Comprehensive Services For Getting Into College
“It’s not just about getting them into college. It’s about their future.”
—Chris Parsons, Founder
For most families, juggling full time jobs and kids’ homework and extracurricular activities leaves little time for the college admission process. Being both a parent and college admission counselor can be daunting. Especially when getting your high school student into college involves so many deadline-driven tasks.
By engaging with us early—as early as Freshman year—we’re able to take a huge portion of the burden off of families and school guidance counselors alike. Our process begins with intensive personality and skills assessments to help the student gain a greater understanding of self. With that insight, we work with the student to match personality and academic areas of interest with schools that will support the “whole person.” We look at the student’s high school curriculum and extracurricular activities against dream school requirements to ensure that he or she is on the path to producing the absolute best student resume for the individual and the higher learning institution.
400:1
Ratio of students
to guidance counselor
in SC public high schools
15:1
Ratio of students
to instructor at the
College Planning Center
$9M
Scholarships/financial
aid awarded to our students
in past 3 years
Once we have the preliminary ducks in a row, we then provide a full range of professional planning services to ensure not only the best college admission and school financial aid prospects for the individual, but also the optimal journey to a successful career and future. Here are the comprehensive college planning services we offer:
- Preliminary diagnostic assessment to learn student’s early interests/aptitudes
- Preliminary interview to learn student’s early college aspirations
- High school academic and extracurricular curriculum review to ensure student early actions “lock up” with dream college requirement
- Diagnostic re-assessment/initial assessment to learn student interests/aptitudes or change from prior year
- Community service/internship/summer job counseling and help with placement
- Recommendation of extracurricular pursuits to strengthen student resume
- College list creation to ensure the best overall “fit”
- Assistance with determining which schools to tour
- Access to 40 hours of individualized test prep instruction, which can be scheduled as virtual or in-office sessions
- Unlimited access to our on-line program with over 2,000 practice questions, and over 200 lessons that break the tests down into their component concepts for easier mastery
- Unlimited admission to all College Planning Center workshops
- College admission essay and student resume writing support
- College application review and editing for optimal results
- Pre-visit college interview coaching
- Review, recommendations of best colleges for optimal financial aid
- Anytime access to our College Planner Pro software program for tracking all college admission
related details — school stats, tuition and financial aid packages, application deadlines — work materials and CPC communications
- Assistance completing college admission applications
- Assistance with FAFSA/scholarship/grant award applications
- Mock interview coaching as part of admission prep
- Help with making college acceptance decisions
- Evaluation of financial aid letters and help facilitating award reconsideration
In order to simplify the college planning process—and allow our work to be transparent to both student and parents—we utilize a college planning software program that keeps us all on the same page. Our College Planner Pro software allows us to work with students and parents to:
- Build an effective college list by having a single point of access to detailed information about more than 3,500 colleges and universities nationwide
- Target schools where students will receive the most scholarship money
- View profiles of the most successful candidates for highly sought-after colleges and universities
- Outline college admission deadlines and monitor student progress against meeting deadlines
- Upload, review and edit drafts of required materials, such as college essays and FAFSA applications
- Correspond with one another via a central platform
