Michael DePalatis

Bio

Mike grew up camping, skiing, and reading in the mountains of Western Maryland. (Yes, people actually live out there. There are several of us! Several!) He was a scientist from a young age, relentless in his pursuit of knowledge, even when his curiosity led to him flooding the basement at the age of four. (He maintains to this day that his experimental design was conceptually sound.) Mike has a BS in Chemistry from the University of Maryland, studied graduate level Chemical Engineering at Villanova University, and has experience manufacturing everything from pharmaceuticals to household cleaners.

A proud and unapologetic nerd, Mike can talk for hours about board games, baseball, and Star Trek. He is a firm believer in the necessity of the Oxford comma and in the coolness of dinosaurs (and feathers make them even cooler). When not helping students at PrepMatters, you can usually find Mike with his nose in a book. (WARNING: Don’t ask him about books unless you’ve got at least an hour to spare.)

Philosophy

I believe that the most important lesson anyone can learn is to love learning itself. I’ve learned the most from teachers who have taught me how to think – how to ask good questions, how to check my assumptions, how to approach problems, how to absorb information. Above all, what these teachers did for me was to encourage me to be endlessly curious. Being able to solve trigonometry problems or to identify an indirect object – or to ace a standardized test – is important, but it’s the desire to learn and understand that will keep you growing as a person long after you no longer have to worry about grades or test scores

Testimonials