping students is informed by his extensive experience as a teacher and practitioner of writing (he is presently finishing his first feature length screenplay co-written with award winning director Zia Mohajerjasbi). Utilizing an expert combination of critical thinking and creative insight he expertly guides students from inception to final draft, from selecting that perfect topic to executing their ideas to the utmost.  

Christian also has extensive experience as a teacher in English and the Humanities across all high school grade levels (Chadwick School, The Morristown-Beard School).  Throughout his time in the classroom, he enjoyed the challenge of all things pedagogical, from teaching the writing process from the ground up, to creating writing rubrics that became the department standard, to crafting electives aimed at making the likes of Don DeLilo and Plato come alive for his students. In addition to his work in the classroom, he has co-created and facilitated workshops for seasoned educators on culture and leadership, as well as collaborating on the development of Humanities seminars for companies in the private sector.