Today we’d like to introduce you to John Swartwood.
John, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was originally a pre-med, but soon realized that I could not handle people dying. Switching gears, I became an undergrad studying psychology & classics. I ran through a number of part-time jobs while in college (a waiter, a telemarketer, some commercial print, Best Buy, test prep, etc.) After constant nagging from friends and family worried about me serving fries for the rest of my life, I decided to switch gears again and try out math for a summer. That summer turned into a fall and then a spring semester during which an advisor of mine suggested that I apply to a couple of grad schools to see how I would fare. I applied to UCLA and was accepted into their math program.
While in grad school, I was a teaching assistant for three departments at UCLA, math, psychology, and communications. During that time, I had a number of pre-med students who asked me to help them with the MCAT. Since I had actually taught MCAT, DAT, LSAT, and some other tests for a large company during my undergrad years (one of my collection of part-time jobs that actually became a full-time job), I thought I could help them out…
I met my wife while in grad school. She was the friend of one of my study buddies, and it was love-at-first-sight. Sounds cliche, but it’s true. We clicked right away.
We got married, and I started thinking about what I really wanted to do. Teaching seemed more fun to me than research. My advisor, of course, probably thought I was nuts… We were living out of my wife’s car and running MCAT, DAT, and GRE classes for groups of students when, out of the blue, a visit one day to Louise Howard at David Geffen Medical School led to an offer to teach MCAT for the RAP/PREP program.
I took it, and it went well… well enough that the success there- coupled with the feedback from classes we were running near campus- helped us seriously think about testprep as a future. More classes led to more word of mouth and catching the eye of an investor. Soon after, we found ourselves in an office in Westwood Village.
Word of mouth spread and classes started getting larger- 20 something to 80 something. After that more investors came along and the company turned into an S Corp.
Many interesting and entertaining students later, our company continues to do what we do best: helping students find their way. Our courses are centered around the teaching and around our students’ goals. It never gets old seeing them succeed (UCSF Dental, Harvard Med, Johns Hopkins Med, Stanford Med, etc.). We believe that they really will make a difference in the world. We continue to run our main classes in West LA and live here with our two sons (one on the way). Our main teaching offices are in Westwood Village, right next to UCLA campus.
Has it been a smooth road?
In the beginning, it was tough- constantly being hounded by the much larger companies. I never suspected that testprep would be so cutthroat. As in many industries, the dominant companies in test preparation like to pluck out the budding ones before they can become a threat. At least, that is the way they approached us. In retrospect, I guess we should have been flattered- though it did not feel like a compliment at the time. In way we owe them a debt as the they actually helped push us to improve. As the old saying goes, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Swartwood Testing, Admissions and Review – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our company is SWARTWOOD Testing, Admissions, & Review. We focus on preparing students for the MCAT (medical school), DAT (dental school), GRE (graduate school, business school, and some law schools), PCAT (pharmacy school), OAT (optometry school), and university classes (such as physics at UCLA). We also run admissions help.
We are known most for our testprep (MCAT, DAT, etc.). What sets us apart is the teaching. Everyone can say that they care about their instruction, but we have made a business out of it. Although we are local, we get students from across the country, especially in the summer (Florida, Yale, Harvard, BU, Johns Hopkins, etc.), so the diversity always makes class interesting. Since we are primarily in one location, our classes tend to be much larger, average 84 students per cycle, than typical prep classes. Large lecture, however, has always been a favorite of mine, so students do not seem to mind. The students we encounter are clever & motivated, but also fun. They don’t just come from different schools; they come from a wide variety of different cultures, backgrounds, and even countries. So, if you put in the effort to teach them the right way, you get to see how interesting they are.
In particular, our MCAT courses are known for teaching students how to think about the test, not just the content. It takes effort to teach students how about the tests from a new perspective and how to approach the content in a way that is meaningful for their exams- and for them, period. We push our instructors to “put in the time.”
What are we most proud of? Our students. They make everything worth it. That sounds a bit trite, but if you met them, you would know. Given any cycle, I can find someone about whom you would say, “Now, that is someone I want to be my doctor…”
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the diversity and culture of the Los Angeles area. You run a few miles west, and you hit the beach. But, even then, you have options. You could drive down to Muscle Beach and try out the monkey rings, head up north to walk on the Santa Monica pier, or kick back in Malibu and grab some food- Moonshadows, Nobu, Duke’s. Visit Erin McKenna’s Bakery for some gluten free chocolate cupcakes, grab coffee on Montana Ave, drop by the revamped shopping center in Century City, eat at Japantown on Sawtelle, or stroll down Rodeo… The list just keeps on going (the Grove, Griffith Observatory, the Getty, etc.). I know. I sound like an ad for LA, but there’s so many things to do, and everything is so close.
Any complaints would fall under the standard ones that you find in any city- save, of course, for the traffic. Every place has traffic, but anyone living here knows the joy of having your GPS read that your destination is 2 miles BUT somehow 30min away.
Pricing:
- SWARTWOOD Only MCAT $2499
- SWARTWOOD Only Intensive MCAT $3999
- MCAT non-SW Only $2199
- SWARTWOOD Only DAT $1890
- SWARTWOOD GRE Course $1100
- SWARTWOOD GRE Math Online $499
- SWARTWOOD OAT $1990
- SWARTWOOD PCAT $1890
Contact Info:
- Address: SWARTWOOD
911 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024 - Website: www.swartwoodprep.com
- Phone: 310-999-1073
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwartwoodInc/?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=swartwoodprep&src=typd&lang=en
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/user/SWARTWOODPREP
Image Credit:
SWARTWOOD, Inc.
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