Editor Profile Tanis Kmetyk

The facts: A Bachelor`s degree from the University of Illinois (with honors) with a double major in Political Science and French. Additional studies at Paris`s Sorbonne University and New York City`s The New School. Along the way, the classic route of an honors student: student government and school newspaper involvement, community and charity work, tutoring less literate students.

The background: The granddaughter of immigrants, the daughter of immigrants, myself an immigrant. Wanderlust has a hold on my family and I didn`t escape it.

The granddaughter of educators, the daughter of professors, the sister of teachers. Education is the foundation of my family and the desire to learn has colored my life from the start.

The details: Studying Political Science in Chicago, one of the last American cities with a true political machine, is a fascinating experience. But my French major (which started out as a hobby until the head of the department informed me that I was 4 classes shy of a major) got the best of me, and I went to Paris for a year abroad, which lasted 18 months. After graduation I sped back to this city, with which I had fallen in love during my first visit at age 12, and began to attack my childhood dream of being a journalist. I began on the traditional path: writing for the English-language press (Paris Passion, Time Out) translating (Canal +), teaching English, editing documents for French executives. Soon, I was writing features for France`s top magazines (Le Figaro, Télérama, L`Express group, Nouvel Economiste.) When I became pregnant with my first child, I had just finished a story for Le Figaro on the US nuclear arms stockpile, having spent ten days in the deserts of Utah and Nevada. My next trip was to be to India. For obvious reasons, I cancelled the trip (but kept the name for my daughter.) The chapter of intrepid reporter was coming to a close...

One hot summer day, a friend-of-a-friend called me. She was applying to Wharton/Lauder but didn`t quite know how to approach it. I had a friend who was organizing MBA workshops and privately coaching students. I hooked them up, but by then I was bored with not working….Little did I know that this meeting would impact my life. Seeing how my guidance and advice helped this person learn how to communicate in a style that she would need at a top US B-school and as an executive at an American company deeply satisfied my pedagogical streak….I realized that there was a real need for my services in Europe, especially since I am so familiar with both the US and European cultures. Within weeks, people were contacting me and by the time I went in to the hospital to give birth, I was working with 7 clients. It was heavy deadline time (late October), and two days after my daughter popped out, I was correcting essays on my hospital bed.

That was eight years ago. To-date, I have worked with hundreds of students. Most applied to only top-tier schools and the majority were admitted to one or several of their top choices. My clients have been accepted to Stanford, HBS, Wharton, Kellogg, Michigan, MIT, Chicago, Columbia, Tuck, Duke, Berkeley, UCLA, Darden, NYU, Insead, LBS and IESE, among others. I have worked with clients from Spain, Germany, England, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Holland, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine, UAE, Greece, Japan, Oceania, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, Sri Lanka, India, China, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt…and even the USA! And, most gratifying, many have become friends.

Would you like to work with Tanis on your application? Just fill out an inquiry including any information you think will be helpful. Tanis will contact you ASAP.