Bringing Affordable SAT Prep to Bergen County Through Peer Tutoring
The path to successful SAT, AP, or ACT scores can be extremely demanding, expensive, and quite frankly unattainable for many. As local students get ready for the coming school year, one unique education services company is helping Bergen County prepare with much less stress, more confidence, and affordability. Aristotle Circle, an innovative company that offers students and families personal guidance and educational support with its network of admissions and testing experts, recently acquired Peer2Peer Tutors, a company that employs top achieving local students who provide one-on-one peer tutoring in any subject grades K-12 for as little as $35 per hour. Peer2PeerTutors uses a unique program created by experts and driven by peers. With the acquisition of Peer2PeerTutors, Aristotle Circle now combines the power of peers and pros to give families and students the best preparation and information to lead to the best educational choices and outcomes.
“This is about fostering a culture of learning – whether it's insights from our circle of close to 300 experts who are proven in their field, be it admissions, financial aid or international advice or the nation's top performing students being rigorously trained to help their peers succeed. We believe that every child has the potential to do something great; our mission is to help unlock that passion and power," says Suzanne Rheault, CEO and Founder of Aristotle Circle. “The acquisition of Peer2Peer Tutors has allowed Aristotle Circle to offer the widest possible breadth and depth of educational consulting services. The school admissions process is more competitive than ever, and families require a wide range of services to give their children the best possible advantage.”
Unlike other services that offer tutoring and education advice and leave it up to families to find and try out tutors or educational consultants, both Aristotle Circle and Peer2Peer Tutors distinguish themselves by their highly customized matchmaking, pre-screening and vetting of their experts and tutors with their personalized and local attention and flexibility. One of the obvious and important by–products of their combined services is the successful navigation of an often-confusing admissions process and the huge reduction of stress for families and students at every level of a child’s education.
On the peer side, Peer2Peer Tutors came to Bergen County last September and has been building a network of peer tutors, employing and training top performing and reliable local high school and college students. The company uses proprietary technology that includes a recommendation engine for matching the right peer tutors with students. The company prides itself on the ability to create a unique fit between student and tutor. “We take the time to explore the interests of both our students and tutors inside and outside the classroom. While it is understood that our Peer Tutors must indeed distinguish themselves academically, we believe that it is their personal interests and passions that help to make them inspirational role models to other kids”, according to Erik Kimel, founder of Peer2Peer Tutors, now Chief Strategy Officer for Aristotle Circle.
What educational expert Jerry Weast, Institute for Educational Leadership board member, and former Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools said about Peer2Peer Tutors still applies to the newly combined companies: "The Peer2Peer model stands for what works in education. It creates jobs for top high school students, serves families with quality services, augments the work of teachers, and cultivates stronger communities. It's a win-win for everyone involved."
Aristotle Circle’s expert network operates in much the same way as the peer network, leveraging a concierge driven matchmaking model to connect families to the appropriate admissions experts. Aristotle Circle has a network of close to 300 national Educational Experts whose specialties include but are not limited to Private school admissions, College Admissions, Test Prep (standardized and academic subjects), financial aid and fine arts admissions. They currently serve over 1,000 clients in 30 states and 15 countries. By creating a marketplace for expertise, Aristotle Circle enables families to obtain much needed guidance to successfully navigate all aspects of the education and admissions processes. The joining of the two companies has led to the creation of new services to boost success that are effective and affordable, such as a student-friendly curriculum to support the implementation of a Peer-taught SAT prep program, which offers highly individualized SAT prep at a very affordable and competitive rate.
"Aristotle Circle is doing an amazing job applying the power of expert networks to admissions and education," said Mr. Kimel. "We believe that the addition of a peer to peer tutoring service can add tremendous value, serve families across a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, create exponentially more youth jobs, and augment the services both companies provide independently."
About Aristotle Circle
Aristotle Circle is an innovative advisory service that unlocks the power and passion of students by delivering personal, actionable and superior guidance and educational support. Helping children succeed is core to Aristotle Circle's business. The company offers services ranging from pre-K to graduate school. Aristotle Circle's network of more than 250 elite experts currently serves over 1000 clients in 30 states and 15 countries and includes top admissions professionals, guidance counselors, school administrators, financial aid advisors, and child development experts in their fields. Aristotle Circle's goal is to take the stress and frustration out of the process by giving students and families a clear path through successful school admissions. For more information, visit: www.aristotlecircle.com.
About Peer2Peer Tutors
Peer2Peer was founded in 2004 by high school junior Erik Kimel. Since then, Peer2Peer has provided more than 100,000 hours of tutoring services to 5,000 students in the northeast. Peer2Peer has created more than 5,000 youth jobs. Peer2Peer's tutors have a minimum GPA average of 3.8, and an average SAT score of 2100. Twenty-five percent of all tutors are national merit scholars. Eighty-five percent of all Peer2Peer tutors were admitted to their top choice college. For more information, visit www.peer2peertutors.com
