Being a member of several professional organizations dedicated to helping high school students prepare for, search for and apply to college gives us access to resources that we can share with our clients. NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, offers a number of informational flyers and other materials, and I recently saw their four-page brochure that can help you get a good overview of the things you and your high school student should be thinking about as you gear up for the college search process. You can download it here, and we’re going to add it to our Resources page as well [check out that page – lots of good stuff!].
Having these resources available to us is a great way to illustrate one of the differences between professional college counselors, and those who do it as a hobby after helping one of their own children apply to college. Magellan’s four counselors have all either been through a college counseling certificate program, or worked in academia, or both. We are also all members of at least one professional organization, so we are always improving our knowledge and skills. I personally logged over 200 hours of professional development in 2015, including webinars, conferences, and college visits [I personally visited 40 different colleges last year!].
One professional organization for college counselors is the Independent Educational Consultants Association. They have a list of 12 questions you should ask before you hire an IEC to work with your student. I’m a Professional-level member of this group and will be presenting a session at their annual spring conference in Boston in May.
For those in the LA area who are interested in learning more about the college search process, I’ll be presenting at a few different locations over the next four weeks. A full list of presentations is here.
Next Monday, I’ll be presenting “College With Less Stress: How to Send Your Kid to College Without Breaking Your Bank” with certified financial planner Selwyn Miller. You can RSVP here; for $10 you get presentations from both of us plus dinner! This presentation is geared towards parents of 7th, 8th and 9th graders who have a few years to go before starting their college search.
Next Wednesday, I’ll be presenting a general session on the college search process at C2 Education in Calabasas. More details are in this flyer:
2-24 Magellan Presentation at C2 Calabasas
Both of these presentations are no-sales-pitch and no-obligation at all! Please come and learn more about how you and your high school student can best prepare for the college search process.
Questions? Feel free to contact us!