Meet Sondra Garcia (Ms. Sondra)
Ms. Sondra brings a rare combination of experience as a college counselor, educator, writing instructor, and former Silicon Valley technical and marketing writer. After graduating magna cum laude from the New York SUNY system with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in English, she moved to Silicon Valley, where she worked as a senior technical writer, educational content writer, and editor for companies including Cisco, Tymshare/McDonnell Douglas, and Apple. At Apple, she received an award of excellence from Addison-Wesley for her authorship of Planning and Managing AppleTalk Networks, which featured a foreword by then-CEO John Sculley.
In the early 2000s, Ms. Sondra launched SGS Educational Services, a tutoring and academic support company focused on writing, critical reading, grammar, analytical thinking, standardized test preparation, and AP English support. What began as individualized tutoring quickly grew through personal referrals to include private instruction, small-group classes, and larger classes for students throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally.
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Since then, she has supported students through every stage of the admissions process, including high school course planning, extracurricular development, college list building, application strategy, essay development, interview preparation, and final college decision-making. She intentionally limits the number of students she accepts so that each family receives highly personalized attention, thoughtful guidance, and responsive communication.
Ms. Sondra’s approach is individualized, strategic, and relationship-based. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all advising, she takes the time to understand each student’s strengths, personality, interests, goals, and challenges. One of her greatest strengths is helping students discover what makes them distinctive — through meaningful activities, self-driven projects, authentic self-reflection, and compelling essays that communicate their stories with clarity and depth.
Over the years, Ms. Sondra has guided hundreds of students and families, helping students gain admission to a wide range of colleges and universities, including highly selective institutions such as Stanford University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her students have pursued diverse interests in fields including engineering, computer science, medicine, business, economics, political science, the humanities, and the arts.
Ms. Sondra believes successful college admissions is not about building a perfect résumé or chasing prestige. Some students thrive at large universities with spirited campus life and broad opportunities, while others are happiest in smaller, more personal academic environments. For her, finding the right fit means understanding the whole student and helping families identify colleges where students will truly thrive academically, socially, and personally.
Based in Los Gatos, Ms. Sondra works with students throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond through both in-person and virtual meetings. Families value her ability to combine long-term strategic planning with warmth, honesty, and steady support. Beyond helping students strengthen their college profiles and applications, she helps them develop greater maturity, self-awareness, confidence, and independence — qualities that serve them well throughout the college admissions process and beyond.
Meet Peter Alexander
Peter specializes in helping students develop deep conceptual understanding, strong problem-solving skills, and mathematical confidence rather than relying solely on memorization. His teaching emphasizes analytical reasoning, mathematical communication, and real-world applications of STEM concepts.
In addition to advanced mathematics instruction, Peter incorporates areas such as data science, computational modeling, quantitative finance, machine learning, and algorithmic thinking to help students engage more deeply with complex material. Over the course of his career, he has mentored students across a wide range of academic levels and accelerated pathways while helping them build confidence, independence, and long-term academic maturity.
