Matthew Libby

New York University, M.F.A. candidate in Dramatic Writing, Tisch School of the Arts; Stanford University, 2017, B.S. in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Cognitive Science, minor in Creative Writing, Honors in the Arts, 3.84 GPA

From middle school on Matt balanced a healthy obsession in the humanities and performing arts with a fascination for math and quantitative problem solving. He worked on a play literally every semester of middle and high school, while at the same time taking the most rigorous academic courses available to him. He won senior awards in Film and Playwriting at his high school, Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica California.

At Stanford, Matt majored in Symbolic Systems, an interdisciplinary program combining Psychology and Philosophy with Computer Science and Linguistics, with a bit of Biology and Design thrown in for good measure. He concentrated in Cognitive Science, which further brought in Neuroscience, Communications, and more. When he wasn’t in the classroom, Matt acted and directed in a Shakespeare company, wrote for the annual campus comedy musical, received a research grant to create a screenplay in London, and served as a freshman Resident Assistant. For two years, he acted as the Film & Television Editor for the Stanford Arts Review, an online arts publication, during which time he worked with writers on dozens of critical articles, providing feedback and developing the pieces into publishable shape. In addition, Matt was a campus tour guide, an experience that gave him skills in communication and public speaking; in his senior year, he was promoted to Manager, and part of his job was working with recent hires to put together their tours in a way that tells their personal stories most effectively. These days, Matt continues to engage with film, theater, writing, and academia as he pursues an M.A. in Dramatic Writing (a joint playwriting, screenwriting, and television writing program) at NYU Tisch. A lot of the time, he tells stories about brains — human or computer.

Matt started tutoring during his junior year in high school. He volunteered at 826LA, a non profit supporting writing skills in elementary, middle, and high schools in the Los Angeles area. Later on, through his experience working with writers and tour guides and studying decision-making, he knows every individual’s approach to difficult problems is going to be different, and perhaps different depending on the problem. The goal is to have as large a toolbox of strategies to draw on as possible – Matt believes if a student can develop both a quantitative and creative mindset, they are formulating such a toolbox. Working in students with this approach is nothing short of a thrill. In addition to select coursework support, Matt has years of experience and specializes in the SAT, ACT, SSAT, and ISEE.