Counseling
We will help students both create compelling college applications and develop crucial skills for success during their time at college.
College Counseling
For students who are about to apply to college, we offer a comprehensive counseling process that both builds a compelling college application and develops writing, research, and self-advocacy skills. We encourage students and families to attend one of our free seminars to learn about each step of the college application process, how colleges examine applications to build an incoming class of students, and how College Curious can help you.
We welcome high school students of all ages to work with our counseling team. In addition to offering our expertise in academic advising and student guidance, we also have a process for developing multiple prongs of extracurricular pursuits.
College Application Counseling for 11th & 12th grade
The counseling process begins with a comprehensive discussion and inventory of each student’s context, strengths, and goals for the college application process. This information, combined with counseling input, will serve as the starting point for personal narratives that demonstrate a student’s uncommon value and “fit” with colleges. In addition to this goal of demonstrating a student’s “fit” with colleges, we deliberately structure our counseling process and workshops to foster skills development in research, writing, and taking initiative – all of which are critical for college success.
Together with the student, we will build a list of colleges that reflects both the student’s current position and the student’s future goals. Since higher education institutions have all kinds of shapes, locations, and missions, our main goal while building the college list is to provide broad perspective and options that allow the student to discover colleges that “fit”.
The main goal of a college application is to demonstrate that a student both aligns with and can contribute to a college campus in a unique fashion. To best display a student’s unique “fit” for each college of interest, our counseling process involves crafting a narrative built upon a student’s strengths, experiences, goals, and understanding of what each college has to offer.
As students progress through our college application counseling, they will have the advantage of working with two counselors throughout the process. This means that students will receive assistance from both a former Stanford and Northwestern admissions officer and a counselor with over 20 years of experience who has helped students receive admissions offers to selective institutions such as Stanford and Harvard every year.
The core of our college application counseling revolves around the essay brainstorming and revision processes. Since so many colleges evaluate applications on a holistic basis, a student’s essays are often the crucial narrative pieces that tie together academic accomplishments, extracurricular activities, and a student’s aspirations for the future. Not only does our essay guidance process lead to compelling narrative pieces, but it is deliberately designed to encourage skills development in writing, research, and self-advocacy.
After students have prepared all the components of their applications with our guidance, we launch a complete review to ensure that these applications reflect the most promising version of each student. At this stage of the counseling process, each student’s application will demonstrate compelling strengths, a student’s unique voice, and a cohesive narrative that brings everything together.
After students receive their admissions decisions from colleges, we will offer our expertise to students and their families on which colleges would align best with the students’ future goals. Also, we can assist with decision appeals letters based on the circumstances of each student.
Code of Ethics
1. Our goal is to help find the best school for you, so we will not direct students to change their goals to inflate our admissions “success rates”.
2. We are here to provide guidance, support, and feedback. However, students are ultimately responsible for the work and writing.
3. We will hold each student’s information in confidence and will not disclose it to others, save for the student’s guardians if you are a minor.
4. We commit to an honest dialogue throughout the counseling process.
5. We embrace a holistic and long-term view of each student’s goals and will offer our perspectives accordingly.
6. We hold ourselves and the students we work with to the highest standards of application ethics. For all students, their applications will be their own unique creations that they always have final authority over.
2. We are here to provide guidance, support, and feedback. However, students are ultimately responsible for the work and writing.
3. We will hold each student’s information in confidence and will not disclose it to others, save for the student’s guardians if you are a minor.
4. We commit to an honest dialogue throughout the counseling process.
5. We embrace a holistic and long-term view of each student’s goals and will offer our perspectives accordingly.
6. We hold ourselves and the students we work with to the highest standards of application ethics. For all students, their applications will be their own unique creations that they always have final authority over.