Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Stucker.
Hi Mark, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was doing boarding school admissions and college counseling in Philadelphia from 2001-2009 but I wanted to move to Atlanta. I liked the weather, the cost of living and the thriving professional black community in Atlanta. I worked closely with the KIPP school district in Philadelphia, and Mark Manella, the superintendent, knew David Jernigan, the superintendent of KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools, so we called him on my behalf in early 2009, and we moved sold our home during the worst time and moved to Atlanta in 2009. After six months at KIPP, one parent said, can you work with my brother or people in my fraternity to help them find the right school? With KIPP’s permission, I launched School Match 4U in 2010. We mainly did college counseling and some boarding school placement. From 2011-2016, I thought we would make product development our primary goal and consulting our secondary pursuit. We produced the Game Changer college admission video in 2014, the “A Secret World documentary” in 2016 and I wrote the book, “171 Answers” in 2017. I didn’t know what I was doing when it came to marketing, so I lost a lot of money. I spent $100,000 on the Game Changer video series and only made $35,0000.
I spent over $30,000 on the A Secret World Documentary and barely made $10,000. The college admissions book, “171 Answers to the Most-Asked College Admission questions is the only product that made money, but I learned that the book, documentary series, and video series did cause the consulting business to grow. I was doing a presentation about the video series in Buckhead, and a lady said, but I want to work with you. In 2018, we started the podcast “Your College-Bound Kid”. We just had our 300th episode. We have seven co-hosts and a team of 17. According to Apple’s rankings, we are the #1 podcast on college admissions in the “Education for Kids” space. We go live every Monday and every Thursday with an episode. I left my position as Director of College Counseling at KIPP. I had to hire more college counselors, so I hired Dr. Rouff in Chapel Hill, NC and Lynda Doepker from Metro St. Louis. Kevin Newton is our International specialist; he is in Dallas. We now work with over 100 students in every class and we focus exclusively on placing undergraduates in US and Canadian colleges… We do all counseling by Zoom video and we worked with students in more than 30 states last year.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was a rocky road from 2011-2016. I explained all of that in the previous space, but things have gone well since 2017.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about School Match 4U, INC?
I answered much of this in my first answer, but I will add some things. I am proud of our commitment to excellence. We are very comprehensive and it is rare for us to not exceed expectations. This is true for college list-building, admissions strategy, scholarship advice; the detailed reports we provide and how well we communicate with our clients. This is year 24 of me helping kids find the right college, so we have more knowledge than most of our competitors, but what really sets us apart is our services would cost 2 to 3x our costs by those who do what we do, but we keep our prices intentionally low because we don’t want a family of average means to not be able to afford us. We are constantly told our prices are too low but we have the commitment to make our services affordable to the people who need our services the most. All of our counselors LOVE working with students, we are very passionate about what we do. We are also a team, and most independent educational companies have one person doing everything, but we have a team of professionals who are specialists in their areas of expertise. There are very few black males who are founders and owners of Independent Educational companies. My work with under-resourced families for the 14 years I was at KIPP to not forget those who find it hard to afford a private college coach. Another distinction is now diverse our clientele is: over 30 states, over 20% Jewish, 20% Asian, 20% black, Most of our families can afford the cost of college but a large number can’t and they need our expertise. Most IEC companies overwhelmingly work with families who can afford the cost of college. We have a lot of socio-economic diversity compared to our competitors.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love how Atlanta is a place for budding entrepreneurs. I love how so many people here have relocated here and there is so much receptiveness to transplants from other regions. I love the size and mentality of the black professional community. I love how much house and land you can get compared to other major cities.
I don’t like how racially divided the state is. I don’t like that crime is high and that there is still too much of an opportunity gap between well-resourced and less-resourced families.
Overall, I love Atlanta and have no plans ever to move, even though my 26-year-old lives in Charlotte and my 24-year-old lives in Raleigh, both of whom work in Higher Education.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://schoolmatch4u.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markstuckercollegehelp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourcollegeboundkid
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/5140835/admin/
- Twitter: @YCBKpodcast
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Schoolmatch4uproducts/playlists
- Other: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/
