Ms Orta's house was a godsend for our son Cameron. Cameron came in with the usual challenges…read moreassociated with middle school kids: lack of attention, unorganized, not prepared, C & D's in elementary... Ms Orta's experience, compassionate and positive approach led to Cameron being a straight A student and Scholar/Athlete by the time he finished 8th grade at Borel. He was ultimately accepted at a prestigious private high school based on his credentials and experience at Ms. Orta's... We cannot say enough about this program and highly recommend it to any family who wants to prepare their child for the next level.

Ms. Orta's is a top-notch program that provides quality tutoring and mentorship. Most after school…read moreprograms cram students into a classroom and leave them to finish their homework with little to no supervision. Ms. Orta and her team, on the other hand, not only provide individual instruction but also teach students important study skills that will benefit them beyond the doors of middle school. For teenagers (and parents) who are having a challenging time with organization and focus, this House will surely help. In addition, the atmosphere is comfortable: students do their work in a home-style setting, eat healthy snacks, and interact with a collaborative community. Plus, students get to actually play outside - without the distractions of mobile devices. Ms. Orta's House is truly a San Mateo gem.

Ruby tutored me in the English and Mathematics subjects during middle school. She has patiently…read moreanswered all my questions during each session and taught me strategies on how to tackle challenging problems from multiple angles. Her holistic approach has helped me prepare for standardized testing, such as the ACT. I did well in the ACT, scoring a perfect score on the Reading section and a composite score of 34. I currently attend Brown University, concentrating in Health and Human Biology. I highly recommend Ruby as she is an effective and professional tutor.

Ruby is a fantastic tutor. My daughter has a lot of math anxiety and Ruby was always patient, kind…read moreand encouraging. Over the course of the year, my daughter's grades improved and her anxiety decreased. She even raised her performance on the SBAC test in the area of math by +120 points!

Ruby helped my son prepare for both the PSAT and SAT, and we found her to be friendly, helpful, and…read moreextremely effective. To prepare for the PSAT, my son took a group course with Ruby, and he found her advice and guidance extremely helpful. His scores on practice tests improved quickly, and he ended up scoring in the top 2% of all California students. For the SAT, we arranged for him to work with Ruby one-on-one, and he again found her advice to be valuable and the preparation extremely helpful.

Highly recommend Ruby for SAT math tutoring. My son needed a math tutor for his SAT prep. Ruby…read moreunderstood my son's needs, reviewed chapter by chapter, which my son found to be very helpful. With her help my son was able to score 1550 on his SAT. We highly recommend anyone who is looking for SAT math tutoring give Ruby a try, we did and it paid-off big time.

The tutors are highly supportive, and the private lessons were extremely productive, helping me…read moreimprove my kid SAT score in a short amount of time.

Best for SAT prep. Focused preparation on identifying weak areas and targeted coaching to get…read morebetter.

Chris is an outstanding counselor. He helped me write my essays for UCs and the Common App and…read moresupplementals for schools such as NYU and Columbia. His organization and the information he provides about all of the schools are amazing and reduced the stress of having to research all of the small things for each school I was interested in. The way he guided me to write the essay was efficient and saved me a lot of time as I didn't have to write the same essay for another question that was similar to the last. I was able to finish my essays by August. It was a big relief and the whole process seemed very manageable with his help. His ability to provide fluidity in my writing and his knowledge of college admissions helped me especially because my writing was "impenetrable" or difficult for someone who didn't know me to understand. Besides the support he gave me with essays, he was also very easily accessible and understanding. I had his number and if there was anything that came up in the way of a meeting, I could just text him and I got a response in less than an hour. Any rescheduling of a meeting was simple and caused no trouble. Chris is a very straightforward person and gave me the support and advice I needed to write my essays. He is also pretty funny and a down-to-earth person which helped as meetings didn't come as something I didn't want to do. Chris was a great college counselor and I recommend him as his understanding of the application process and his ability to tutor and write were a great help.

I come from a non-traditional educational background, having gone directly to the US Air Force out…read moreof high school, only to stare down my UC undergraduate applications at the age of 29. Chris helped calm my nerves during the entire process. Chris is patient and has a unique talent of channeling your talents with the best possible outcome. He reassured me that my uniqueness had value. He got me talking about my achievements, made me feel proud, and helped me coalesce my thoughts into an essay that won me acceptance to Cal. In fact, after my acceptance into Cal, the admissions team asked if they could publish my personal statement to help other prospective students. Out of thousands of applications, they remembered mine! I highly recommend Chris for anyone who struggles to put their thoughts to paper for a personal statement. Thanks to Chris, my life trajectory changed in ways I never imagined. Chris has also tutored me in other areas such as Math and Writing. Learning never ends and Chris is unceasingly helpful in all aspects of my life. He is the most incredible writer I have ever met. I also plan on using Chris' services when I enter the work force after college. Meticulously written cover letters, resumes and thank you notes will put you above the rest. Thank you Chris. I am forever grateful.

We've had an amazing experience with Mathnasium over the past 5 months…read more Our daughter used to struggle with math and had very little confidence--she would often say she was "bad at math." After her teacher suggested extra support, we explored a few options and immediately felt that Mathnasium was the best fit. Brenda and Elyse created such a warm, welcoming environment from day one. The change has been incredible. Now our daughter asks for harder problems and even begs for more time at the center--something we never expected! The instructors are friendly and consistent, and she's built great relationships with her favorite teachers, which makes her excited to keep going. We also love that they make learning fun with activities like Pi Day and even introduce real-life concepts like financial literacy. Seeing her apply math in practical ways has been eye-opening. Highly recommend Mathnasium Foster City--this place truly builds both skills and confidence!

I cannot say enough good words to Mathnasium. My daughter has been with Mathnasium for only a…read morecouple of months and has made fabulous progress. Most importantly, she becomes more confident not only with math but everything in her life! We are so lucky to find Mathnasium for my daughter and Brenda is definitely the key to make all of these possible!

My daughter started her academic journey at Futures Academy in San Mateo last year as a sophomore…read more She previously attended our local public high school as a Freshman. Futures Academy is a best fit for my daughter as it provides a personalized and flexible curriculum that allows her to continue to travel to other states to compete in tournaments with her rigorous practice regimen. My daughter loves the 1:1 teacher - student setting. Her teachers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic; they are passionate and mindful of her progress, strengths and weaknesses. All teachers and administrators truly care about her success and go above and beyond to make her thrive. She loves her History, English, Math, Spanish and Journalism classes. As parents, we can see a difference in her interest and learning capacity compared to her freshman school year at the public high school. Futures Academy had been very responsive and swift during the Covid-19 outbreak. They have already instituted online sessions during the first day of the Shelter-in-place order on 03/16. My daughter did not miss any school work and the online sessions had been very smooth. The school had provided us peace of mind during the outbreak. We highly recommend Futures Academy in San Mateo if your child fails to thrive at his/her current school.

My son is a student at Futures Academy in San Mateo. We enrolled him right before SIP began. It has…read morebeen a great experience. His teachers and the school have been very responsive to his needs and he engages in his learning in a way that did not happen before. I highly recommend Futures Academy. We are glad we found it!