Private Tutoring, Test Prep & College Admissions Counseling on the Chicago North Shore

Yes. The North Shore is one of our in-person markets. We run in-home and library sessions across New Trier Township, Northfield Township, Evanston and the Lake County villages, subject to tutor availability. Families who prefer live online sessions work with the same senior tutors.

The ACT. Illinois uses the ACT as its statewide high school assessment, with the PreACT in grades 9 and 10 and the full ACT including Science and Writing in grade 11. Any page still describing an Illinois SAT School Day is out of date. The state administration is free, on a school day, and produces a college-reportable score with free score sends.

Often yes, and that is a different question from going test-optional. Because the free state ACT already exists and a retake is inexpensive relative to everything else in this process, a student sitting below the range for their target list is usually better served by a second sitting than by withholding. We decide that from the score report rather than in the abstract.

Sometimes. Because the ACT is free and universal, students default to it, but the two tests reward different things. The ACT moves faster and includes science reasoning; the Digital SAT is adaptive and gives more time per question. We run a timed diagnostic on both, and where the SAT is clearly the better instrument we prepare for that instead.

New Trier is a single district with two campuses, freshmen at Northfield and grades 10 through 12 at Winnetka, so there is no school choice to make. What families actually negotiate is level placement, and because the school largely does not rank, the level and the score end up carrying the differentiating weight. We advise on placement alongside the testing plan.

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora is a statewide residential public school that admits for sophomore entry, not freshman. For North Shore STEM families it is the one selective public alternative worth weighing, and it resets the whole calendar because the decision lands during ninth grade. We support the application and plan college testing around the transition.

Our families come from New Trier, Glenbrook North and South, Highland Park and Deerfield, Evanston Township, Lake Forest High School and the adjacent Niles and Maine districts, plus the independent schools, principally Loyola Academy, North Shore Country Day, Lake Forest Academy, Woodlands Academy, Regina Dominican and Rochelle Zell.

Yes, and most families use both. Counseling covers college list construction with acceptance probability modeling, the Common App personal statement with unlimited revisions, every supplement, activities positioning, early decision strategy, financial aid and mock interviews. North Shore lists need the UIUC college-by-college math built in, since admission there runs by program rather than university-wide.

Yes. Our instructors are trained in ADHD, CAPD, dyslexia and executive function support, and we handle ACT and College Board accommodations requests for you, including extended time, breaks and separate settings. We also coordinate with a school’s existing IEP or 504 team so the prep plan matches the supports already in place.

For the class of 2026, the most recent year with officially confirmed cutoffs, the Chicago North Shore required a Selection Index of 222. The Selection Index runs from 48 to 228 and is calculated from the PSAT/NMSQT taken in October of junior year, doubling the sum of the Reading, Writing and Language, and Math section scores. Cutoffs are set separately for every state and shift by a point or two each year, so treat 222 as a planning benchmark rather than a guarantee. Cutoffs for the class of 2027 are announced each September.

The the Chicago North Shore average was 961 for the class of 2025, with 99% of graduates tested. The participation rate matters more than the number. A state that tests nearly every graduate posts a much lower average than a state where only college-bound students sit the exam, so comparing raw state averages without participation is misleading. For students in the competitive districts we work with, the relevant benchmark is the admitted range at their target colleges, not the state mean.

The state hands every junior a real ACT score, so the ACT is the default and the question is usually whether the school-day result is good enough or a second sitting is worth it. Because the retake is cheap relative to everything else in this process, a student below their target range is usually better served by testing again than by going test-optional. The two tests are scored differently but weighted equally by colleges, and every US college that accepts one accepts the other.