Application Support

For 20 years, I have assisted individuals and families with the-- often overwhelming, but hugely influential-- college and graduate school application process.  I believe that the process can be a rich and meaningful rite of passage for students as they make sense of themselves and transition to their next chapter.  I offer a range of support services at reasonable rates.

Qualifications

I graduated from Harvard College and the University of California, Berkeley; love supporting student self-growth; served as a tutor, teacher, and mentor to high school students; conducted interviews for Harvard applicants; and won the UC Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award.  Over two decades I have worked directly with students to help develop hundreds of university applications, including motivational and tactical coaching on the hard and rewarding work of assessing one's values and goals and how to share them with an audience.  My 15+ years of experience managing projects and people means I have lots of tools and tricks up my sleeve to help coordinate and motivate to define goals, get organized, strengthen skills, and stay on track.

Free interactive workshops

To help people clarify goals during transition periods I'm offering free interactive workshops to community members, including for high school college preparation events and through the King County public library.  Please contact me if you'd like me to offer a free workshop to your school or community organization-- especially if it helps provide a service that your community may not have free and easy access to.

Free workshop handouts

Handouts to accompany workshop presentations:

• Jumpstarting Your College Essays

• From Options to Action Plans:  Creating Your Future

Service offerings

Services include:

• Personal goals and criteria assessment (clarify interests, motivations, constraints, vision of future self relevant to college)

• Action plan development (assign dates, who's involved, and outcomes)

• College and program research (identify information to develop list of prospective colleges)

• Finalized list of prospective colleges (categorizes schools by likelihood of admissions and aligns each school to student and family's criteria-- e.g., interests, strengths, location, finances, acceptance rates)

• Keeping on track (coaching / troubleshooting / cheerleading to maintain progress)

• Personal statement development (brainstorming values and motivations, selecting topics, crafting storylines)

• Personal statement editing (iterative feedback to let the student's voice and story shine)

• Common Application development

• Resume / CV development

• Resume / CV editing

• Test (SAT, ACT, GRE, etc.) preparation strategy

• Letters of recommendation strategy

• Interview preparation

Interest Surveys

Follow link for more information about:

• application services and to indicate general interest

• "bootcamp" services and interests