Student Finds Perfect College With Help of Expert College Counselor in Denver

It’s so fun to hear from students who have successfully found the perfect college…a place that really fits their academic and personal interests and abilities.

This short video was created by one of my former students who is now at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  His family hired me as their college counselor to help this young man figure out what he wanted.  After several  months of getting to know one another, of exploring various options, and pulling together essays and applications, he was able not only to get into a great college, but win some scholarship money, too boot!

Perhaps I should just let him speak for himself.

If I can help you or someone in your family find the best college for them, please send me a shout.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant in Denver

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Campus Cuisine–It's Not Your Standard Cafeteria Fare Anymore

One of the most important stops on a campus visit is the dining hall.  While I try to remind my clients that education the primary “service” they are purchasing when they look at a college or university, it is true that they are also choosing a home for the next four years.

So residence halls are important.  Will you be comfortable?

And dining halls are also key.  Will you find a pleasing, nutritious, and varied diet?

In the past decade or two, dining halls have undergone an overhaul. In part, this is because the consumer–kids–have developed more discriminating palate.

Gone is the usual rotation of Salibury steak (a.k.a. “mystery meat”), macaroni and cheese, and breaded chicken cutlets with a slab of cheese (we used to call these horrifying things “elephant scabs”).

Now it’s Vietnamese pho (noodle soup), mini-samosas, goat cheese salad and chicken mole.

Check out what these colleges are doing (courtesy of an article in the Associated Press) to offer more flexible dining options:

  • Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., offers recyclable takeout containers called “GustieWare” in the dining halls.
  • This fall, Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., will offer students on its meal plan a chance to pick up groceries in the cafeteria as an alternative to a cooked meal.
  • At Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., food waste from the dining hall is used as compost for an organic garden where students grow lettuce, peppers, corn, kale, squash, carrots and other vegetables.

So as you visit campuses, make sure to ask about various dining options, and take the time to have at least one meal in the primary dining hall.  You should even ask students (I  nab ’em while they are standing in line) what they think of the meals on campus, and what the other options are) how they feel about the food.   Before you rush to judgment, keep in mind that any institutional food will become overly familiar to the student who eats in a dining hall day after day, semester after semester.

And also keep in mind that all these dining options do cost money.  One of the biggest cost jumps in college costs in recent years has been increases in the cost of “room and board,” with board being that Vietnamese pho, goat cheese, and premium organic groceries.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

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Bennington College: Creative, Self-Directed, Intellectually Serious Alternative

I recently spent a gorgeous spring afternoon on the campus of Bennington College in southern Vermont.  The campus is a lovely mixture of colonial architecture and internationalist modern styles, and 650 students are proud to be known as a relatively off-beat, alternative, and artistic bunch.  Like Marlboro, Bennington does not offer traditional majors, but requires students to develop their own plan of study that is closely supervised by the faculty.

This video offers a brief summary of my visit to Bennington.


Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant


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Study in the USA from Guangzhou, China

During a recent trip to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, I met with hundreds of students and their parents to explain the American higher education system.  I participated in college fairs, presented at education expos, and gave lectures.

As this short video explains, there is a dearth of good information about how to study in the USA, and many misconceptions about what it means to study in the United States.

Have a look!


Click here to read more about how I explain how to study in the USA in Chinese.


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Millsaps College–Distinctive Features and Admissions Priorities

I recently visited Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, to find out for myself why this small, liberal arts college is included in Loren Pope’s book, 40 Colleges That Change Lives.  I was able to spend some time talking to the director of admission, Mr. Mathew Cox.

This short video highlights three distinctive features of Millsaps.  It’s a wonderful place.

Mark Montgomery
College Consultant

Technorati Tags: college, liberal arts, admission, small, selection, choose, choice, decision, Millsaps, Jackson, Mississippi Del.icio.us Tags: college, liberal arts, admission, small, selection, choose, choice, decision, Millsaps, Jackson, Mississippi