Brandon Edwards
Advisor, College Admissions
How do you like to spend your free time? Or what do you wish you had more time to do?
Whether hiking along the Appalachian Trail or skiing in Utah or Vermont, I love being outdoors. The same goes for growing dahlias in my garden, keeping two beehives, or doing landscape photography. In addition to these, I enjoy baking (homemade Oreos anyone?), cooking, travel, and always wish I had more time to spend with my family and English Spring Spaniel pup.
Briefly describe your education and years of experience that qualify you to tutor your
subject.
I received my PhD from Harvard University in 2023 after successfully defending my dissertation, The search for the ‘right’ college: An ethnographic and ecological study of White evangelical post-secondary decision-making. I also earned three master’s degrees—two from Harvard Divinity School and one from the Harvard Graduate School of Education—and received my bachelor’s (magna cum laude) from Wake Forest University. Trained as a philosopher of education, I am qualified to help you think about what you most want to get out of your
collegiate experience.
Beyond my degrees, I have been fortunate to serve in several student-facing roles that also qualify me to assist with college admissions essays. For instance, I served as a first-year academic advisor at Harvard College, where I was awarded the Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising. I also worked as a Teaching Fellow (and ultimately Lead Teaching Fellow) at the Harvard Writing Center, where I had individual writing consultations with students about their academic work.
Why do you want to be a tutor/what do you enjoy most about working with students?
Simply put, I love the energy and excitement that accompanies the college selection process. It’s such a special time in your life and it would be a privilege to help you navigate it!
Describe a formative educational experience OR who your favorite teacher was and why.
Without a doubt, one of my most formative educational experiences includes reading and doing homework with my mom when I was in elementary school. She instilled in me a love for education, and appreciation for its power to transform minds and lives. I always dedicate my learning to her!
What is on your career “bucket list?”
I am currently in the process of revising my dissertation into a book-length monograph that I hope to publish in the next year or 18 months.
What truly inspires you?
We seemingly live in divided times where it is perhaps easiest to hang out only with people who are like us. And a byproduct of this is that we tend to reduce the people we encounter who are different as “other.” As an antidote, I recommend Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story.” She—among others—inspires me to see individuals in all their complexity and nuance. Once we do so, we see beauty in all people.
What’s one unusual thing about you that not many people know?
When living in New England, I summited all 48 4,000’ peaks in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. I’ve also completed a similar challenge by doing the same for all 6,000’ peaks east of the Mississippi (to be fair, most of these are in my home state of North Carolina, which made it easier).