If you're among the 5,000 attendees at the NACAC conference in Toronto right now, stop by our booth and say hello. We're hard to miss (left to right: Teri, Chelsea, Katherine, Arun and Breanne).
Attend a free Collegewise seminar in your area
Our Collegewise offices are offering free seminars on college admissions and essays in the following areas. If you'd like some good advice about how to have a less stressful, more successful ride to college, we'd love to meet you.
I apologize if some of the seminars in your area have already taken place. It's my fault for not posting them here earlier and I'll be better about that in the future.
California: Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area
Texas: Plano and Irving
New York: New York City and Long Island
New Jersey: Millburn area
Join us for a free college admissions seminar
We’re offering a series of free college admissions seminars in and around New York, Long Island, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area. We’d love for families in those areas to join us. Just click the link for more information and schedules.
New York City
Long Island
Boston (Newton area)
Boston (Wellesley area)
San Francisco Bay Area
I hope you can join us.
Welcome Monica Del Toro Brown to Collegewise
We don’t intend to mess with Texas or Texans, but we are comin’ to Plano, Texas to open our newest Collegewise office. And we’ve just officially hired Monica Del Toro Brown to run it.
Who is Monica?
Monica graduated from Stanford (fear the tree!) and has a master’s in education from Harvard. Since getting her admissions start as an assistant director at Wellesley College in 2006, Monica has spent the past four years as a senior admissions and financial aid officer at Harvard. She read 700-900 applications for admissions each year and was the director of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative. It’s not every day we meet an admissions officer who’s also calculated hundreds of financial aid awards, and that experience on both sides of the process—admissions and financial aid—makes her the college counseling equivalent of a dual threat (I like to wedge sports analogies in to make up for my own athletic deficiencies.)
Why did we pick Monica?
Monica hasn’t just collected degrees and titles with good names (though she’s got an impressive list of them). In every opportunity she’s had, Monica found a way to make an impact. She’s managed staff workers and led reading teams. She’s asked for big opportunities when they became available and then cheerfully accepted the responsibilities that followed.
But that’s not really what did it for us.
We’re trying to do something special here. For us, it’s not just about helping kids get into college—it’s about fundamentally changing the way that families approach the process. For every new director of college counseling I’ve hired this year, there was something in their cover letter that I can point back to and say—“That’s when I had a sense she was one of us.” This was the section of Monica’s letter that really resonated with me:
"I read applications from wonderful, diamond-in-the-rough type students, who weren’t competitive in the Harvard pool, but who I just knew were going to be successful somewhere else. Harvard wasn’t the right fit for these students, but I could imagine they’d be great at some place like Bryn Mawr or Oberlin. I wondered if they were getting good college counseling at their high schools and I hoped they had applied to schools beyond the Ivys. I’m done with wondering and hoping about kids like this. I’m ready to step in and help students expand their minds and think about schools beyond the top schools on US News."
You won't have to "wonder and hope" about those kids here, Monica, and we can’t wait to have you join us in the good fight.
From Dallas to Seattle (and back)
Less than 24 hours after accepting the position with us, Monica had booked her tickets to join Meredith, Rhiannon and me in Seattle for training next week (I am unreasonably excited about the chance to spend a week with the three of them talking all things Collegewise and admissions). Then she’ll return to Texas to launch our Plano office and try to add matchmaking to the list of things Texans are known for (hopefully somewhere up there with great barbeque and everything being “bigger”).
So everyone, welcome Monica to Collegewise!
Welcome Rhiannon Schade to Collegewise
The Garden State is about to sprout a Collegewise office, as we’ve just officially hired Rhiannon Schade to open our Short Hills, New Jersey office.
Who is Rhiannon?
Rhiannon graduated summa cum laude from UC Santa Cruz (go Banana Slugs!), where she was also quite the intrepid tour guide (she even won an award for her guiding!). She went on to earn a master's degree in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a graduate assistant in the admissions office. With multiple degrees (and a scarily impressive number of awards) in hand, she then became an admissions officer at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she's spent the last year.
Why did we pick Rhiannon?
We’re all about matchmaking here, as anyone who reads this blog knows. Rhiannon didn’t just talk about matchmaking during our chats. As she described it, she opted for fit over prestige at both her undergraduate and graduate universities (she turned down UCLA for UC Santa Cruz and Harvard for Penn). But I don’t think I can explain the fit nearly as well as Rhiannon did in her cover letter.
I am not one of those jaded admissions people who is leaving "this side of the desk" because I'm tired of it…I love the work that I do, but I do not love having a vested interest in a decision that should reside with the student. I handpicked Collegewise because you get it. You, more than any other company I know, understand that students will flourish when they go to the college that aligns best with their interests, skills and personal preferences.
Matchmaking–and flattery–like that will get you everywhere here.
Another matchmaker joins our ranks
Rhiannon and her husband are packing up their belongings and heading to New Jersey. She’ll be joining a fresh crop of Collegewise matchmakers for training the week after the Fourth of July, then getting to work opening our Short Hills office and helping students see for themselves just how happy and successful someone can be when they attend the right college and make the most of what’s available while there.
So everyone, welcome Rhiannon to Collegewise! Let's do some matchmaking in the Garden State.
Welcome Meredith Graham–a Fighting Scot–to Collegewise
I'm especially excited to welcome Meredith Graham to Collegewise today, and it's not just because she was a Fighting Scot. As we chose where to open our new offices for 2013, we decided to put a trio of them in the Boston area. Meredith completes that trio, joining Tim and Sara as each opens an office for us to help Boston families put some sanity and perspective back into the college process.
Who is Meredith?
What can you do with a degree in chemistry from the College of Wooster, other than be a chemist? Well, as Meredith proves, yes, you could work in a lab after college. But you could also work as an admissions officer at Cornell in the college of engineering. You could work as an associate director of the University Service Center at Boston University, guiding students who need an expert to help them navigate multiple departments at the university to make good choices. And you could even open an office at Collegewise where you help students find and get accepted to the right colleges for them.
Why did we choose this Fighting Scot?
We haven't picked an easy battle to fight at Collegewise–to show families that there are plenty of great colleges out there beyond the forty that everybody seems to want to attend (the very same schools that reject almost everybody who applies). But it's something we all believe in, even those of us who went to some of those highly-selective colleges. We all believe that what you do in college matters much more than where you do it. Meredith believes it, too. And while we had great conversations about helping students find the right fit, I knew after reading this paragraph of her cover letter that she was one of us.
I love working with students and families. I'm a cheerleader and a coach, a counselor and an advocate by
nature. My seven years in highly-selective admissions saying "no" to so many amazing applicants was a
grind on my soul even though it was an excellent learning experience. My natural tendency is to say
"Yes!" or "Let's see how we can make this work!" instead. I like exploring options and possibilities with
students and families, and building the one-on-one relationships that make it possible to recognize the
spark of excitement in someone’s eye when I suggest an idea or an option that appeals to him or her.
Bottom line: I was born to be a college counselor who advocates for students to make college choices
based on sustainable fit.
While at Wooster, Meredith also learned to play the bagpipes. It's not the (only) reason we picked her, but there are some personal factoids that you've just got to wedge into an announcement like this.
Joining the Fighting Collegewise-ers
Meredith is wrapping up her work at Boston University and will be joining us right after the 4th of July. Until then, she's diving into the pre-reading for our training (none of which involves the periodic table), and–we can only hope–brushing up on her bagpipe chops.
Meredith, welcome to Collegewise. We're glad you're joining us to fight the good fight.
Welcome Teri Kuwahara and Katherine Folkman to Collegewise
Southern Californian families now have even more options for Collegewise counseling, as today I'm excited to announce that Teri Kuwahara and Katherine Folkman have joined forces to open Collegewise – South Bay this month.
Who are Teri and Katherine?
Teri has spent the last six years directing Palos Verdes High School's College and Career Center. I first met Teri when she organized a college night for junior families where nearly every room in the high school was filled with admissions experts and college representatives there to share information with her students. She has a B.A. from Cal State Long Beach, a master's from USC, and a certificate in college admissions counseling from UCLA.
Katherine was a college counselor for five years at Mira Costa High School. Arun first met her when she invited him to speak on campus–he returned telling me that he could tell what a fan-favorite she was amongst her students and parents. She has a B.A. and a master's from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential, and a certificate in college admissions counseling from UCLA.
Professional matchmaking
Teri and Katherine are longtime Collegewise friends. Arun and I have gotten to know them well both professionally and personally over the last five years. We like and respect them and have always enjoyed talking shop with them at their high school events and at conferences.
But what's always struck both of us, other than how much we enjoy their company, is how student-focused they are. No matter how well an event or an admissions cycle goes, Teri and Katherine were always looking for new ways to share good information and help their students. They were the opposite of those professionals who rest on their laurels and say, "This is how we've always done it." When they decided to go into business together and talked with us about joining Collegewise, that was our version of a no-brainer. We want their knowledge, energy, and all-around likeability here and are so excited to call them our Collegewise colleagues.
Learn more
South Bay families, if you'd like to meet Teri and Katherine, and improve your chances of getting into the right college, join them at one of their free Collegewise "Secrets of College Admissions" seminars on June 15 and June 18 in Redondo Beach. You can get all the details and register here.
Teri and Katherine, welcome to the Collegewise family!
For private counselors: Are you committed to the fit?
We’ve learned at Collegewise that the best way to make our customers happy is to enroll people who are predisposed to love what we do and how we do it. That means we’ll turn away families we don’t feel are good fits for our program. If we’re not confident that we can be successful together, the right thing to do is to free them up to find potentially better options.
We also want those families who join us to be absolutely sure that we’re the right service for them. So we encourage families to look into more than one private counselor. We’re happy to give them the phone numbers of our competitors if they’d like them. And on those occasions where a family chooses a competitor over us, we congratulate them on their choice. We’re not for everybody, and part of finding those people who belong in our program is helping everyone explore their options so they can discover their Collegewise fit on their own.
Great college counseling happens when there’s a fit between the counselor and the family. What else could you be doing not just to bring in new business, but to help prospective customers find their fit, even if you’re not it?
Help wanted: Directors of college counseling–$1,000 bounty
We're hiring 5-6 directors of college counseling to open our new offices in New Jersey and Texas. All the details are here.
If you send us someone we successfully hire, we'll pay you $1,000 after the person completes three months of successful work. Find us more than one, and we'll pay multiple bounties to you.
Free college admissions seminars in Marin County, California
Now that our new Mill Valley, California office is up and running, we're kicking off our arrival to the San Francisco Bay Area with two free "Secrets of College Admissions" seminars in the next week. All of the info is here. If you live in the Bay Area, we'd love to see you there. I think you'll be surprised how much we can teach you (and how much admissions-associated stress we can relieve) in just 90 minutes.
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