MEET CINDY CHANIN

Founder Cindy Chanin

Over the past 15 years, Cindy Chanin has tutored students in virtually every subject. Her full spectrum tutoring runs the gamut from Honors Chemistry to Trig/Pre-Calculus to American/European History, Literature Analysis, Creative Writing, and Spanish to College Application Preparation and Expert College Admissions Exam Preparation. In addition to tutoring several students to perfect 1600s on their SATs, Cindy has also helped many students gain admission to top universities, including Stanford, Yale, Brown, Northwestern, USC, Oxford, Julliard, and NYU, among others. Her previous work in the Admissions Departments at Yale and USC provided insider knowledge she has incorporated to better serve her student charges in their education goals. Students, their families, and the schools she works with often refer to Cindy as “the miracle worker.”

“I strive to cultivate a lifelong appreciation for learning by making a clear connection between what a student is learning and his or her future goals and aspirations.”

From providing educational enrichment to an intellectually gifted 4-year-old to working with a dyslexic individual on her dissertation for a doctorate degree in Psychology, Cindy makes education a positive, holistic experience for adolescents of varying skill levels (middle school through college level). Cindy also has an extensive background mentoring teens and young adults. From field trips to the Getty, LACMA, and Huntington Gardens to one-on-one parallel parking/freeway driving lessons, Cindy helps each student connect assignments to real-life situations. She has coached college-bound seniors for their monologue and musical theatre auditions for NYU’s Tisch School and accompanied them on “power vocab. building” hikes around the city as well as to yoga classes.

Education and Certifications

While working toward multiple degrees at Yale University and the University of Southern California (USC), Cindy studied Psychology, Theatre, Mathematics, and Comparative Literature. She is Phi Beta Kappa as well as an Irlen Syndrome Certified screener for students who have learning differences, visual processing, and/or ADD.

Meaningful Endeavors

During her undergraduate years, Cindy founded and artistically directed a successful multicultural theatre company. Student artists collaborated with Equity theatre and film professionals on innovative, full-scale productions throughout Los Angeles. This involved raising over $30,000 in grants to mount several widely-acclaimed productions, and organizing touring performances and educational panels that visited high schools throughout Southern California. Panelists included Cesar Chavez’s granddaughter and representatives from the United Farm Workers’ Union. Establishing a university-accredited Equity theatre internship program gave students the opportunity to be mentored and work alongside renowned performers and directors such as Alfred Molina, Joel Zwick, Armin Shimmerman, and Alan Blumenfeld.

Fun Facts About Cindy

Award-winning essayist and poet

Contributor to Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul

National Qualifier in Dramatic Interpretation for the National Forensics League

Arizona State Champion in Duo-Acting

Avid yoga practitioner and certified yoga teacher (Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Vinyasa Flow)

She has a “mini me” cotton ball canine companion named Sorsha: While the four-legged one is supposed to be a pure-bred Maltese, Cindy believes her to be a cross between a Maltese and a stuffed animal. Sorsha holds a JD from Harvard Law and a PsyD. in Adorableness.

Testimonials

I worked very closely alongside Cindy Chanin during the college application process and am able to say that my experience was truly amazing. After countless hours of hard work and dedication on both ends, we were able to create a beautiful personal narrative, a collegiate resume, and school specific supplemental pieces etc. Cindy was an incredibly supportive and inspiring mentor through this process and without her endless guidance and wisdom I would not have been able to acquire the incredible results that I did. Cindy was exceedingly professional, responsive, and punctual throughout my time with her. I cannot imagine what the college application process would have looked like without Cindy in the picture, she was my hero, and I’m so grateful to have met her as someone I look forward to having in my life, beyond.

Greta Gersh,

Windward School Graduate and University of Michigan Student

Cindy helped me to recognize my own unique spirit and potential, turning the college application process from a daunting and fearsome task into a true journey of self-discovery. With her guidance and inspiration, I was able to articulate the inner workings of my personality and put together a distinctive application that fully encapsulated who I am as a student and person. Thanks to her guidance, all of my efforts were recognized by top tier institutions, including Yale, Stanford, and Wesleyan, which were my top three choices. I am delighted to call Cindy both a mentor and friend; she has inspired me beyond words and helped me embrace my individuality. I can now say that I am heading off for college with a secure sense of self and confidence and that I am fully prepared to share my talents with the larger university community. Cindy not only help me raise my SAT score to a previously unfathomable 2300, but also helped me hone my study skills and writing techniques to fit my learning style. She is a genuine spirit whose unabashed love for learning shines through in her tutoring methods. Her personalized efforts make her an invaluable resource for students of all backgrounds and academic profiles, and her vibrant personality makes her a true friend and inspiration. I cannot thank her enough.

Corinne Kentor,

Columbia Teachers College, Yale University 

and New Jewish Community High School Graduate

Cindy is an absolute visionary. I am a senior in high school, and I met Cindy a few months before I began this school year. My strengths academically are mainly in reading, writing, social studies, and philosophy, but Cindy has enhanced my knowledge and appreciation for mathematics, science, and my capabilities in problem solving as a whole. When I first met Cindy, I was in desperate need of a math tutor, but what I received was more than I could have ever imagined. Aside from her outstanding mathematical capabilities, Cindy has served as my mentor, ultimate problem solver, entrepreneurial guru, and ultimate inspiration throughout my college prep and application process. 

As a fellow performer, and actress, Cindy also has helped me explore my passion for theatre, and expand it to become a flourishing intrigue with anthropology, psychology, and motivational speaking. She is literally the reason that I am now travelling as a motivational speaker/ Body Positive facilitator to youth, ranging from middle school to high school. In offering her invaluable time, ambitious mindset, and incredibly compassionate demeanor, she has allowed me to find my true passions, and encourage others to do the same. 

Furthermore, Cindy is beyond this world amazing. Whether to call her an angel, an oracle, a goddess, a reincarnated Albert Einstein, or any other form of awe, I am not worthy to concretely say. However, I can attest that Cindy has absolutely changed my vision for myself and the world around me, my societal views and aspirations, as well as having enhanced my mathematical and test taking capabilities. Truly, Cindy is the most wonderful, kind, creative, talented, and intelligent essence, one could ever hope to meet or aspire to become.

 Jessica Burgess,

Graham High School in Texas Graduate and 

USC School of Dramatic Arts Student


Cindy has changed my life in many ways, not only with the help of her brilliant tutoring, but she has also been a mentor and a friend to me, someone I feel like I can talk to about anything. She has been especially supportive in my interest in women’s issues and continues to inspire me every time I have a session with her. She puts so much effort into all her students and is very passionate about her work. She enriches the life of every single person she comes into contact with. She is one of the most amazing women that I know.

MacKenzie Carlson,

Brown University and Brentwood School Graduate

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