Arun Alagappan
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Arun Alagappan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Alma mater | Princeton University Harvard Law School |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Title | President, Advantage Testing, Inc. |
| Spouse | Francine Friedman |
Arun Alagappan is an American businessman. He is the founder and president of Advantage Testing, Inc., a scholastic test preparation and tutoring agency.
Alagappan was raised in Queens, New York into a Tamil family and attended the United Nations International School. His father, Alagappa Alagappan, worked at the United Nations and was the founder of the Hindu Temple Society of North America, establishing the first traditional Hindu Temple in the US.[1][2]
Alagappan developed an interest in education during high school, where he began tutoring at the age of 17.[3] He attended Princeton University, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1981.[4]
From 1981 to 1982, he tutored privately in New York City then attended Harvard Law School, and spent time working as a teaching fellow in the mathematics department of Harvard College.[5][6] Alagappan served on the board of editors of the Harvard International Law Journal, and in 1985 graduated with a JD from Harvard Law School.[citation needed]
Career
After graduating law school, Alagappan joined law firm Sullivan & Cromwell[7] and then served as a clerk to Dorothy Wright Nelson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[citation needed] Following his clerkship he founded the tutoring and test preparation company, Advantage Testing, in Manhattan, NY.[8] The company has since grown into one of the nation's largest tutoring agencies, with over 20 offices.[9][10][4]
Alagappan makes frequent media appearances to speak about the SAT test.[11][12][13][14] He is a frequent media commentator on trends in standardized testing and has appeared on CNN and as a guest on Bloomberg Television.[15][16]