Shannon holds a BA and an MBA from Yale University, and brings firsthand perspective to today’s admissions landscape from her experience in Yale’s Undergraduate Admissions Office, where she worked as a reader. Reviewing and rating all aspects of applications for the Admissions Committee enabled her to gain a refined sense of what makes a student stand out amidst ever more competitive applicant pools. Shannon also interviewed Yale applicants for six years as a former Yale alumni interviewer. For the past five years, Shannon has advised students from across the country and around the world throughout the college admissions process; a list of schools where Collegiate Compass clients have been accepted can be found here.

Shannon is a contributing author of Untangling the Ivy League, published by the college guidebook company College Prowler in Fall 2006, and is also the author of two academic papers relating to college admissions: “The Value of Legacy Preferences in Admissions at Selective Private Colleges”(2004), and “Collegiate Athletics: Comparing Stanford, Duke, and the Ivy League” (2005). She has had numerous speaking engagements on the topic of college admissions for groups such as the Penn Alumni Association of New York and Yale’s Summer Rowing Programs. Shannon holds a Certificate in College Counseling from UCLA Extension and volunteered in the college counseling office at Choate Rosemary Hall as part of the practicum portion of this program.

Before working as an educational consultant, Shannon completed Lehman Brothers' analyst program in structured finance, and worked as an associate in asset management for two years thereafter. She was active in recruiting throughout her four years on Wall Street, giving her a unique perspective on what employers are looking for in both interns and full-time hires. Between years of business school, Shannon worked at the investment bank Allen & Company in New York.

As an undergraduate at Yale, Shannon was a nine-time varsity letter winner as a three-season athlete (cross-country, indoor and outdoor track) and was the captain of the 1998 Women's Cross Country Team. She remains an avid competitive runner, finishing in the top 20 women in the 2004 Marine Corps Marathon, and the top 35 American women in the 2005 NYC Marathon.

Dan Blednick graduated with distinction from Amherst College and also holds a Masters Degree in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts. At Amherst, Dan was a four-year starting catcher for the baseball team; he earned rookie of the year honors in his first season, NCAA all-tournament selection in his junior year, and served as Captain in his senior year.

After college, Dan played professional baseball in Europe. As a member of the Regensburg Legionaire in the German Bundesliga, he was a four-time German All-Star. He also coached numerous youth teams in their native language, volunteered with the Bavarian select team, and was involved in a wealth of community service projects and baseball clinics.

From 2003 to 2005, Dan worked as an assistant coach for the Amherst College baseball team. In this role, Dan worked primarily with hitters and catchers, and helped manage all aspects of the athletic recruiting process. In addition, Dan traveled to England in 2004 to work as an assistant coach for Great Britain’s national baseball team to aid in their preparation for the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Throughout 2005, Dan worked as an advisor to student athletes navigating the college admissions and recruiting process in the Washington, DC area. He also currently serves as the Director of College Guidance for a non-profit organization in New York City that helps high achieving, low-income students attend top high schools. Dan lives in Manhattan, and enjoys traveling, visiting colleges, and volunteering.