Sarah Tierney founded Mosaic Admissions in 1999 to help high school students and their parents navigate the complex college admissions process. She has over thirty years of experience in college admissions and higher education marketing. She was a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Chicago Schools Committee for ten years and a member of the Rocky Mountain Harvard Club’s Schools Committee for six years.
As a Schools Committee member, Sarah interviewed and assessed Harvard applicants, working closely with the Harvard College Admissions Office. She also worked as an application reader for Northwestern University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, evaluating student applications and making admissions recommendations. Since 2001, Sarah has consulted to the admissions offices of colleges and universities such as the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia, helping them to develop their recruitment strategies and admissions materials.
Before she decided to focus exclusively on college admissions, Sarah served as an Account Executive with the global advertising agency Leo Burnett, and as an Operations Manager with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Later, she was a Senior Account Manager at Creative Communication Associates and an Independent Marketing Consultant at Lipman Hearne, consulting firms that specialize in college marketing and recruitment.
Sarah graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where she majored in English and American Literature and Language, while concurrently enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music, studying bassoon performance. In 1995, she earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, concentrating in marketing, management strategy, and organizational behavior. She began her career as a professional bassoonist, and was one of six musicians in the United States to be named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 1984.
