is the Founder & Director of consultUS. With almost 10 years of professional experience in advising for study at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, he serves as a premier resource for US/Canada-bound students and their families as well as for university administrators and education institutions throughout Germany and beyond.
Carsten began his career in 1999 as an Education USA adviser at Amerika Haus Berlin, a US State Department-affiliated overseas educational advising center operated by the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). Two years later, he was coordinating the advising activities at all four of CIEE’s Education USA centers in Germany. In addition, Carsten completed US-Based Training, a State Department-sponsored professional development program hosted by the College Board in Washington D.C.
In 2004, Carsten became a senior program coordinator with CollegeCouncil, a non-profit education agency best known abroad for its annual international college fairs, and eventually started his own practice as one of Germany’s first independent educational consultants in 2006. His services include individual assessment, recommendation of schools that best match a student’s profile, certified translation of educational credentials as well as essay and résumé review.
In addition to his work as a consultant, Carsten is a prolific writer and English-German translator. His most recent publications include two 180-page volumes on studying in the US and Canada, both published by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), a federally funded organization representing more than 350 German higher education institutions. His weblog TransatlanTicker on studying in North America has been a favorite with German students for more than three years. As a professional translator, Carsten has been working for clients such as the German Children and Youth Foundation, a national leader in promoting educational reform.
Carsten received his M.A. in American Studies, Political Science, and Communications from Freie Universität Berlin. In 1997-98, he was awarded a scholarship to spend one academic year at Duke University, Durham, NC as a graduate student in English. His professional memberships include the Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling (OACAC) and the German Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ).
