Steve Fernandez-Brennan

Before coming to College Coach I worked in admissions at a breadth of institutions. My most recent experience was as associate dean of admission at Occidental College in Los Angeles, where I was responsible for international admissions and read applications from around the world but specifically Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria. While at Oxy I also made the final decision on applications from students applying from all over California; Chicago and the Midwest; and Hawai'i and the Pacific, and I served on the athletics admission review committee and was liaison with baseball as well. I started my career at Marquette University where I reviewed applications for each of the seven undergraduate colleges including engineering, business, and nursing, as well as for the direct entry physical therapy and BS/DDS programs. At Loyola University-Chicago, where I was assistant director of admission, nearly half of the applications I reviewed were applying for pre-medicine. While in Honolulu completing my master’s degree at the University of Hawai'i I served on the graduate admission committee for the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and after graduation I served as the founding director of advising at College Connections Hawai`i, a Honolulu non-profit focused on Native Hawaiian and first generation to college youth, where I worked as an independent counselor helping students and their families with all parts of the college application process. I have presented at the national admission conference as well as state and regional conferences on topics related to keeping the admission process student-centered, helping students write their best essays, and retaining first generation students and students of color.