Loren Pope (1910-2008) was education editor of the New York Times in the 1950s. In 1965 he opened the College Placement Bureau in Washington, D.C., to help families of college-bound students make informed choices. He was also the author of Looking Beyond the Ivy League and wrote numerous articles about the college application process.

Hilary Masell Oswald
lives in Denver, Colorado, where she writes about education, architecture and design, and public policy. Her work has appeared in Newsday, the Chicago Tribune, Edutopia, and other publications and websites.