This week, Lee Academia's team gathered data from 2002-2013 and created this graph on the left. We can see the increased interest in U.S Colleges/Universities as more and more International students apply and seek LAEC's High School/College/Graduate School Counseling.

Lee Academia limits the number of students we work with, as we dedicate our expertise and professionalism in helping each and every one of our clients. In 2012-2013, we see a tremendous increase in our International Students (especially from China) applying to U.S. Colleges seeking our help during the Spring and early Summer term, thus limiting our availability for American students.

Here are sample services that we helped our International Students with:

• Choosing U.S. Boarding, Colleges & Graduate Schools
• College List - Selection 
• College Research
• College Tours & Visits
• ART & Visual Schools
• Art Portfolios
• Interview Training
• Building Resume / Brag Sheet
  
• Applying to High Schools/Colleges/Graduate Schools
• TOEFL / IELTS Preparation
• SAT / ACT Preparation
• MCAT/GRE/GMAT/LSAT and more
• Finding Interests / Extracurricular
• College Application Essays
• Transitions / Adapting to U.S. Colleges
• Scholarship Searches for International Students
• GAP Year / Conditional Year / Transfer Admissions
  

So don't hesitate and enroll now! LAEC is a first-come, first-serve based Educational Consulting center. We will do our best to accommodate all our interested students and parents from both the U.S and International countries. Contact us now.

The cost of a college education is one of the second largest financial investment next to purchasing a home. Currently, many private tuitions range between $180,000 and $250,000, and state governments have been decreasing their funding. Your financial decisions will benefit from our professional guidance.

As many students choose a college without adequate investigation and research regarding what the college has to offer them, research shows that one out of three college students leave or transfer to another college and five out of ten students require five or more years to earn a degree. Our objective assessment of the student’s needs at Lee Academia help us to use current research beyond website information to find the right “student-college fit”.

Many colleges have become more selective and Lee Academia's College Consultants understand what is needed for top students to gain admissions. However, finding the right college for the average or learning differences students is just as important. Many less competitive colleges have higher drop out rates and lower graduation rates, therefore it is essential we carefully place average students in appropriate educational settings.

High school counselors – both in public and private institutions – are so overwhelmed with student caseloads, federally mandated paperwork for special needs students, dealing with disciplinary situations, and scheduling courses. There is little time left for quality personal contact between counselor and the student applying to college. Guidance counselors will write a letter of recommendation, assemble a transcript, and include a student profile in the college packet – nothing more.

For more information and to contact us for a consultation: click here.

Today is the deadline for first-year candidates to choose among their offers of admissions, financial aid and scholarships. Congratulations to all college-bound students and hopefully, you all deposited on time.

Remember:

While some colleges may offer an extension of the May 1 deadline, students need to call and/or email their admission counselor, and state the reason for the indecision, and many schools do not grant extensions.

Deposits are not refundable after May 1.

Also, after going through all the years of planning, researching, arguing, traveling, debating, analyzing, comparing, writing, thinking, fretting, and finishing strong, do not forget that getting accepted in to the college is FAR less important than staying in and successfully completing college.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Feel free to email us or call us at 646-266-6084. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Last week, Ms. Stephenie, our college consultant brought 14 high school students around the Columbia University undergraduate campus at Morningside on 116th Street, Manhattan, for a tour. They were told the superstitious stories about the Alma Mater and the students rushed to find the owl to determine who would become the incoming class' Valedictorian. Stories about the Tunnel and Manhattan Project were told as the students walked around and had a firsthand look at the academic classrooms. The infamous Havemeyer classroom where most filming take place was visited, as well as Dodge Fitness Center. Students had the opportunity to ask informal questions and to see a typical Columbia day in progress with many undergraduate and graduate students walking around campus, sitting at the Low steps, and playing soccer at the South Lawn.

After lunch at Columbia's popular cafe, the students toured the Butler Library and had the opportunity to visit the Stacks, observe the old card catalogs, and see hundreds of books that dated back to the early 1900s. The tour concluded at Columbia's Bookstore, where students had the opportunity to rest and buy Columbia logo clothing.

For more information about future tours and the opportunity to have Ms. Stephenie provide you with a fun unofficial Columbia University tour, contact us.

Whether you are thinking about applying to the Ivy-League Institutions or your local community colleges, college research is needed. Juniors, after they have taken all their finals and exams (hopefully, their first SAT by May), should begin looking into what types of colleges they are interested in applying to based on their current school records and grades. Knowing what colleges are best suited for them is the key step before applying.

Lee Academia consultants are here to help. We have done all the research for you and will continue to stay up to date with current trends and admissions that only a few are aware of.

With the March Madness, and seniors finding out their college acceptances or rejections this March and April, everyone becomes stressed and anxious, even the juniors who begin to think about colleges and their future. Do not listen to the myths and gossips out there. Speak to an expert who can guide you and help you narrow down your college options and find a best-fit college for you!

Early-Bird Registration for College Consultations begin this April 1st, 2014. After May 30, 2014, regular Registration begins. Consultations are year-round with College Packages for rising Juniors and Seniors beginning in July 2014 to the end of the academic year. Contact us for more information.

As students are consulted by their Lee Academia Consultant and waiting to receive their College Athlete Game Report, here are the next 4 steps to prepare:

1. Develop your Initial Email correspondence.
2. Develop your Student Athlete profile.
3. Develop your Personal Video.
4. Organize your upcoming schedule to be included in your correspondence.

After receiving and understanding the College Athlete Game Report, here are next 4 steps to take:

1. Send out your finished email to your initial contact.
2. Be sure to respond to every correspondence you receive from the coaches.
3. Expand your contact list, as needed. Your College Athlete Game Report will only have 30-50 schools.
4. Master the college interview process... Be prepared to talk to college Face to Face.

Need Help developing your email, student athlete profile, and/or your video? Call Lee Academia @ 347-948-8863 for more details on these services. Get your College Athlete Game Report today!

By 2018, 63% of all job openings will require a post-secondary education.

In other words, almost 2 in every 3 jobs will be COMPLETELY CLOSED to you if you don’t have a college degree.

And considering that those with a college education make an average of 64% more than those who don’t...This fact should really freak you out.

If you haven’t started earning college degree, or if you took classes but never finished, the time to take action is NOW.

Lee Academia experts can guide you through choosing degree programs available, and help you qualify for government grants or scholarships.

With approximately 450 boarding schools in 2012 and tuition at these schools ranging from free (yes, free!) to well over $50,000 per year, many parents and students choose to go to boarding schools.

There are plenty of reasons why attending an independent school is a great idea. With boarding school experiences adding another dimension because it involves the student 24/7 for weeks at a time; the academics, athletics and extracurricular activities are interwoven into a student's schedule in a remarkably balanced way. So whether a coed school or a boys' school or girls' school is chosen, you will find a boarding school which meets your requirements. Additionally, you can find boarding schools that offer military training, educating students with learning differences and special needs.

Financial aid is given at several boarding schools with general financial aid packages.

Everyone boarding school is unique so ranks do not matter there. What does matter is finding the school which best fits the child. Find the right boarding school for a child is one of the most important and expensive decisions you will ever have to make, similar to the college process.

Parents and students can research thoroughly on their own, only to find that most websites look alike and very few give information on the profile of typical accepted students. Families who want the guidance often turn to independent educational consultants, like Lee Academia's Educational Consultants, who have worked with over 50 students and parents this past admissions cycle.

These professionals are paid by the families to advise them on the boarding school search and admissions process. Many offer full service comprehensive packages that span over a year’s time, and others have shorter packages or an hourly rate.  A typical consultation will start with a focus on the student’s background and interest in boarding school; this includes a review of his transcript, testing, activities, interests, and academic successes and challenges of the past.  Lee Academia's professional consultant will talk with the student and parents about goals for the future and what they hope to get out of the boarding school experience.  We have given examples of schools that are nurturing or offer learning support, or those which give extra help to students when they need it. We discuss the pros and cons of the more rigorous schools, or might help a family decide whether to repeat a year.   Lee Academia's professionals know the inside scoop on boarding schools, and they get this through their campus visits, meetings with admissions officers, and by seeing the successes of the students who they place at schools.  We help families determine a list of schools to apply to, and this discussion customarily takes many months, but in certain cases can be done within one meeting.

For information or a consultation to see if boarding schools are right for you or your child, contact us.

Stay tuned to our success and admissions results, as they will be posted up on the website as we receive them.

As some students like to party as hard as they study, I am going to list the top 20 schools (ranked by students) that have parties nearly every night of the week. Students : no matter which college you're at, please remember to work hard (study hard) before you party hard. Make sure you graduate your respective college/university. For the complete listing, contact our Consultants.


Rank                             School Name____________________________
1                                    UC Santa Barbara (CA)
2                                    University of Georgia (GA)
3                                    University of Florida (FL)
4                                    Florida State University (FL)
5                                    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (IL)
6                                    University of Texas - Austin (TX)
7                                    West Virginia University (WV)
8                                    Tulane University (LA)
9                                    Penn State (PA)
10                                  Indiana University - Bloomington (IN)
11                                  Arizona State University (AZ)
12                                  Miami University (FL)
13                                  James Madison University (VA)
14                                  Rutgers University (NJ)
15                                  Georgia Southern University (GA)
16                                  University of South Carolina (SC)
17                                  Howard University (DC)
18                                  University of Alabama (AL)
19                                  Ohio University (OH)
20                                  University of Massachusetts (MA)