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.

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.

As some students are taking their ACT exam this weekend, here are some tips and tricks to remember.

1. Keep calm and carry on.
On test day, relaxation is the key...but this is easier said than done, right? Take it easy and plan to give yourself plenty of time to wake up and get to the test center. Remember, breathe! Eat breakfast.

2. Stay positive.
Tests are boring, but think positively. Try smiling while you're taking your ACT test. Belief affects behavior, so it'll work if you stay positive.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice.
If you want to be good at something, you have to practice.

4. Come prepared.
Bring your admission ticket, cells phones are NOT allowed, bring a watch to keep track of time, your photo ID, calculator, and No.2 pencils.

5. No blanks.
You will not be penalized for guessing, but before you go crazy with that No.2 pencil, try to narrow down at least one or two answers that are definitely wrong.

For last minute ACT review, schedule a CRAM session (1-hour) now with an ACT expert today! Contact us for more information.

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.

Coming this March 2014, Lee Academia will be hosting an Anatomy course (10-week program).

Highly recommended for students interested in the medical field or to explore the Human Anatomy & Physiology. This is another great way to impress the college/medical school admissions officers and add to your resume of activities.

Small group and private tutoring available. Seats limited, so start thinking about your Spring semester.

Stay tuned for more information.

College Prowler has ranked some of the top U.S girl colleges. You can read more on the link below and comment on what you think.

Ranking                            School                                   
    1                     Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA
    2                     Stanford University Stanford, CA
    3                     Wellesley College Wellesley, MA
    4                     University of Chicago Chicago, IL
    5                     College of William & Mary Williamsburg, VA

Read more: http://collegeprowler.com/rankings/girls/top-smartest-girls/#ixzz2l2WRZfI6

Contributed by Joyce Mei, Hunter College HS (Class of 2015)  

    We’ve heard countless times that the early bird catches the worm, but what happened to slow and steady wins the race? So in terms of applying for college, is it better to rush to submit our applications early? Despite the common belief among teens and their parents, there is no need to submit an application in mid-August when the deadline is in early November or December. It is better to have a more thorough and complete application that handing in an early, rushed application.

    In addition, college admissions officers have admitted that they do not look at applications until they are “complete” with transcripts and recommendation letters from high school. Therefore, an application submitted in August will not be looked at for weeks until all the necessary paperwork is handed in as well.

    Submitting in applications early also gives more time for students to worry about if they will be accepted into the college of their choice. Students now also have to stress out about if they filled out the applications correctly, if they wrote their personal statements to express who they are in the best way, and if they change their minds about anything in the upcoming months.

    Once we hit “submit,” there is no going back. Therefore, take your time and make sure your applications are done right. For more information, contact Lee Academia experts.

As you prepare to start the new term, you will need new college semester success tips whether you are coming back or are new to college. Getting ready to start the semester, you are filled with optimism and you are maybe a bit nervous. If you are starting out you feel that you were well prepared and made the right choice and are ready.

You want to start with a clean slate. New notebooks for each class or new folders in your computer—ideally both. You will need to save the syllabus for each course. Review the syllabus carefully and use it to do the following things:

• Order or access books and reading material needed for assignments so you have all you need when you need it.
  
• They will ask questions that assume you have done the reading, and if class participation is required, then you will be in trouble if you are called on and don’t have a clue about what is being discussed.  The midterm or final exam will likely include references to the lecture or seminar discussion and to the readings.
  

Fill your calendar or planner. Time management is one of the toughest things that students face and it is a key life skill. You use the planner for planning. Planning is not simply recording when you have a dinner date or a paper due.  It involves looking ahead and also back. 

You look ahead to see, for example, when your paper is due, then look back to see where you have blocks of time to work on the paper.  You not only impress your teacher, but keep yourself from procrastinating.  Other assignments, such as reading a novel for your literature class, may be done in small time chunks.  

Find out when and where you can find your professor. You want to get to know them so they can be helpful to you. Use office hours. The students who do the best also have the best relationships with their professors. Faculty enjoy the interaction with interested students and helping those who may be struggling to get better. Getting ready to start the semester begin by making a friend of your professor.

Find out how the grades are structured. Sometimes there may be quizzes, papers, exams, projects or class participation.

See where you are going to have to apply the most effort to get the grades you want. If you know you will need help plan to schedule time at the tutoring or writing centers. Sometimes they are first come first serve and so making an appointment while you are getting ready to start the semester is smart.

Doing all these things at the beginning of the semester will assure a good outcome at the end.

Stephenie Lee is the founder of Lee Academia Educational Consulting, consultant and the author of "Writing a Compelling College Application Essay: Workbook" and other College series workbooks. She is also an expert on test taking strategies, study skills and college admissions strategies. Find out more about Stephenie at website.

Contributed by Joyce Mei, Hunter College HS (Class of 2015)

A crucial part of the college admissions process is the application essay. And we all want college admissions officers to read our application and totally understand who we are from these couple paragraphs that are supposed to capture our essence. One must consider, then, how will a college admissions officer dub you?

We must keep in mind that these admissions officers have over 1000 applications to look over and that they will only spend an average of eight minutes per application. Therefore, they will label each applicant with a couple of words that stand out. It is the applicant’s job to make sure that dub is a good one. Here are a few examples:

• If someone wrote about his passion for collecting knick knacks people didn’t want, he might be dubbed “the kid who collects junk.”
  
  
• If someone wrote about how he took up wrestling because he was short and picked on and wanted to prove himself, he’d be the kid who needed to prove himself wrestling.”
  
  

Notice how these dubs are all things that the admissions officer would probably find amusing or surprising. They don’t care if you had a meaningful breakthrough or became champion at some sports event. You need to be that kid who makes the officer ask, “Can you believe it?”


For more information and advice on writing college admissions essays, contact Lee Academia experts.