Rachel Toor is the author of five books of nonfiction and a young adult novel. She has been an editor of scholarly books, a college admissions officer, a high school cross country coach, a college counselor, an SAT, MCAT, GMAT, LSAT, and GRE prep class teacher, a freelance writer, and the devoted companion of an assortment of pets. A long-time columnist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and now a contributing editor at Inside Higher Ed, she is the author most recently of Write Your Way In: Crafting An Unforgettable College Admissions Essay. Her next book, Why You, Why Me, Why Now, provides advice for recent college grads on applying for jobs and will be published in early 2024 by the University of Chicago Press. She is a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, where she lives with husband Toby and her dog Harry.