The Best U College Admissions Consulting

In this video, scholarship expert, Jenna Greenwood, discusses important strategies that can support your scholarship search process. She has even more tips on her self-paced online course on how to find and apply for scholarships called Scholarship School. Learn more —   https://thebestu.net/

Scholarship season is right around the corner. While you can find scholarships throughout the entire year, the peak of scholarship season is from November/December through February/March. So, now is the time to get your scholarship search process started. Before you get started, you’ll want to consider these essential elements of the scholarship search process. Understand Your True Cost:  Getting a good understanding of your cost of attendance is a good place to start. Knowing the true cost of attendance for the schools you are applying to will help guide your scholarship search. Prioritize Institutional Scholarships First:  I highly recommend that you start with the scholarships awarded by the schools you are applying to. This is because the awards can be higher and because they usually have early deadlines associated with them. Have a Plan for Organization:  Organizations can make or break your scholarship search. Make sure to have all of your scholarship ...

Check out this video to learn from test prep expert, Brendan Mernin, of Noodle Pros, about which test prep strategy works best. Is it shorter more aggressive prep or test prep that is stretched out over longer periods of time? Learn more —   https://thebestu.net/

Lauren Dodington  received a B.A. in Sociology from Vassar College and holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. Since 2005, Lauren has devoted her career to developing the potential of students and professionals in the fields of education and college access, working in both school and community based organizational settings in New York, Philadelphia and New Haven, CT. Most recently, Lauren was the Director of College Counseling at a leading public charter school in New Haven, Connecticut where she built a student-centered college counseling program and partnered with colleagues across the college landscape. In the spring of 2019, Lauren launched College Vision Consulting to continue to share her empowering and effective approach to college counseling with schools and organizations. As a counselor, Lauren is passionate about partnering with her students and their families and empowering young people to purs...

From a traumatic experience in my youth, I had to learn how to say “No”. This experience is now applied to teaching parents how to support their teenagers’ “No’s.” Learn more —   https://thebestu.net/

Jenna Greenwood  received a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Colorado, at Boulder and an M.S. in Higher Education Leadership and Policy from Portland State University. Since 2013, I’ve been supporting students as they navigate the higher education system in various different capacities. Early in my career, I did a term of service with AmeriCorps at a college access and retention nonprofit in Minnesota, where I developed an interest in helping students understand the financial aid process. I worked at the University of Oregon as a Financial Aid Counselor, where I developed a deep understanding of the financial aid system. As a Financial Aid Counselor, I advised and processed awards for a caseload of several hundred students, created and oversaw a student-run financial literacy program, and reviewed special circumstance petitions. Currently, I work as an Assistant Director of Programs and Student Engagement in the BOLD Center in the College of Engineering and Applied ...

There are so many moving pieces to the college application process.  Check out this video to learn about the application timeline and the important pieces you need to be thinking about and doing. Learn more —   https://thebestu.net/

When I look at the photo included on this blog post, I think of me as a mother and my deep desire to be with my kids every step of the way. As I write this blog, I am coming at it from two ways: 1) as an almost twenty-year veteran in college admissions sharing my experiences of what seems to work, and 2) as a mother of a teenager and pre-teen trying to practice what I preach with my own children. Parents often ask me what their role should be in their student’s college admissions process. There is definitely a healthy way to be involved and a not-so-healthy way. Your whole goal of the college admissions process is to support your student through the transition to adulthood. Being mindful of this goal can help bring this process into perspective and make for a more amicable experience with your student. After dedicating almost two decades of my professional life to the college admissions process, I have discovered the more parents can allow for students to be self-reflective and g...