Massachusetts - College Admission Counseling

Secondary Schools Where Students Have Received Great College Advice

Jared Hobson — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 19:41:25 +0000

Great College Advice works with Great Students from Great Schools

Below is a partial list of the secondary schools that our students have attended as we have helped them map their college journeys.

SELECTED PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Choate Rosemary Hall (CT)
Hotchkiss School (NH)
Phillips Andover (MA)
Lawrenceville School (NJ)
Cate School (CA)
Holderness School (NH)
Northfield Mount Herman School (MA)
Germantown Friends School (PA)
Moses Brown School (RI)
Emma Willard School (NY)
Cushing Academy (MA)
Lawrence Academy (MA)
Brentwood School (BC, Canada)
Fountain Valley School (CO)
Bishop Fenwick HS (MA)
St. John’s Prep (MA)
Mid-Pacific Institute (HI)
Saint Thomas Academy (MN)
Colorado Academy (CO)
Kent Denver School (CO)
International School of San Francisco (CA)
Signature School (IN)
Prospect Hill Academy (MA)
Interlochen Arts Academy (MI)
Judge Memorial HS (UT)
Xavier HS (WI)
Harrow School (UK)
Woldingham School (UK)
Chinese International Schools (Hong Kong)
Shanghai American School (PRC)
Geelong Grammar Schools (Australia)
Anglo-Chinese School (Singapore)
Beijing 101 Secondary School (PRC)
American School of Muscat (Oman)

SELECTED USA PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS

We have worked with students attending some of the most competitive high schools in the country, many of whom have pursued Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula. We have worked with students who hail from just about every state in the country (we’re working to add Alaska and South Dakota!). Below is just a sampling of the great schools where our students have attended.

NEW YORK

Scarsdale HS
Stuyvesant HS
Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women

MASSACHUSETTS

Lexington HS
Belmont HS
Hingham HS
Burlington HS
Ipswich HS
Needham HS
Bedford HS
Melrose HS
Somerville HS

CALIFORNIA

Pacific Palisades HS
Palos Verdes Peninsula HS
Westview HS
Cerritos HS
Woodcreek HS
Redlands East Valley HS
Rancho Cotate HS (CA)

NEW JERSEY

Ridgewood HS
Westfield HS
Cranford HS (NJ)
Metuchen HS (NJ)
Rumson / Fairhaven HS (NJ)

ILLINOIS

Buffalo Grove HS

COLORADO

Cherry Creek HS
Fairview HS
Boulder HS
Denver East
George Washington
Cheyenne Mountain HS
For more Colorado Schools, click here

MISSOURI

Clayton HS

MAINE

Yarmouth HS

UTAH

Snow Canyon HS

WYOMING

Laramie HS

NEBRASKA

Hastings HS
Scotch Plains Fairwood HS

TENNESSEE

Tullahoma HS

INDIANA

Indiana Academy for Science, Math, and Humanities
Munster HS

NORTH DAKOTA

West Fargo HS

PENNSYLVANIA

Lancaster HS

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Newmarket HS

DELAWARE

Cape Henlopen HS

SOUTH CAROLINA

JL Mann HS

TEXAS

Kempner High School

NEW MEXICO

Maya Gold

The post Secondary Schools Where Students Have Received Great College Advice first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Choosing a High School or School District To Boost College Admission Chances

Jared Hobson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:18:33 +0000

I received an email from a reader this morning that wondered whether it was worth it to move to a different school district where the schools have a better reputation, in order to give his kids a boost in the college admissions process.
Here’s his question:

My answer is equivocal, in some sense. Generally, a big move is not going to give you a big advantage. However, it is important to investigate the quality of teaching at your kids’ schoools. Here is my response:
The factor of high school rigor is usually factored into the equation. For example, a student in Lexington or Wayland may get an extra “brownie point” for living there, rather than in Saugus or Chelsea. They are interested in the academic rigor of the offerings, not the “ranking” or “reputation.” the irony is, however, that ambitious (and wealthy) parents all flock to the same towns, hoping to give their kids an edge in college admissions. But if 14 kids from Lexington apply to Harvard each year, only 1 or 2 (or sometimes 0) will get in. However, a really amazing kid from Chelsea? Since he’s a stand-out, he has a good chance, too, despite his lack of town-based “brownie points.”
If you are really thinking of moving to a place where your kid has the best chance of getting into college, I have three recommendations: Wyoming, North Dakota, and Mississippi. Top flight colleges are always seeking qualified applicants from those states. But if you live in Woburn and are thinking of moving (at great expense) to Dover, I’d tell you to focus, instead, on providing great opportunities for your kids, undergirding their extracurriculars, promoting their academic interests and talents, and being involved in their education. The “edge” you might get from moving is slight, and certainly would not be enough to make it or break it in admissions at the most selective colleges.
However, I have one caveat. You do need to consider the quality of teaching at the school your kids attend. This especially important when it comes to the AP and IB classes. I have seen kids earn straight As in AP courses at some schools (or in some subjects) and yet fail the AP exams. This is silly. The tests are nationally normed, and a grade of A ought to correspond to the rigor of the test. Experienced AP teachers will grade classwork in this way: if they expect that the work would earn a perfect 5 on the AP test, then the kid is awarded an A in the class. But if teacher is over-the-moon about a kid’s classwork, and then that same kid flunks the exam…well, the teacher isn’t aware of the level of proficiency required, and isn’t calibrating his or her expectations to the national norm. Some teachers in my own kids’ school will sometimes even give out a conservative grade in the AP course, but then change the grade if the student aces the AP exam. Thus a kid who received a B in the course but a 5 on the exam can ask to have the course grade boosted to the A. So the bottom line: be on the lookout for grade inflation, especially when it comes to these high-stakes, nationally normed exams. Just because the school labels a course “Advanced Placement” doesn’t necessarily mean their kids are passing the exams with flying colors.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

The post Choosing a High School or School District To Boost College Admission Chances first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Grinnell College–Amid the Cornfields Lies A Global Liberal Arts College

Jared Hobson — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:39:41 +0000

“Where the Hell is Grinnell?”

This question is emblazoned on all sorts of college paraphernalia at the Grinnell College bookstore.
Watch this short video and you’ll be asking yourself a slightly different question: “Why the hell have I never heard of Grinnell?”

**Correction: My buddy, Dan Jarrett, wrote in to show me the most recent IPEDS data: among non-sectarian, liberal arts colleges, Grinnell actually ranks #4 in per capita endowment resources, behind Pomona, Swarthmore, and Amherst. Wiliams ranks a close fifth. For more on how these figures can be pulled apart to reveal a real wealth disparity among American colleges and universities, see Dan’s post.

If you prefer, you can check out the transcript below.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*********************
I’m here now on the campus of Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, and as I walked by the bookstore. I saw these water bottles that say on them, “Where the hell is Grinnell?”

Grinnell is definitely is in, well, it’s in Iowa. There’s a lot of corn around it. But this is a cute, little town and an absolutely marvelous liberal arts college. It has everything going for it. It has got the highest per-capita endowment of any college in America, the facilities are second to none. The library right over here has been renovated a couple of times. Absolutely drop dead gorgeous study spaces for students, looking out the windows, it’s phenomenal.

The science center has been renovated twice in the last 15 years or so, fantastic facilities, and great science. The gym and the fitness center, oh, my gosh! I mean, I could go on and on. In the dormitories, we talked to one student and he was from Angola, okay. How did a student from Angola find Grinnell? I’m not sure, but this is a very international campus. Anyway, he was talking about the dormitories and saying, “I love my dorms!”

Look, if you are interested in a small, liberal arts college of the highest quality and all you’re thinking about is Williams and Amherst, think again. Think Iowa. Think Grinnell. Grinnell has fantastic resources for students, financial as well as human. I talked to a guy in a café downtown and he was a graduate of Grinnell and he said, “Oh, no, all the professors live here, they don’t live in Des Moines,” which is about an hour, hour-and-a-half away, “No, no, they all live in this community.” If you want tight relationships with your professors, Grinnell, my gosh, it’s really going to be hard to beat.

What else can I say about this place? Oh, again, international. This has one of the highest ratios of international students anywhere, here in Iowa. Why? Because people are looking for the highest quality education they can get in the United States. There are many other places, of course, and I don’t mean to suggest that other places aren’t equally good. But if you’re really looking for a top-notch school in America, think about Grinnell.

Another example, we were walking through the student center and a young man stopped us and said, “Can I help you?” And I said, “Well, we’re just looking around, but can I ask you a question, how’d you decide to come here?” And he said, “Well, I’m from Massachusetts and I was originally thinking of Williams and Amherst, but I needed money, I couldn’t afford those schools.” And Grinnell gave him a hefty merit package to come here and he said he has no regrets at all. People here are extremely passionate about whatever they’re interested in, and they are pretty laid back.

I mean, students who are willing to consider Iowa, they’re not as pretentious as some people who are looking necessarily for the name. They’re not looking for the geography of American education, they’re looking for the quality of American education. So you’re getting a slightly different tone here at Grinnell. Fabulous facilities, international campus, really bright student body, and it can be very affordable.

So if you haven’t figured out where the hell Grinnell is, you had better get it on your list.

The post Grinnell College–Amid the Cornfields Lies A Global Liberal Arts College first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

NCAA Division 1 Swimmer Describes Working With Educational Consultant

Jared Hobson — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:54:52 +0000

Ally swims. Fast.
She was looking for help identifying schools that were the right match for her athletically, as well as academically. Although she lives in North Andover, Massachusetts, she chose to work with Mark Montgomery, in Denver, Colorado, to help her find the colleges that were the right fit.
Here she is explaining how it worked…in her own words.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

The post NCAA Division 1 Swimmer Describes Working With Educational Consultant first appeared on College Admission Counseling.