With Gabbie a junior this year, Dave and I started to talk about whether we were on top of things with regards to her future educational planning. She had done some initial research and took the PSAT and ACT at school, but we hadn’t sat down and discussed what we should be doing as far as researching, visiting, and applying to colleges. After a discussion with our neighbor who has a son one year older, I recalled that Lindsay Fried from Simply Admissions had reached out to me previously and we decided that now would be a great time to work with an educational planner.
What Is An Educational Planner?
Lindsay Fried is a Certified Educational Planner, which means that she has passed board-certifying assessments administered by the American Institute of Certified Educational Planners (AICEP). According to the AICEP, “educational planners work directly with students and families to provide choices of college, schools, and other special needs alternatives.” Simply Admissions works with students on academic planning, career exploration, designing an extracurricular resume, identifying colleges that fit academically, financially, and socially, creating a standardized testing plan, discussing letters of recommendation, reviewing essays, helping with applications, prepping for interviews, and more.
Initial Consultation Meeting with An Educational Planner
I scheduled a consultation meeting with Lindsay through her website. We discussed the services offered and her qualifications, as well as the benefits of working with Simply Admissions. I left this first meeting feeling a sense of relief, because as a parent who graduated college 20 years ago, I have little memory of the process and no knowledge of what has changed since I applied to college. Lindsay does the work of knowing the trends and resources available to guide families like ours through the process.
What To Expect When Meeting with An Educational Planner
After this initial meeting, Gabbie scheduled her own appointment with Lindsay. Gabbie is very busy and rarely home, but Lindsay was able to meet with us at 8 PM on a Sunday night! I sat in on Gabbie’s meeting as well, although I didn’t participate much.
In their first meeting, Lindsay went over Gabbie’s plan for her senior year schedule. She pointed out right away that Gabbie only took one year of a high school level language. This was because after having taken Hebrew from kindergarten through 9th grade, she switched schools and didn’t switch to a new language. Most colleges want you to have 2 years of a language – and even 2 years of the same language, but Lindsay says Gabbie will be able to explain that her new school didn’t offer Hebrew. One of her first assignments was to meet with her counselor and find out about taking a language next year.
Next, Lindsay went through a series of attributes that a college may offer and had Gabbie say whether or not she hopes for these attributes in her desired college. This included available subjects, the school’s culture and size, etc. At the end of this exercise, Lindsay had Gabbie rank her top 5 criteria she wants in a future college. I thought this activity was a great way to focus in on what Gabbie is actually looking for, and it helps Lindsay to prepare her initial list of colleges for Gabbie to consider.
Instead of being stressed about all the things we need to do next, Lindsay assigned Gabbie specific tasks to work on – aside from meeting with her counselor, she should also take a practice SAT test so that we can discuss whether she should take the SAT or whether her ACT scores are going to serve her well enough that she won’t need the SAT as well. This is definitely something I was concerned about!
In their second meeting, Lindsay checked in with Gabbie about her assigned tasks and then introduced Gabbie to her list of colleges to look at. The personalized initial list is ranked as far as whether schools are likely or reaches for Gabbie as far as acceptance likelihood and financial affordability or merit friendliness. All of the schools on the list met Gabbie’s main requirements, specifically in having an education major and a Jewish program. Gabbie’s assigned task is to go through the schools and create a list of pros and cons for each. Linsday’s website has extensive notes on the schools, so Gabbie won’t have to be doing her own research from scratch.
In this meeting, Lindsay also did a Meyers-Briggs personality test with Gabbie to determine what possible majors and careers will be best for her. Finally, they went through all of Gabbie’s activities and extracurriculars to begin to create a resume.
How Working With An Educational Planner Has Helped Us Already
I feel much less stressed about the college application process now that we are working with Lindsay. She has broken down everything into steps and we know what we need to focus on for now. Gabbie feels like she is getting the advice and help she needs to determine which colleges she should apply to and has already told me a college that she would like to visit. While it may seem that there is a lot to do, it seems to me that we’ve started at the right time to be able to do it one step at a time. I feel excited to continue meeting with Lindsay and I will keep you updated about the process as we go on!
What are your thoughts about educational planning and college applications?
