Brennan Barnard

Brennan Barnard, M.Ed is the Director of College Counseling at Khan Lab School, CA. He is also the College Admissions Program Advisor with the Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Director of College Counseling for the College Guidance Network. He was the founding Director of College Counseling for US Performance Academy, an on-line independent high school for elite athletes. During over two decades in education Brennan has worked as a teacher, coach, dorm parent, admission officer, counselor and administrator at a number of independent high schools and colleges. He has counseled Olympians, thespians, artists, cadets, social workers, engineers, philosophers, doctors, writers, lawyers and everything in between. Brennan is a member of the Advisory Board for the New Hampshire College and University Council’s New Hampshire Scholars Program and on the Executive Committee for the Character Collaborative. He presents regularly on character, athletic recruiting, mindfulness, discipline and other topics in college admission. A contributing writer for Forbes.com, he has written about college admission for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Thrive Global, HuffPost, San Francisco Examiner, New York Times, Concord Monitor, Journal of College Admission and other publications. He has also been featured in articles in the Boston Globe and Associated Press and an occasional featured guest on New Hampshire Public Radio. He has been interviewed about college admission by New England Cable News and ABC News. Brennan was a New England Association of College Admission Counselors Professional of the Year for 2017 and honored with the Association for College Counselors in Independent Schools’ Excellence in Counseling Award in 2021. He is co-author of, "The Truth About College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together" and the new companion guide “The Truth about College Admission Workbook: A Family Organizer for Your College Search.” A native of suburban Philadelphia and practicing Quaker, he is a graduate of Westtown Friends School. Brennan earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from The University of Vermont. This father of two lives in Hopkinton, New Hampshire where he is a volunteer firefighter.