STEP ONE: INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATION
The counseling process always begins with a first consultation meeting. This consultation typically includes the following process, though every meeting is unique and personalized to the individual student and family situation. As I like to say, I meet students where they are.
We will review the student’s educational and personal profile compiled from the completed Questionnaires submitted by both student and parents prior to the consultation, and any other relevant material provided by both student and parents which will help to inform our initial meeting. Such advance materials will include academic transcripts, along with teacher comments, and a record of any standardized testing.
The informational forms will highlight your personal interests, achievements, and goals, which will help me to get to know you. I would also like to see any specialized, individual testing if the student has been evaluated by an independent or school-based psychologist or learning specialist, as this will give me insight into his or her particular learning needs or other educational issues.
During our first consultation meeting, we will usually spend time:
• Reviewing the student’s current and future curriculum.
• Developing a schedule for taking appropriate standardized tests, and discussing test preparation options.
• Discussing extracurricular interests, school activities and personal hobbies, summer involvements and programs, volunteer opportunities, and specialized study options.
• Guiding the student to consider his or her personal profile and ways to focus or expand it.
• Considering the differences between independent (private) boarding and day schools, and public schools, and how they could work in different ways for the student.
• Developing a list of schools that fit the student’s academic and personal profile, goals, and preferences.
• If appropriate, advising on athletics, visual and performing arts, or other special needs and interests and how to pursue them in a new school and during the admissions process.
• Explaining the independent school admissions process and timeline.
After the initial consultation, clients may choose to have an additional individual consultation sometime later in the admissions process. Or, they may choose to become Ongoing Counseling clients, as outlined below. All individual college consultations will be credited towards the comprehensive Ongoing Counseling fee.
Individual consultations typically last about one and a half hours, and the fee is $800, payable at the time of the meeting.
STEP TWO: COMPREHENSIVE ONGOING COUNSELING
The Ongoing Counseling Program is designed to give clients top priority of my time and attention, and unlimited access through personal or video appointments, e-mail, text, and telephone calls. I will continue to provide counseling and guidance throughout the admissions and school decision-making process.
Typically, families choose the ongoing process upon debriefing after our initial consultation and deciding that they need additional and comprehensive support through the admissions process, and that we are a good fit for the student and their family’s needs. Sometimes, clients will wait to decide until they have scheduled and completed a second consultation one or more months after the first meeting. In either case, discussions about goals, expectations, and the counseling process are more than welcome prior to making a commitment the ongoing program.
Ongoing Counseling is a flat fee, comprehensive program with a flexible process that adjusts to a student’s individual circumstances. Whether you live right down the road or on the other side of the globe, the counseling process can be extensive, supportive, meaningful, and personal. Over the course of one or two years, the process typically includes:
• Reviewing the progress of the student’s educational planning throughout the school years prior to making a school change.
• Working with both student and parents to help make wise decisions, while handling issues as they may arise.
• Identifying and refining the appropriate list of schools, including reach, target, and likely schools based on feedback from the student’s and parents’ research and visits, grades, and test results, as they develop over time.
• Making recommendations on activities and summer plans.
• Preparing the student for campus visits and interviews.
• Guiding students on the preparation of school applications, including the review of the online Standard Application Online (SAO), Gateway application, and other materials required in the admissions process (résumé, high priority emails or letters, etc.).
• Advising on essays, including content critiques and editorial input.
• Strategizing on such issues as when to apply, whether to repeat a year, and planning for post-graduate (PG) options.
• Discussing the financial aid process.
• Guiding the student on the selection of the most appropriate school from among those to which they have been admitted.
• Supporting students if they are trying to gain admission from one or more school waiting lists.
• Helping the student make initial class choices, and prepare for the transition to a new school.
The total Ongoing Independent School Counseling comprehensive fee is $10,000, payable at the outset of the process or in installments. Please let me know if you would like to discuss payment options and plans.