Now that you have your grades, test scores, activity lists and interests, where should you consider applying? We will help you find a set of schools that meet your needs. We are problem solvers and can find great options for any student, no matter what the circumstance.
Think you can’t afford college? Worried that test scores or grades don’t reflect actual abilities? Want to apply to the most elite institutions? Interested in special career paths? We can find the solution that works for you. Call us now to schedule a consultation and let us help you find best-fit colleges for you!
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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. 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. The TOEFL Junior is a Standard Test of English created by ETS for young learners ages 11-15. With the ever-increasing number of young international students applying for admission to schools in the United States, this test meets the demand for an English language assessment. There are many types of institutions that can use the information provided by the TOEFL Junior tests to help make placement decisions or measure student progress in English: English-language programs, private middle schools, and schools in Non-English speaking countries.
There are two TOEFL Junior tests: Standard (launched in Oct.2010) and Comprehensive (launched in July 2012). The TOEFL Junior Standard test is administered in paper-based format testing: Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, and Language Form and Meaning. Each section contains 42 questions, and the approximate total testing time is 2 hours, with total score scales ranging from 200-900. The TOEFL Junior Comprehensive test is administered on computer testing: Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Writing. Each section in Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension contains 36 questions, with each of the sections in Speaking and Writing containing 4 questions each. The approximate total testing time is 2:15 hours, with total score scales ranging from 140-160 in the Listening and Reading Comprehension sections, and score scales ranging 0-16 for each the Speaking and Writing sections. For more information about this standard test or our TOEFL Test Prep Programs, you may contact us. Why engage the services of a private college consultant?
Independent college consultants are
Contributed by Douglas Lee, Case Western Reserve (Class of 2016)
By far, the most challenging part of the college application is the college essay. You might ask yourself, “How can I possibly fully convey my individuality and personal value in 650 words or less?!” but read these tips for some help on how to take on this daunting task. 1. Finding a Topic – This is the big first step in this process. Start by brainstorming some ideas and try to find an instance in your recent life, whether an important event in your life or a smaller one, that displays your thought process and how you can handle challenging situations. The way each individual’s mind works is different, and in this essay, you want to show why your mind is distinctive and an asset to the college community. 2. First Draft – If necessary, you may want to write multiple first drafts about different topics. When you write these drafts, just let your ideas flow onto the page and it is fine if it comes out to three pages long. You can edit out the parts you don’t want and fix up the grammar and diction in later drafts. 3. Be Yourself and Be Specific – Don’t just write about what you think others will want to hear. Be specific about how the story you are telling relates to your personal qualities and how the angle you’re taking is reflected. The story is only as good as how you spin it in your favor. 4. Illustrate your Story and Be Vivid – I’m sure you’ve heard this countless times from your fifth grade teacher, but “show, not tell” is the name of the game here. You can claim that you are smart, courageous, determined and all that, but your readers will never be convinced unless you show them how you displayed those desirable characteristics in concrete examples. In your essay, write about how the particular instance you have chosen has impacted you and why it is compelling. Give details that show your story is likable and that you are personable. 5. Show that you are Goal-Oriented – Let your reader know that you strive for success and that you want to contribute something of value to your environment. But at the same time, you do not need to list your accomplishments or include any humble-brags. There is a separate section of the application to do just that! 6. Get a Second Opinion and Rewrite – Your essay is one of the few aspects of your application that show what your personality is actually like. You know exactly what you mean when you write down those words, but perhaps those words may not convey your message fully to a second reader. Sure the words make sense in your head, but a stranger who is reading your essay does not have the same background knowledge that you do. Having a teacher or a friend look over your essay may help you deliver your message clearer, provide other aspects of your personality to display, and give your essay a better direction to follow. For more guidance with the College Personal Statements or Essays, contact our experts for more advice. Contributed by Douglas Lee, Case Western Reserve (Class of 2016)
College visits are an essential part of the important college decision process. By visiting a college campus for an afternoon, you can attain much more information about that school than by spending endless hours researching it online on sites like College Prowler. You can never fully grasp the unique environment each college provides behind a computer screen! In addition, online student submitted reviews are often biased, unreliable, or outdated. The dynamic of a college campus is constantly changing, and these changes may not be reflected online. Sure, a top ranked school may have all the qualities you are looking for: a strong program in the academic field you are interested in, numerous research opportunities, smart and ambitious students, and even a critically acclaimed dining hall! What’s not to like? However, without visiting this school, you miss out on many facets of student life; the qualities that determine whether or not you will enjoy your next four years at the school. College fit is an underrated aspect of the college decision process. When visiting a college, we recommend that you take a quick drive around the nearby city or town, interact with actual students, talk to faculty, sit in on a class, and tour main buildings such as the dining hall, recreational facilities, and library. Current students, professors, and admissions officers may provide much more valuable and insightful information that you may not be able to find elsewhere. By visiting a college, you may learn to appreciate a school that you had not even considered to be a top choice, or, you may learn that a previous top choice was just not the right fit for you. While sites like College Prowler, Unigo, USNews, and even Reddit may provide plenty of useful information, we only recommend that you use these sights as a starting point, and not the only sources you have to base your college decision on. Additional Tips:
For more college visit consultations, contact Lee Academia. Here are some things incoming college freshmen should know about college.
You Have Control Over Your Courses You do not have to confine yourself to the standard program. As you select your courses, be sure that each one is on the right level for you. Once you have picked your program, you should attend each of the classes and decide whether the professor is someone from whom you can really learn. By using the drop/add process, you may be able to get a much better teacher. Every class counts, so devote yourself to them. You Are Expected to Do a Lot of the Work on Your Own You need to be your own boss. Figure out when things need to be done and do them, week by week. No one will contact you when you have missed the test or have not handed in the paper. You will also need to get yourself to study — even when there is no graded work that week. You Don’t Have to Pick a Major in Your First Year Many colleges now encourage students to declare a major at orientation. This actually forces students to get started on some directed course of study, and it helps colleges manage course offerings. In some cases it may be a good idea to declare your major right away, especially if yours is a four-year program like pre-med, or music, however, it is better to wait until you’ve taken a few courses — especially upper-division or advanced courses in a given field — before you commit to a major. And keep in mind that even if you do declare a major at the outset, it is very easy to change your major if you find you don’t like the courses or you aren’t doing well in them. It is much better to get out of something you don’t like than to go through 10 or 12 required courses. |
Stephenie Lee
Stephenie, having been a tutor/instructor/mentor since 1996, discovered her passion and founded Lee Academia Educational Consulting, LLC. after she left the dental and medical field. She loves teaching/mentoring and counseling her students. Her passion lies in educating others and helping them pursue their educational path. Today, certified in College Counseling and with more than 10 years of experience, Stephenie and her team continues to blog about current updated educational news and events. Archives
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