For more than thirty years, I've studied how institutions construct merit.

Akil Bello is an educational access expert with more than three decades of experience working with underserved students and the organizations that support them.

Beginning as a proctor in 1990, Akil has worked in every level of test preparation from proctor to CEO, he has launched two companies, consulted with universities, developed dozens of preparation programs for more than ten different high-stakes tests, trained hundreds of instructors, and helped thousands of students achieve success.

Akil was founding partner and CEO for Bell Curves, a test preparation company where he worked extensively to improve outcomes for low-income and under-represented students. After successfully selling Bell Curves, Akil worked as the Director of Equity and Access at one of the largest test prep and publishing companies, where his focus was on helping public schools, non-profit organizations, and community-based organizations understand standardized tests and develop affordable solutions for their students. He left test preparation to work on testing policy as Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement at FairTest, where he worked to build resources and tools to ensure that large scale assessment tests are used in a more limited, transparent, and responsible way to benefit students.

Akil continues to research, write, and speak extensively about access and policies that act as gate-keepers to educational opportunities. He has been quoted, cited, and featured across a wide range of media outlets from MSNBC's Morning Joe to the Chronicle of Higher Education to Forbes.

Currently, Akil serves as Director of College Advising and FAFSA Completion Implementation at SUNY where he works to strengthen college access and improve FAFSA completion rates for underserved students. Akil resides in New York City with his beautiful wife and two amazing sons.

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.

His 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 recognized expert at teaching people how to distinguish between A, B, C, and D (and fill out forms with their personal information).

Now entering his fourth decade in the shadow education industry, he is a self-declared sport tester who takes standardized tests recreationally until he gets flagged, banned, or politely asked to stop. (Thanks, GMAC.) He has spent years helping families navigate everything from the APGAR to the FAFSA to the SRAR to the GMAT to whatever new bureaucratic acronym someone invents next.

Described as a refreshing mix of brilliance and foolishness, Akil combines deep research, policy wonkery, and a sardonic wit to make sense of testing, merit, educational access, and the absurd ecosystems built around them. He has appeared in documentaries (what his teenage son calls "adult films"), national newspapers, conference keynotes, cable news segments, podcasts, livestreams, and whatever cursed corner of social media was demanding his attention that week.

Akil is also an edtech bro who once sold his startup, Bell Curves, for approximately negative three times revenue. After leaving the socially responsible test prep company he co-founded with his favorite brother, he served as Director of Equity and Access at The Princeton Review before moving into education policy, consulting with universities, nonprofits, foundations, media organizations, and policymakers on admissions, testing, and access.

In high school, his best SAT score was a 1040, and his GPA remains classified. His college search criteria were "no essay" and "in New York." He attended three colleges, declared three majors, and earned one architecture degree (a field related to his current work in roughly the same way humans are related to kangaroos).

Despite this deeply questionable origin story, Akil somehow coined the term "highly rejective colleges," got it into the Congressional Record, inspired at least one TED Talk, and landed himself in Urban Dictionary, which remains one of his prouder and more confusing accomplishments.

Akil currently lives in New York City with his wife, two sons (a high school senior and college sophomore), his internet daughter Enid-Michelle, and an alarming number of opinions.