Our Personalized Process

Intake: Prep Before the First Meeting

  • We speak to the family at length to learn about students’ goals and match them with the educational consultant who best suits their goals and needs.
  • We review grades, testing and records – anything on paper that will give us a head start on getting to know the student.

Initial Consultation: Assessment and Big-Picture Plan

  • The goal of our in depth first meeting is to learn about the nuances of each student’s personality and passions.
  • Generally we spend time with the whole family, then individual time with both the student and the parents.
  • The meeting results in pulling together the facets of a student’s profile that will inform a recommended list of school, college or graduate program matches, and a step-by-step action plan designed to culminate in the achievement of the student’s goals.

Roadmap: Creation of a Personalized Educational Plan

  • We compose a detailed Educational Plan and calendar, detailing each step that will be taken to develop the student’s profile for a competitive candidacy at the range of “best fit” schools, colleges or graduate programs we have identified.
  • This comprehensive Educational Plan outlines each element that constitutes a successful candidacy, including recommendations on course selection, testing calendar, extracurricular activities, teacher recommendations, summer enrichment, application platforms, and personal essays.

Execution of the Educational Plan: Our Comprehensive Approach

  • We will have a series of formal meetings and informal touch points to cover every element involved with developing the candidate’s profile and refining and evaluating the list of schools, colleges and programs.
  • We stay in contact with students and parents in between our scheduled meetings through phone calls (each student has the consultant’s cell phone), texting, FaceTime, Skype or Google Hangout.
  • We send focused mailings highlighting timely events related to testing, course planning, campus visits, and other key events in the planning process.
  • We utilize the most interactive and cutting edge technology in the educational consulting field to keep our families seamlessly informed, whether by highlighting links to specific pages of our OWL Portal™ to assist with timely steps in the process or facilitating students’ assessment of programs, schools and colleges through the use of our mobile device friendly assessment tools.
  • We offer the full support of our team by sharing notes, expertise, essay reviews, and school, college or program lists at regular staff meetings.

Presenting the Profile: Application and Essay Guidance

  • Often the most time intensive portion of the entire process revolves around completion of applications that present the candidate in the best possible light.
  • We are former writing teachers who now how to “coach” writers to present their distinctive narrative “voice”.
  • We provide extensive feedback over the course of multiple drafts of what is often dozens of essays
  • We counsel students to present their extracurricular activities within the format of particular applications

Decision Time: Final Choice Selection

  • Our goal is for the student to face a range of choices once admission decisions come in.
  • We counsel students on how to best evaluate their choices.
  • We advise on navigating waitlists. 
  • We follow students right through to the point where they make their final decision and land at a program where they will thrive.