About Sam

My name is Sam McLaughlin.  For the past twenty plus years, I have had the privilege of assisting college and high school bound students on their individual journeys toward acceptance into their respective dream schools.

 

After I transitioned from working as an attorney — including a stint clerking for a federal district court judge — in 1998, I began teaching standardized test strategies, at a private tutoring school.  However, I soon grew frustrated by the fact that not all the students, in my class, grasped the concepts I was trying to impart to the class in the same manner:  Whenever I taught the class in a faster manner, I noticed that I would often lose those students, in my class, who grasped the material in a slightly slower manner, because such students were unable to fully grasp the concepts I was imparting to the class; however, whenever I taught the class in a slower manner, I noticed that I would often lose those students, in my class, who grasped the material in a slightly faster manner, because such students would often become bored with the slow pace of my class.  As a result, in 2002, I transitioned to working as an expert private tutor, teaching all aspects of the SAT/ACT, as well as, the secondary school entrance exams.  This allowed me to individually assist, all of my students, by tailoring my teaching methods in order to meet the needs of all of my students, by taking into account the fact that all of my students grasped the material, I was teaching, at varying learning levels.

 

 

And, the rest is history…

 

 

For the past twenty plus years, I have helped hundreds of students optimize their standardized test scores, mostly on the SAT/ACT, but also on the various secondary school entrance exams, including the SHSAT, SSAT, ISEE, TACHS, and HSPT.

 

Shortly after commencing my work as an expert tutor, I realized it was not enough for me to simply help my

students optimize the scores on their standardized college/secondary school entrance exams.  In order to assist my students in getting admitted into their respective dream college/secondary schools, I would also need to start working as a private college/secondary school advisor, assisting my students in preparing their college/secondary school applications, especially, helping my students craft dynamic, determinative college/secondary school application essays.

 

Since I started working as a private tutor, I have been both humbled, and honored, by the fact that I have never had to advertise my work: Indeed, all my students have come to me as referrals.  In this regard, I have been especially humbled by the fact that roughly sixty-five percent of these referrals have come to me through my satisfied students referring me to their friends and colleagues, with the remaining roughly thirty-five percent of these referrals coming to me through my satisfied tutoring parents referring me to their friends and colleagues.

 

After prospering in my new career as a private college/secondary school tutor/advisor, I started a free website, twelve years ago, in 2011: patiencestaminaaptitude.com as a way to “pay forward” all that the world of private tutoring had given to me, by offering free help to those students, hailing from families which could not afford the exorbitant costs of private college/secondary school tutoring and/or private college/secondary school advising.

 

In 2018, I was tutoring two friends, for the SAT.  Whereas, the one family had also hired me to act in the capacity of a college advisor for their son, the other family had retained the services of a different private college advisor, to help their son.  One evening, I received an urgent phone call from the mother who had hired the other private college advisor, asking for my help.  The mother then told me there was no comparison between the quality of the college essays I had helped her son’s friend craft versus the college essays the other private college advisor had helped her son craft.  In the end, I helped her son greatly improve his college application essays.

 

Afterwards, I was quite curious about the standards, and services, typically offered by other area private college advisors, as well as, other college counselors, both at area private and public high schools.  To be honest, for the most part, I was astonished to learn that most private college advisors, as well as most private and public high school college counselors, do little more than check their students’ college essays for any grammar errors, while offering, at best, formulaic substantive advice on how their students could improve their college essays.

 

As a result, in the end, I decided to share my wealth of experience and knowledge in the areas of SAT/ACT tutoring, and, especially, in the area of college advising, by creating a new website: collegeconnectiongroup.com, which is a hybrid website, incorporating the best parts of my prior free website: patiencestaminaaptitude.com, with enhanced paid services from my new website, all in an effort to not only help students optimize their SAT/ACT standardized test score potential, but, more importantly, to help students learn how to craft dynamic, determinative college essays.

 

I sincerely hope that any student, or parent, who views this new website, will find useful advice along their respective journeys toward their respective dream schools.

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-Sam