Thank you, for the excellent service you provided me! From the test prep to the college consulting to the personal essay assistance, you made a super stressful process easier. My college acceptances and generous scholarship awards would not have been possible without all your help. Thank you!
College Consulting Services
Description of Services
Our goal is to make the college search and application process as stress-free as possible by providing expert guidance that the student and family can use to make the best decisions possible. Our proven student success and dedication to attending conferences, acquiring professional development experience, and visiting college campuses all year round, makes us knowledgeable professionals.
- Development of timeline for testing, visits, essays, applications
- Admissions test information: What tests to take and when
- Administer intake questionnaire and personality assessment tools
- Resume editing, formatting, and content review
- Advice on Teacher Recommendation process
- Personal Essay brainstorming and development
- Thorough and comprehensive college search and selection
- College Criteria review
- Campus Tour guidance
- Advisement on the Common Application process step-by-step
- Guidance with Personal and Supplemental essay writing
- College visit and admission interview advice and preparation
- Critique of completed applications (maximum ten schools)
- Consultation on Financial Aid guidelines
- Review of college decisions and final enrollment criteria
Option 1: Personality and Interest Inventory Assessments
Using our proprietary research, we utilize several instrumental surveys — designed by experts in the field — to help students discover their personality and learning style profiles and, ultimately, find their best fit colleges.
- The Find My Spark™ College Survey: The FMS survey identifies a student’s personality and the appropriate college style for them based on his or her responses. Once the student’s personality type is determined, we use the matching college style in our guided search tool to match students to universities that are a good academic, social, and financial fit.
- College Match and Design A College Surveys: College Match, which was designed by Dr. Steven R. Antonoff, and Design a College, which was written by Wendie Lubic, are two top-rated comprehensive questionnaires that help students determine and rank their priorities when choosing their best-fit college.
- Learning Styles Survey: The LS survey helps students understand how they learn best. The survey results give students a list of study skills to best match their learning style. The Learning Style survey shares essential strategies on how students can study smarter, not harder. It also provides an overview of “best fit” colleges based on a student’s preferred learning style.
Option 2: College List Development/Refinement
Based on our extensive surveys, knowledge base, and research, we identify and recommend appropriate schools. After several initial meetings, we develop a curated list of schools rigorously targeted to match the student’s profile. As part of this package, we will:
- Spend an initial 90-minutes discussing the student’s strengths and interests based on the completed surveys and how they impact the college search process
- Review school records (including transcripts, testing, and psycho-educational testing when applicable) and offer feedback to the family
- Discuss the student’s strengths, learning needs, goals, and plans as they pertain to the college search, testing plans, and high school schedule
- Develop a list of 10–20 colleges ranging inadmissibility from “safety” to “reach,” based on the student’s academic, social, emotional, financial, and geographic parameters
- Arrange several follow-up meetings to discuss the list of recommended colleges and to answer questions about the schools identified
Option 3: Personal Essay Guidance and Development
The essay portion of the application is often the most challenging part of the process because students are expected to show who they are in 650 words. We help students develop a narrative and guide them in their writing. We do not write the essay for students; instead, we teach them how to present their best selves by finding their voice and being confident that the essay shows the admissions officers dimensions of the student’s personality and values not revealed in other parts of the application. During this process, we will:
- Brainstorm and develop ideas
- Oversee the composition of the first draft
- Guide the student through the revision process to hone the essay
- Review essay for grammar, style, and readability
Option 4: Common Application and Supplemental Essay Mentoring
- Develop a résumé/activity list for use on the applications
- Link a student’s Naviance account to his or her Common or College Application
- Provide Assistance with Supplemental/Scholarship Essays