Douglas Peterson is one of ESM’s college essay experts. He’s advised hundreds of students on finding their right-fit colleges, helping them develop intuitive narratives via self-reflection and storytelling techniques. He has also mentored dozens of students through the test prep process, developing personalized strategies and study timelines for students taking the ACT, SAT, SAT II Subject Tests, and the SSAT.
Douglas spent his early years in San Jose, Costa Rica and Montevideo, Uruguay, before moving to New York City and attending the Birch Wathen Lenox school. He spent these years playing intensive travel soccer, which took him to Brazil and Argentina several times. He eventually moved again for high school and graduated from The American School in Japan. His extensive travel and unique upbringing left him fluent in Spanish and conversational in French, Japanese, and Portuguese. Douglas left Tokyo to study at Claremont McKenna College in southern California, where he played Rugby and graduated with honours in Film and Religion with a sequence in Leadership Studies. When he’s not with his students, you can find him playing basketball, writing movie scripts, and helplessly praying for the New York Knicks.