College Center can help families and students think strategically and efficiently about the college admissions process. It helps students assess their skills and accomplishments and merge them with their aspirations in a successful college admission action plan.
Assessing Your Strengths & Weaknesses
Beginning with self assessment tools College Center assists students in matching their talents and interests with college and university curricula, and with particular schools where they have a chance of admission. Advising students and parents on what to look for in college and university academic programs, extra-curricular activities, and institutional culture enables the student to make the match between herself and a suitable college or university.
Developing A Plan of Action
College Center assists students in developing a plan to research potential schools, to visit them, to handle interviews with admissions officers and faculty, and to organize follow up communications with faculty, coaches, and admissions staff.
Writing A Strong Application & Essay
The Center also offers advice on filling out college applications in ways which alert the college to a candidate’s particular strengths and interest in the school. It advises students in writing the personal essay, procuring recommendations and filing supplemental information. College Center is dedicated to helping students navigate the complicated application and admission process and avoid the pitfalls of saying or sending too little and avoiding piling on too much. Timing the flow of information to the college or university is essential to a successful admission campaign. In addition, students and families often need advice on using influence appropriately, and College Center’s experience in such matters can be very helpful.
Distinguishing Among Offers of Admission
Once a student is admitted to a number of schools to which he or she has applied, College Center has a template which helps the student and his family distinguish among his choices. Evaluating the academic, athletic, social, artistic and financial cost of a number of schools is no easy task. College Center can help organize these criteria and relate them to a student’s original goals.
College Center also offers valuable counsel to students on “making the most of the freshman year” ensuring a good start to a successful and happy college experience.
The Role of the Student
Throughout the process of advising students and families navigate the uncertainties of the college admissions, College Center remains committed to strengthening the relationships among parents and children. College Center helps play a supportive and informed role in launching their children into the new world of college and university life.
The Role of Parents
Often it is the parents who realize the need for college admissions advice, and they are the first to contact College Center. Sometimes parents have more questions and concerns than their sons or daughters, and College Center provides the opportunity for better communication among all parties. At the end of the college search and admissions process College Center has often assisted assist in defining a new relationship between parents and their college and university bound children.
Self Assessment for Students.
Assist the Student in Developing College Evaluation Sheets to Compare and Contrast College Options.
College Admissions Calendar.
Interviews.
Applications.
Presenting Special Talents.
Financial Aid Sources.
Using Influence.
Waiting List Strategies.
Payment Options
College Center operates on a two tiered payment plan.
Families pay an up-front fee for the assessment phase. This phase involves an interview with parents and the student, a discussion of the academic record, test results, and the hopes and expectations for the student’s college experience. Specific colleges and universities are discussed, and an action plan for exploring them is developed.
At this point, usually in the spring of the junior year, the student and his/her parents set off to explore their college options. Most communication from that time on can be carried on by phone or e-mail. Hence a second form of payment becomes appropriate. Families purchase blocks of consulting time, in advance, and College Center keeps track of the time it expends on the phone, on e-mail, on internet and personal research, and in review of appications, essays, and portofilios representing special accomplishments.
Whether building a house, or developing a family financial plan, or applying to college, students and their parents are wise to seek the advice of experts. Not only do the experts provide their particular expertise and knowledge, their first contribution is that of objectivity in what can often become an emotional and drawn-out process. Second, experts provide experience with situations and trends that arise in an “industry” that most people cannot comprehend.
In the case of College Center, its director has been a college counselor and director of the department of a very dynamic private school for 15 years, then a Vice President for Admissions, Financial Aid, and Research at a leading liberal arts college for 9 years and a counselor to individual students for the last 10 years. In addition, he has served as an admissions officer at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges. He has also written a book for Thomson Publications, called “The Insider’s Guide to College Admissions”. The book is in its fifth edition.
The Director of College Center also has close knowledge of nearly 100 of America’s top colleges and universities. This knowledge has been gleaned from the admissions records of a number of students who have been admitted to those schools and from personal visits to and discussions with representatives of those schools. While knowledge of particular colleges and universities is a strong part of College Center’s expertise, the Center also has vital knowledge of “how the system works: “ how applications are read and evaluated, how admissions committees function, how athletic, alumni, and other influence is integrated into the final admit/deny decision. And remember the waiting list—another mini-admissions process that needs to be fathomed. College Center understands that too.
At the same time that objectivity, experience, and particular knowledge are valuable, College Center recognizes that each student and each family are different. So the task becomes helping the particular, individual student to find colleges and universities that are a good match for his or her abilities and interests. Then, through listening and through dialogue, College Center helps that student develop an edge” in the application process. This combination of match and edge is what ultimately will lead to admission to a number of schools and the student being able to choose the one where he or she will be happy and will thrive.
Having counseled thousands of students, face to face, through books and pamphlets, and on the internet, over the years College Center stands ready to make a difference for students in the second decade of the twenty first century.
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