FOUNDATIONS: junior year

My Foundations program gives high school juniors and their families the confidence and knowledge they need to successfully begin the college application process. This program is guided by three principles.

1. Accountability. Junior year is often the most difficult year of high school academically. As they manage assignment deadlines and difficult tests across all their classes, preparing for college applications gets pushed to the back burner. My job is to be that coach in your student's corner keeping them on track to build a successful college application. I guide students through and beyond the National Association for College Admissions Counseling's Junior Year Checklist, helping them build an academic and extracurricular background that feels both authentic to the student and impressive to colleges. I help students schedule campus visits, find jobs and internships, demonstrate interest to prospective universities, develop student organizations, organize events, participate in local politics, and anything else students may want to do to develop their profile. 
2. Academic Support. Junior year grades are arguably the single most important factor of a student's college application, followed closely by sophomore year grades. I'm happy to offer direct academic support in all history/social science classes, English, and all essay writing. 
3. Student Life Coaching. Being a high schooler is hard. As a teacher, I found that a major part of my job was just helping students handle life as a teenager: difficult teachers, drama with friends, family emergencies, health issues, problems at work, learning to drive, and one hundred other problems that teenagers encounter while managing their classes. As your coach, I'm here to help you talk through these problems and find solutions. 

College applications are easily the most stressful part of senior year. I know because I watched seniors struggle through them every fall semester for six years. Students feel that suddenly they need all of life's questions answered or else they will be a failure. They're burdened with a sudden onslaught of laborious tasks that their high schools rarely, fully prepare them for. On top of this, they're expected to maintain good grades in all of their classes and soak in the fun of senior year. 

My Applications programs are designed to meet students where they are, no matter how unprepared they feel. I help students reflect on their interests and passions through the lens of higher education and the job market that awaits them. Even students with strong ideas about what they wish to do study often benefit from this process to disabuse them of the many myths young people learn to believe about college and careers. 

Premium Semester Package. This package is ideal for students who expect to apply to a large number of universities requiring essays and/or write a significant number of scholarship essays. This package is also suited for students who need a lot of help aligning their interests and goals with their future in higher education, perhaps a student who benefits from external coaching to hold them accountable to deadlines and expectations. By meeting twice per week throughout most of fall semester, you can be confident that your whole application, from school choice to final submission, has been expertly prepared and thoroughly inspected. Meeting twice weekly also allows us to me to coach students through the life challenges they may be facing outside of college applications. 

Basic Semester Package. This package is ideal for students who expect to apply to fewer universities requiring essays and/or write fewer scholarship essays. This package is also suited for students who are already somewhat confident about what they wish to study in college and who don't require extensive, hands-on support to meet deadlines. Even though students only meet with me once per week, I support students to meet the same high standards I expect of students who purchase the Premium package. 

Hourly Program. This program is ideal for students who only require targeted support during some portion of their college application process, such as college list development, essay writing, or scholarship search and application. However, this program is flexible. For example, if students realize they need support with essay writing after initially hiring me to help with college list development, students are welcome to continue working with me until they have received all the support they need. 

My services provide assistance with applications to any type of higher education institution. I also support students transferring from the California Community College (CCC) system to four-year universities. If, during this process, you decide to proceed with community college after retaining my services, I will return to help you in spring with your community college applications for no additional charge. 

For more on my approach to college applications, see the Why Stress Less page. 

You might wonder why a high school senior would need help from a college application support service during second semester. College applications are submitted! Isn't second semester senior year just a chill time to enjoy prom, pull your senior prank, and sign yearbooks? And the summer after senior year is even easier, right? 

In my experience teaching seniors, second semester can be a rollercoaster of emotions and responsibilities. They can struggle with the detailed steps of the FAFSA and worry when they learn their family's expected contribution and financial need. Their academic stamina can drop into freefall as the end of high school and beginning of adulthood seems just around the corner, sometimes even threatening their graduation and college admission status. As their college acceptances come in (sometimes not the acceptances they were hoping for), they're suddenly faced with one of the most important decisions in their life.  

After they finally select their school, they face a lengthy registration process. They reckon with the strange politics of selecting a roommate. They make big choices at orientation that they often don't fully understand. They may enter college with limited knowledge of personal finance, the consequences of drug and alcohol use, campus resources, available disability accommodations, and more. 

The weight of these decisions and the unknown can cause seemingly star students to suffer deeply throughout the spring, summer, and first year of college, contributing to the phenomenon of "summer melt," whereby admitted high school seniors never show up to college in fall.  A 2013 study of Boston public high school students "[estimated] a summer melt rate of 22 percent among lower [socioeconomic status] students and of 18 percent among comparatively wealthier students." 

My Transitions program helps students navigate all of these challenges and uncertainties to minimize the risk of summer melt and make sure they have the best possible start to freshman year. I also teach students essential life skills they need to be successful in college, such as basic personal finance, 

"I look to see how you did your senior year. And I would expect that your senior year performance is about the same as what I saw your junior year. If there's a big dip, you might get a letter from us saying 'We're concerned about what happened your senior year. Please explain.'"

-Lisa Przekop, Director of Admissions at UC Santa Barbara on The College Admissions Process Podcast, June 27, 2023. 

College students are more likely to drop out of college during their first year than any other year. According to the Education Data Initiative, 18.4% of first-time, full-time college freshmen dropped out of four-year institutions between 2019 and 2020, before the full weight of the COVID pandemic hit. In fact, among states, California is tied for having the third highest percentage of residents with "some college no degree." 

In a survey of college students by Intelligent.com, 17% of college students planned to drop out before the fall 2022 academic term. Of those dropouts, 31% reported that they planned to drop out because they were unsure of what to study. Other common reasons included mental health problems, poor academic performance, and the consequences of the COVID pandemic. 

My New Beginnings program provides life coaching and academic tutoring tailored to the college freshman experience, putting students on the right track so that they don't become another dropout statistic. I help students balance responsibilities, learn self-advocacy, settle roommate and domestic disputes, have fun responsibly, connect with campus life, find jobs and opportunities, access mental health and healthcare resources, accommodate disabilities, and more. With my background in history and education, I also can directly assist students with the humanities, social sciences, and essay writing. In STEM fields, I can help with general study techniques and academic organization.