Educator. Researcher. Advocate. More than thirty years in.
His work spans testing policy, college access, and educational equity. The through line is always the same: the system works better when more people understand how it actually works.
Akil Bello is an educational access expert with more than three decades of experience in admissions testing, policy, and advocacy. Beginning as a test proctor in 1990, he has worked at every level of the field: launching companies, consulting with universities, developing preparation programs for more than ten high-stakes tests, training hundreds of instructors, and helping thousands of students succeed.
As founding partner and CEO of Bell Curves, Akil built a test preparation company focused on improving outcomes for low-income and underrepresented students through community partnerships and affordable solutions. He subsequently served as Director of Equity and Access at The Princeton Review, helping public schools, nonprofits, and community-based organizations develop accessible approaches to standardized testing. He then served as Senior Director of Advocacy at FairTest, where he shaped national admissions testing policy and championed the responsible use of large-scale assessments.
Currently, Akil serves as Director of College Advising and FAFSA Completion Implementation at SUNY, leading partnerships with New York City Public Schools to strengthen college access infrastructure and improve FAFSA completion rates for underserved students. He is also enrolled in the Master of Public Policy program at Stony Brook University.
A nationally recognized authority on admissions, testing, and educational access, Akil is frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, and Vanity Fair, and has contributed authored work to the Washington Post, Forbes, Inside Higher Ed, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been featured in Netflix's Operation Varsity Blues and has delivered keynote addresses for audiences ranging from university administrators to Fortune 500 executives. His coined term "highly rejective colleges" has entered the Congressional Record, inspired TED Talks, and been added to the Urban Dictionary.
Akil attended the University of the Virgin Islands, an HBCU, before earning his bachelor's degree from Pratt Institute. He resides in New York City with his wife and two sons, both currently in college.
Akil Bello is an international titan of the shadow education industry who has spent more than thirty years examining standardized testing from every conceivable angle: test taker, test cheater, College Board proctor, tutor, trainer, program developer, test prep CEO, researcher, journalist, and policy advocate. He is an admissions testing expert with no psychometric training, a nationally recognized college admissions policy wonk with no advanced degree, and an entrepreneur of the week and 40 Under 40 award winner who never attended business school. His expertise wasn't handed to him. It was earned in the trenches.
As founding partner and CEO of Bell Curves, he built a test prep company designed to actually help the students the industry routinely ignores: low-income kids, underrepresented communities, public schools without resources. He then sold the company for a figure best left unmentioned. He served as Director of Equity and Access at The Princeton Review, then pivoted to FairTest to spend several years working to end the overuse of the very tests he'd spent his career teaching students to beat. He is currently Director of College Advising and FAFSA Completion Implementation at SUNY, where he leads partnerships with New York City Public Schools to expand college access and improve FAFSA completion rates — work that is considerably less lucrative and considerably more important than his previous life.
Akil's pointed commentary has shaped the higher education conversation with the precision of someone who has seen every angle of the machine. His term "highly rejective colleges" has been entered into the Congressional Record, cited in TED Talks, written up in nearly every major newspaper, and added to the Urban Dictionary. His analysis appears regularly in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and the Wall Street Journal. He was featured in Netflix's Operation Varsity Blues and his behind-the-scenes consulting helped the film reach the top of Netflix's charts.
He is described, accurately, as "a refreshing mix of brilliance and foolishness" and "dually wonderful and terrible." He has been called snarky and diabolical by people who meant it as a compliment.
Akil attended the University of the Virgin Islands, an HBCU, then St. John's University, then Pratt Institute: three schools, three declared majors, one degree in architecture, a field related to his current work in roughly the same way humans are related to kangaroos. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons, one in college and one about to start.
Akil Bello is an educator, speaker, entrepreneur, and nationally renowned expert at teaching people how to distinguish between A, B, C, and D. Going on his fourth decade in the shadow education industry, he has developed dozens of admissions and test preparation programs, trained hundreds of teachers, presented at dozens of conferences and colleges, and helped thousands of students prepare for standardized tests from the APGAR to the LSAT.
Described as a refreshing mix of brilliance and foolishness, Akil is a public intellectual who combines deep research with a sardonic wit to inform the public about issues of testing, equity, and educational access. He has been featured in adult films (his teenager's word for documentaries), national newspapers, at conference keynotes, on the computer screen, and even on your mobile phone, where his legendary Twitter pseudonyms and hatereads have earned him millions of likes and retweets.
Akil is also an edtech bro who once sold his startup, Bell Curves, for negative 3x revenue. After leaving the socially responsible test preparation company he founded with his favorite brother, Akil served as the Director of Equity and Access for The Princeton Review, where he continued to work to increase access to education for disadvantaged communities. He then served as Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement at FairTest, working to end his more lucrative part-time job as a highly paid test prep tutor. Akil is currently Director of College Advising and FAFSA Completion Implementation at SUNY, where he leads partnerships with New York City Public Schools — work that is considerably more important than anything else on this page.
Akil lives in the birthplace of hip-hop with his wife and two sons. He is untainted by Ivy League credentials and holds a bachelor's degree from THE illustrious Atlanta A&T University, a proud HBCU.
