So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze.
She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. College Confidential is innately intertwined with 'college admissions' culture, and as such, it comes with a whole host of problems including but not limited to prioritizing rankings, obsessing over test scores, and breeding insane amounts of anxiety in students. Dan Bissell, M.D., graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in 1993 and from the University of Colorado School of Medicine as an Adler Scholar in 2002.
Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. He is the author of the critically acclaimed grad school preparatory books Law School Confidential, Business School Confidential, and the hot new college preparatory book Campus Confidential. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor.