Originally from Mesquite, Texas, Kevin Martin was a first-generation college student raised in a non-college-going community. He was the first student in his school district’s to qualify for the TFA state debate tournament, and he taught the class his senior year of high school after dropping his AP courses.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin in spring 2011. The recipient of over thirty honors, scholarships, and recognitions, the first-generation college student earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government, History, and the Humanities Honors Program.

UT-Austin honored him with its highest distinction as one of three graduates selected out of approximately 8,000 members to represent the Class of 2011 in President Powers’s Commencement speech. His research in conflict and genocide took him abroad to Scotland, Bosnia, and Rwanda culminating in a peer-reviewed publication.

He served as an admissions counselor for the University of Texas at Austin for three years before completing a Fulbright fellowship teaching English in Malaysia in 2014. He founded his first educational consulting firm Tex Admissions LLC in April 2015 from his friend’s apartment in Guatemala city.

Working in and around college admissions for over a decade, he has assisted over 250 families gain admission to almost every highly selective university. He has spent the past seven years living out of a backpack while exploring over 115 countries. He spent the pandemic in COVID-free Australia and New Zealand. He still lives out of a backpack; his life possessions fit on a bookshelf.

Kevin published the widely read comprehensive UT-Austin admissions guide Your Ticket to the Forty Acres. His second book Surviving the College Admissions Madness is a comprehensive takedown of a hypocritical admissions system. He realized that, despite thousands of how-to and essay tip books, tens of thousands of families suffer and struggle with their applications. Admissions Madness is the first of its kind to integrate applicant psychology with the sociology and economics of higher education.

He holds an ESL teaching certificate conferred with distinction from the University of Cambridge, is a PADI Professional SCUBA Diver, and is a 200-hour-RYT Yoga Instructor. He is a master freediver, descending to more than 120 feet on one breath. Kevin was recognized as a leading docent at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and has contributed to over 2000 microloans in support of small business owners around the world. His highly unconventional lifestyle and varied interests encourage others to examine themselves and society through unorthodox lenses.

He also love cats.