What is Collegewise?
Collegewise is a collective of independent college counselors in offices across the country, with the same philosophy of making the college application process less stressful and more joyful. Some of us work on our own (like me), and some of us work in an office with a few other counselors. Some of us have worked for high schools, test prep companies, and admissions offices at the very colleges you’re interested in; still others worked in marketing, international affairs, and chemistry labs before shifting (or returning) to the world of college admissions.
My students and families will likely only interact with me as we work through the process of applying to college. But I am a better counselor for being able to turn to my colleagues for a second opinion on a controversial essay topic, to verify a new application policy, or to consult years of collected student data to evaluate a student’s admissions chances at a particular school. This is why I call my business Colleen at Collegewise, because being a part of this collective allows me to support each of my students with the knowledge and expertise of my colleagues’ decades of experience.
Can we meet with you in-person?
I initially worked with students face-to-face, but found that the in-person meetings were more of a hindrance for my Bay Area families than a benefit. Because my students are so busy with school, part-time jobs, sports, and activities (not to mention Bay Area traffic…), commuting to and from my office wasn't an efficient use of their very limited time. Virtual meetings have enabled me to better support my students, to check in more frequently, and to answer questions and offer good counseling as issues come up.
What is your success rate?
My students have been accepted to a wide range of schools including:
American University Auburn University Boston College Boston University
Brown University Butler University Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Cal Poly-Pomona
CSU Long Beach Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University College of Wooster
Columbia University Emerson College Fordham University Gonzaga University
Lewis & Clark University Loyola Marymount University Loyola University Chicago Loyola University New Orleans
McGill University The New School New York University Northeastern University
Purdue University San Diego State University Saint Louis University Santa Clara University
Skidmore College Stanford University St. John's University Syracuse University
University of Arizona UC Berkeley UC Davis UC Irvine
UCLA UC San Diego UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside University of Colorado – Boulder University of Delaware University of Hawaii, Manoa
University of Michigan University of Oregon USC UT Austin
University of Washington University of Wyoming University of Wisconsin, Madison Vanderbilt University
Washington State University Wesleyan University Whittier College Willamette University
But that’s only the most basic way of defining success in applying to college: where did you get in? In reality, the best way of measuring success in this process is whether you’ve been accepted to a college you like, a college you can afford, and a college that will prepare you for whatever you want to do next. If any one of those things isn’t true, the others don’t matter. And if you didn’t get accepted to a school you were really hoping for, can you say that you did everything that was within your control and submitted your strongest possible application, even though it didn’t work out? This is what success means to me, and I can say that every single one of the students I’ve worked with has come out of this process with more yes’s than no’s, a number of scholarships, and a sense of empowerment about their decision for next year.
How many colleges should I apply to?
As I’ve shared on my blog, my job is not to tell students and families what to do, but rather to give them all the options and help them understand the possible outcome of each choice. So technically, you can apply to however many colleges you want. But I (strongly) encourage the students I work with to apply to 8-12 schools. This comes out to a few reach schools, a few target schools, and a few likely schools.
The main reason I recommend that my students apply to a focused list of schools is that you have a finite amount of mental energy to devote to applications, activity descriptions, and supplemental essays. Every time you add another school to your list, you have to figure out their requirements for standardized tests and letters of recommendations, you have to brainstorm, write, and edit more short essays, and you have to follow up to ensure that they received your school report and transcripts. None of this is simple and much of it doesn’t replicate easily. Applying to a large number of schools means that your finite energy just gets spread across all these demands, and the quality of each item decreases. Crafting strong, thoughtful applications takes time and effort, and limiting the number of schools you apply to allows you to develop your most compelling applications possible, which directly translates to your best chance of admission.
Collegewise is a collective of independent college counselors in offices across the country, with the same philosophy of making the college application process less stressful and more joyful. Some of us work on our own (like me), and some of us work in an office with a few other counselors. Some of us have worked for high schools, test prep companies, and admissions offices at the very colleges you’re interested in; still others worked in marketing, international affairs, and chemistry labs before shifting (or returning) to the world of college admissions.
My students and families will likely only interact with me as we work through the process of applying to college. But I am a better counselor for being able to turn to my colleagues for a second opinion on a controversial essay topic, to verify a new application policy, or to consult years of collected student data to evaluate a student’s admissions chances at a particular school. This is why I call my business Colleen at Collegewise, because being a part of this collective allows me to support each of my students with the knowledge and expertise of my colleagues’ decades of experience.
Can we meet with you in-person?
I initially worked with students face-to-face, but found that the in-person meetings were more of a hindrance for my Bay Area families than a benefit. Because my students are so busy with school, part-time jobs, sports, and activities (not to mention Bay Area traffic…), commuting to and from my office wasn't an efficient use of their very limited time. Virtual meetings have enabled me to better support my students, to check in more frequently, and to answer questions and offer good counseling as issues come up.
What is your success rate?
My students have been accepted to a wide range of schools including:
American University Auburn University Boston College Boston University
Brown University Butler University Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Cal Poly-Pomona
CSU Long Beach Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University College of Wooster
Columbia University Emerson College Fordham University Gonzaga University
Lewis & Clark University Loyola Marymount University Loyola University Chicago Loyola University New Orleans
McGill University The New School New York University Northeastern University
Purdue University San Diego State University Saint Louis University Santa Clara University
Skidmore College Stanford University St. John's University Syracuse University
University of Arizona UC Berkeley UC Davis UC Irvine
UCLA UC San Diego UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside University of Colorado – Boulder University of Delaware University of Hawaii, Manoa
University of Michigan University of Oregon USC UT Austin
University of Washington University of Wyoming University of Wisconsin, Madison Vanderbilt University
Washington State University Wesleyan University Whittier College Willamette University
But that’s only the most basic way of defining success in applying to college: where did you get in? In reality, the best way of measuring success in this process is whether you’ve been accepted to a college you like, a college you can afford, and a college that will prepare you for whatever you want to do next. If any one of those things isn’t true, the others don’t matter. And if you didn’t get accepted to a school you were really hoping for, can you say that you did everything that was within your control and submitted your strongest possible application, even though it didn’t work out? This is what success means to me, and I can say that every single one of the students I’ve worked with has come out of this process with more yes’s than no’s, a number of scholarships, and a sense of empowerment about their decision for next year.
How many colleges should I apply to?
As I’ve shared on my blog, my job is not to tell students and families what to do, but rather to give them all the options and help them understand the possible outcome of each choice. So technically, you can apply to however many colleges you want. But I (strongly) encourage the students I work with to apply to 8-12 schools. This comes out to a few reach schools, a few target schools, and a few likely schools.
The main reason I recommend that my students apply to a focused list of schools is that you have a finite amount of mental energy to devote to applications, activity descriptions, and supplemental essays. Every time you add another school to your list, you have to figure out their requirements for standardized tests and letters of recommendations, you have to brainstorm, write, and edit more short essays, and you have to follow up to ensure that they received your school report and transcripts. None of this is simple and much of it doesn’t replicate easily. Applying to a large number of schools means that your finite energy just gets spread across all these demands, and the quality of each item decreases. Crafting strong, thoughtful applications takes time and effort, and limiting the number of schools you apply to allows you to develop your most compelling applications possible, which directly translates to your best chance of admission.