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Regional Admissions Counselors
Regional Admissions Counselors
Caltech admissions counselors are assigned to different regions of the United States and the world. If our website hasn't answered your question, contact us!
Related Pages 
To contact your counselor:
- Search or scroll through the tables below to find the counselor assigned to the location where you attend school.
- Find your counselor's contact information and some of their favorite things further down on this page.
| U.S. Location | Counselor |
|---|---|
| APO/FPO Schools | Karla Paulina Arriaga |
| U.S. Territories | Karla Paulina Arriaga |
| Homeschool | Jann Lacoss |
| Alabama | Sophia Stills |
| Alaska | Andres Diaz |
| Arizona | Sophia Stills |
| Arkansas | Sophia Stills |
| California (Central Coast, Santa Barbara) | Sophia Stills |
| California (Central Valley) | Andres Diaz |
| California (Covina, Whittier) | Melissa Rodriguez |
| California (Glendale, Pasadena) | Sophia Stills |
| California (Greater Imperial Valley) | Melissa Rodriguez |
| California (Long Beach, South Bay) | Melissa Rodriguez |
| California (Los Angeles) | Nicolas Lee |
| California (Northern California) | Karla Paulina Arriaga |
| California (Orange County) | Melissa Rodriguez |
| California (Riverside, San Bernardino, & Ontario) | Andres Diaz |
| California (San Diego) | Melissa Rodriguez |
| California (San Fernando Valley) | Sophia Stills |
| Colorado | Karla Paulina Arriaga |
| Connecticut | Andres Diaz |
| Delaware | Melissa Rodriguez |
| District of Columbia | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Florida | Andres Diaz |
| Georgia | Sophia Stills |
| Hawai'i | Nicolas Lee |
| Idaho | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Illinois (not including Chicago) | Andres Diaz |
| Illinois (Chicago) | Ashley Pallie |
| Indiana | Andres Diaz |
| Iowa | Andres Diaz |
| Kansas | Andres Diaz |
| Kentucky | Sophia Stills |
| Louisana | Sophia Stills |
| Maine | Andres Diaz |
| Maryland | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Massachusetts | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Michigan | Sophia Stills |
| Minnesota | Andres Diaz |
| Mississippi | Sophia Stills |
| Missouri | Andres Diaz |
| Montana | Andres Diaz |
| Nebraska | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Nevada | Johanna Araujo |
| New Hampshire | Andres Diaz |
| New Jersey | Nicolas Lee |
| New Mexico | Melissa Rodriguez |
| New York | Nicolas Lee |
| North Carolina | Andres Diaz |
| North Dakota | Sophia Stills |
| Ohio | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Oklahoma | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Oregon | Sophia Stills |
| Pennsylvania | Sophia Stills |
| Rhode Island | Andres Diaz |
| South Carolina | Andres Diaz |
| South Dakota | Sophia Stills |
| Tennessee | Sophia Stills |
| Texas | Nicolas Lee |
| Utah | Sophia Stills |
| Vermont | Andres Diaz |
| Virginia | Sophia Stills |
| Washington | Tessa Tweet |
| West Virginia | Jann Lacoss |
| Wisconsin | Melissa Rodriguez |
| Wyoming | Melissa Rodriguez |
| International Location | Counselor |
|---|---|
| Americas (not including Mexico) | Johanna Araujo |
| Asia (not including India) | Jann Lacoss |
| Europe (not including Spain) | Jann Lacoss |
| India | Tessa Tweet |
| Mexico | Karla Paulina Arriaga |
| Middle East | Jann Lacoss |
| North Africa | Jann Lacoss |
| Oceania | Jann Lacoss |
| Spain | Karla Paulina Arriaga |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Ashley Pallie |
Admissions Counselors
Ashley M. Pallie, Director of Undergraduate Admissions
Email: [email protected]
- Favorite quote: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and evolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -Stephen Jay Gould
- Favorite drink: Caribbean Passion smoothie at Jamba Juice
- Favorite TV show binge: Big Bang Theory (stop judging me! I loved it before working here).
Johanna Araujo, Senior Associate Director
Email: [email protected]
Speaks Spanish
- Favorite place on campus: The "Gene Pool" is a reflecting pool whose colored floor tiles are laid in a double-helical pattern similar to DNA strands. It's Ditch Day famous!
- Favorite food: My mom's fried black beans, pupusas, fruit
- Favorite book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Jann Lacoss, Ph.D., Associate Director
Email: [email protected]
Speaks Russian and French
- Favorite quote: "Good is not thing you are...It is a thing you do." - from Ms. Marvel
- Favorite food: Green beans --hands down. Favorite dish to cook: Algerian couscous stew.
- Favorite Caltech fact: Caltech Hall has a synchronized vibration generator (a "shaker") so that scientists can perform forced vibration tests. That is, they can simulate what the building would do in an earthquake
Karla Paulina Arriaga, Senior Assistant Director
Email: [email protected]
Speaks Spanish
- Favorite Option offered at Caltech: Bioengineering
- Favorite snack: fresh red cherries, TJ's Thai Lime & Chili Almonds
- Favorite book: Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Tessa Tweet, Assistant Director
Email: [email protected]
- Favorite quote: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut
- Favorite food: anything with passion fruit
- Favorite Caltech fact: I love this poem written by Richard Brautigan when he was Caltech's 1967 poet-in-residence
Sophia Stills, Admissions Counselor
Email: [email protected]
- Favorite quote: "The function of freedom is to free somebody else." -Toni Morrison
- Favorite books: Passing by Nella Larsen and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Favorite TV show binge: Teenage Bounty Hunters, Why Are You Like This
Nicolas (Nic) Lee, Admissions Counselor
Email: [email protected]
- Favorite Option offered at Caltech: Mathematics (my major in college)
- Favorite dish: Anything with rice or noodles in any form
- Favorite TV show binge: A tie between Bob's Burgers and Law and Order: SVU
Andres Diaz, Admissions Counselor
Email: [email protected]
Speaks Spanish
- Favorite quote: "Why so serious?"
- Favorite movie: Pan's Labyrinth
- Favorite Caltech fact: The Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring the Red Planet since 2012.
Melissa Rodriguez, Admissions Counselor
Email: [email protected]
Speaks Spanish
- Favorite quote: "The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy." -bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress
- Favorite place on campus: The top floor of Caltech Hall--beautiful 360 views of greater Los Angeles!
- Favorite Option offered at Caltech: Philosophy (an interesting complement to so much STEM; also, one of my undergraduate majors)