Ask me the hard questions.

The Independent Educational Consultants Association encourages every family to ask a whole set of questions before hiring a consultant like me. So I've gone ahead and answered every one of them here, before you've spent a thing.

The questions

1. 1 — What are your qualifications?

   I have a B.S. in Elementary Education, an M.S. in Instructional Technology, and fifteen-plus years in classrooms working with students who learn in all kinds of different ways. Before teaching, I worked in Human Resources, which is where I first learned to hear what a person actually needs underneath what they came in saying.

   On top of that, I'm currently earning the UC Berkeley Certificate in Independent Educational Consulting, which is the formal training specific to this work. It's in progress, and I'll update this page with the date the moment it's official.

   My real qualification is knowing how to see a student clearly: their strengths, their worries, and the potential they haven't recognized yet. That's what fifteen years in a classroom teaches you.

2. 2 — Do you belong to a professional association?

   Yes. I'm a member of IECA, the Independent Educational Consultants Association. It's the professional organization that connects independent educational consultants all over the world and gives us a shared set of standards to work by, their Principles of Good Practice, which is where most of the questions on this page come from. Being a member means I've agreed to hold myself to those standards.

3. 3 — Can you guarantee my student gets into a particular school?

   No, I can't, and neither can anyone else. Admissions decisions are made by committees I don't sit on, using criteria that shift from year to year and that no outside consultant controls. Anyone who promises you a specific outcome is selling something they don't actually own.

   What I can do is make sure the application is honest, complete, matched to schools that genuinely suit your student, and submitted on time. That's the part we can actually shape together, and getting it right is what lets your family breathe a little easier through all of it.

4. 4 — Can you guarantee scholarships or a certain amount of financial aid?

   No. Aid is awarded by schools and by the federal and state formulas underneath them, and I don't have any influence over that.

   I also don't charge a percentage of any aid or scholarship money your student receives. That kind of arrangement is actually prohibited by IECA, and for good reason: charging that way would give me a personal stake in where your child applies, and those decisions should always be about your student, never about me. My fees are flat, written down, and agreed on before we ever start.

5. 5 — Who writes the essay?

   Your student does. Every single word of it.

   I ask questions. I read drafts. I'll tell them when a paragraph isn't landing, and I'll push them to find the true version of a story instead of the impressive one, which is usually harder and always better. What I don't do is write, ghostwrite, or quietly rewrite a sentence into something the student couldn't have produced on their own. Admissions readers can tell, and they've been able to tell for years.

   And there's a second reason that matters just as much to me. The essay is one of the very few places in this whole process where a seventeen-year-old gets to sound like themselves. I'd rather help them say something true in their own voice than hand an admissions reader one more essay that sounds like all the others.

6. 6 — Do you have special relationships with admissions officers?

   No, and I'd be careful with anyone who suggests they do. There's no back channel here. I build my knowledge of schools the ordinary way: researching them, visiting them when I can, and talking with colleagues who know them well. That's the honest version of inside knowledge, and it's genuinely useful. It's just not a favor anyone can call in.

7. 7 — What is your philosophy?

   Every student is different, and I think the college search should start there: with who your child actually is, what they love, how they learn, and where they'd feel at home for the next four years. When we start there, the right schools have a way of coming into focus.

   Big, well-known schools can absolutely be part of that picture, and if one of them is a wonderful fit for your student, I'll be right there cheering them on. I just want to make sure we're choosing schools because they're right for your child, not simply because of the name on the sweatshirt. Sometimes that's a school everyone recognizes, and sometimes it's one you'd never have thought to look at. Both are worth celebrating.

   My goal is simple: to help your student find a place where they'll be happy, supported, and able to thrive. That's what matters most to me, and I think it's what matters most to you too.

8. 8 — How do you work with parents?

   I meet with you right at the start, and I bring up money early too, usually in our first month together. The financial conversation only gets harder the longer it waits, and a family that names a real number in the fall ends up with a much stronger list than one that discovers that number in April.

   From there, I keep you in the loop on a rhythm we agree on together, with regular email updates and check-ins along the way, plus a meeting in the fall of senior year to walk through the final college list and the thinking behind it. Your student is my client, so you'll always know where things stand without being the one chasing down deadlines. That's usually the part parents want most and find hardest to ask for.

9. 9 — What happens at the first meeting, and what does it cost?

   Nothing, and nothing. The first consultation is completely free, in person when that works and by video when it doesn't. We just talk. You ask me the questions on this page and any others on your mind. And I ask about your student, not their GPA first, but their actual life, what they love, what lights them up, what they're worried about.

   At the end, one of us says this feels like a fit, or one of us says it doesn't, and both of those are good outcomes. I'd honestly rather help a family find someone better suited to them in week one than take money for a fit I didn't believe in.

10. 10 — What if it stops working partway through?

    The most important thing is to let me know early if something isn't working. Most of the time it's an easy adjustment: a different meeting rhythm, more updates for you, or reworking the list as your student grows and changes. And if the honest answer is that you'd be better served by someone else, I won't be shy about saying so.

    All the specifics live in the agreement you sign before we start, and I go through it with you line by line. You'll never be surprised by how any of this works, at the beginning or the end.

11. 11 — Can I talk to families you have worked with?

    Not yet, and that's simply because I'm early in building my practice. What I can give you instead is fifteen years of references from the other side of this work: parents of kids I taught — who can tell you how I handle a student and how I talk to a family. Ask on our call and I'll connect you. As I start working with students, I'll ask them and their parents to share their honest experiences, and once they've given me their written okay, I'll gladly pass those along.

    Being one of my first families does take a little trust, and I don't take that lightly. Your student will have my full attention and my complete commitment to helping them find the right path.

12. 12 — Have you visited the schools you recommend?

    Some of them, and I'll always tell you which schools I know firsthand and which I don't. I also have fifteen years inside North Carolina classrooms and a long line of students who came back from those campuses and told me what it was actually like.

    I will always tell you what I am basing a recommendation on: a personal visit, the school's own data, conversations with colleagues who know it, and what students there actually report about their experience.

13. 13 — What does it cost?

    I know cost is an important part of the decision, and I want to be upfront and clear about it, just not with a price tag slapped on a webpage before I understand what your family actually needs. Every student comes to me at a different point with a different set of goals, so what makes sense for one family isn't quite right for the next.

    Here's how I handle it: after our free consultation, once I have a real sense of where your student is and how I can help, I'll send you a clear written breakdown of your options and exactly what each one costs. Flat fees, quoted in writing, with no hourly surprises and no percentage of anything, ever. No guesswork, and no pressure.

And if there's a question I didn't answer here, it's probably a good one. Bring it to the consultation, or send it to me any time. I haven't been doing this long enough to be tired of being asked, and I genuinely mean that.

Ask me one I didn't answerSee what the year actually looks like