Meet Maia
A former UC application reader, a Stanford and UC Irvine graduate, and 8+ years as a college counselor.
I received my B.A. in English from Stanford University, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in English from UC Irvine. At UC Irvine, I taught freshman composition and introductory courses for English majors, and at the time, planned to become a professor of 18th-Century British Literature.
I first started working with high school students while I was still in graduate school, tutoring students in English, literature, and writing. As my students became more familiar with me, they started to ask for help in more and more areas; soon, I was helping with test prep for the SAT, ACT, and APs, as well as with college admission essays. Often, they would also ask me for general advice about preparing for college and where to apply. I began to discover that I preferred working with high school students one-on-one to teaching in a college classroom.
After graduate school, I worked for the Johns Hopkins CTYOnline program, teaching writing to high school students. I then accepted a position at Loyola Marymount University’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles, where I was a lead researcher on a study of superintendents in Los Angeles County, and regularly worked with student researchers to help them improve their writing. Throughout this time, I continued working as a private tutor, focusing on helping students with college admissions essays.
I decided it was time to fully commit to a new direction for my career. I started working as a UC application reader. I enrolled in UCLA’s certificate program in College Counseling and soon began working full-time as a college counselor for an educational consulting business in Southern California. There, I received excellent training from experienced counselors as I completed my counseling certificate.
Through Lodestar College Counseling, I have been able to focus my priorities as a counselor. While strategically planning out students’ high school years and optimizing their college applications for best results has always been central to my work and training, I believe easing the stress of the college preparation process for students and their families is equally important and I wanted to make that more central to my work.
At Lodestar, I am able to limit the number of students I work with each year so I can be more fully available to support families at every stage of the process. I can offer flexible packages that adapt to families’ varying needs and students’ varying work styles, allowing me to better support students from a variety of backgrounds, interests, and identities. Developing a counseling relationship where I truly understand your unique needs is extremely important to me. I want you to always feel 100% supported through the path to college, and I adapt my counseling practice according to your goals and circumstances.
Fun Facts
I was once quoted in a Newsweek article as saying my cat “tells me where to go and what to do,” which… is actually true.
When I was fourteen, I legally changed my name from Christina to Maia, which at the time I used when pretending to be a Jedi princess.
For my Ph.D. in eighteenth-century British Literature I wrote a dissertation about the Gothic and the history of science. It has a proper fancy name, but really should have been titled “Science is Creepy.”
My favorite Disneyland ride is Peter Pan’s Flight.
Maia Krause
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