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*AI has its place, but the content on this website was handcrafted with love by a human—Steve.

What do you want?

This is a serious question.

As a parent, you likely want your child to:

• Be physically and emotionally safe

• Find love and support from friends and family, and

• Have opportunities to learn and grow as an emerging adult.

And you know that the increasing independence of your student comes with an increasing, sophisticated interdependence with the world around them.

The good news is that your hopes for your child align well with the goals of colleges.

Colleges aim to:

• Most importantly, keep your child safe

• Provide a supportive environment of peers and mentors, and

• Enable varied and rich opportunities to develop intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

So the high school years—the precious 4 years when your student is holding on tight to you (in their own distant way) even as they endeavor to let go—aren’t really about getting in to the “right” college. The college admissions process is a living, embodied metaphor for the student’s journey to a new, adult relationship with your family and the world.

You likely want your child to go to a “great college”—the challenge is to secure several college-choice options that will be a strong academic, social, and financial fit for your student.

You can do this. Let’s begin.

What’s an IEC?

An “independent educational consultant” (IEC) provides value to families by helping them navigate educational pathways for their students. Services might include:

• K-12 placement advice

• Learning disabilities and neurodiversity (LD/ND) assessment and support

• College admissions consulting and coaching (Steve’s specialty), and

• Graduate school admissions support, to name a few.

What’s IECA?

The Independent Educational Consultants Association is the country’s leading professional organization for IECs. On its website you can read a bit about whether hiring an IEC is right for your family.

What about “Varsity Blues” and ethics?

Steve always works with the best interests of the student and family as primary. Steve has adopted as his ethical guidelines the IECA Principles of Good Practice. Positively College, LLC, was founded with one particular best practice in mind:

“Members do not contribute to heightening anxiety surrounding admission.”

How does Positively College provide value?

When the college admissions process is confusing …

Steve provides wayfinding, organization, and clarity, including early, appropriate conversations about college affordability and financial aid.

As news outlets and social media offer oversimplification and black&white choices …

Steve emphasizes nuance, rigorous questioning, and options brainstorming.

While colleges are working to meet their needs by reviewing applications according to “institutional priorities” …

Steve is working to meet your needs by helping you identify family and student priorities to ensure a great-fit college selection process.

When your student listens more to other adults than to you, and third-party expertise can make the difference in your family’s process …

Steve provides a buffer between you and your student, a bridge connecting your family, and a supportive ear and mind to help your student through what is, at baseline, a lot of work.

As the “college industrial complex” and many large commercial admissions corporations peddle fearmongering and toxic concepts like “dream schools” and “mistakes to avoid that will land you in the denial pile” …

Steve founded Positively College to insist on values such as “you are enough,” “you’re not ‘behind,’” and “there are many great-fit schools where you will thrive.”

Who will provide the services, and how?

Families and students will work exclusively with Steve, typically via Zoom. In-person meetings (anywhere in the world!) are available through special arrangement.

When should I begin?

“You are not ‘behind’” is a core value of Positively College—there is always time to make a positive difference in your college admissions journey.

Support from Positively College can begin during Grade 6 and extends through the first year of college. The summer prior to each grade-year is considered part of that year, so the Grade 9 summer is the three months before Grade 9.

Starting with college admissions support during Grades 6-10 is not about “packaging” your student to ensure an “Ivy or bust” approach—indeed, admission to any particular college is difficult to predict and impossible to guarantee.

Rather, starting this early enables your family to plan forward on curricular choices, extracurricular pursuits, and college affordability so that you can enter the active Grades 11-12 admissions years with relative calm, clear purpose, and earned confidence.

Steve and your family may meet just once or twice a year during Grades 6-10; he meets weekly with students during the height of application season.

Who does what?

With more than 15 years of experience in teaching and administrating at every level toddler through college, and with more than 6 years of experience in management consulting, Steve has thought hard about how best to serve your family.

As such, he differentiates between consulting for parents and coaching for students.

Positively College provides consulting services to parents Grades 6-12. These sessions typically are for adults only and focus on research, analysis, problem solving, and decision making. Variable blocks of support time enable parents to access the help they need without weighing a commitment to a “comprehensive” service package.

Coaching, by comparison, is student-centered collaborative time focused on enabling the student to engage with and take ownership over the college admissions process on their own terms. Coaching for the student begins in June prior to their junior year—starting sooner can lead to unneeded anxiety and can draw energy from more important pursuits, such as course work and extracurricular activities. Parents are kept current by both the student and Steve, and three student/parent/coach meetings mark the beginning, mid-point, and culmination of the process. Positively College provides coaching through defined blocks of time because consistency enables the best results on applications—it takes time for the student and coach to get to know each other, and to synergize for optimal results.

What’s the role of a student’s school counselor?

That’s a savvy question—the role of a student’s school counselor is essential! A student might meet quarterly with their counselor to build a relationship and share personal highlights/progress. One’s school counselor also is the best source for information about how the student can make the most of their curriculum and extracurriculars within the context of their particular school. Finally, a school counselor might provide general comparative information about the types of recently graduated students who have been admitted to schools on the student’s college interest list.

What are the phases of support?

Every IEC delivers their “curriculum” differently. Steve has developed a phased approach that is flexible enough to meet each student’s needs:

Get Organized

What are the steps in the application process? How can a student organize their college interest list, schedule of deadlines, and communications with colleges and high school allies to ensure they stay on track? This is easier than it seems if you have a plan.

Assess & Reflect

The second step toward finding some great-fit college choice options is for the student to understand their skills, interests, and values. Let’s work together to provide this foundational step for your student.

Research & Discover

“College knowledge” will enable a student to feel confident during the process. Why might the student prefer a large/small school, in-state/out-of-state school, college/university? We’ll work together to gather key information about college possibilities and to structure visits to colleges to make the most of your time.

Build “the List”

The college interest list, which typically starts at up to 20-30 schools and which is then winnowed down toward applying to 9-12 schools, is one of the most exciting and emotional steps in the process. We’ll use a rich variety of resources to help ensure a balanced list and to find hidden gems that may be a great fit for the student.

Outline, Draft, Write, Re-Write

College application essays are the opportunity to share a student’s unique strengths, perspectives, and likely contributions to the future college community. We’ll engage in an iterative process to ensure prompts are properly addressed and that the student’s values, talents, and background are powerfully shared to great effect.

Apply Strategically

Should you apply early decision, early action, or regular decision, and what’s the difference? We’ll work together, through our unique process of “managing on the 15s,” to ensure your applications are smartly prepared well in advance of deadlines.

What is the investment of time and money?

A student may spend up to 100 hours (or more) on the college research and application process. Students who work with IECs often spend about 10-20 “live” (face-to-face) hours working through the process.

A student will spend 4-6 years in college, and American families spend on average $100,000 over 4 years (or $25,000 per year) to enable college for their student; family spending for a private college experience can total $200,000 to $400,000 over 4 years.

The average rate for IEC support in the southwest is $215 per hour. Most IECs offer packages of support that include bundles of up to 30 hours at a price range of $5,000 to $8,000.

A $4,000 investment on IEC-led admissions support represents a 4% spend on optimizing the college-fit process for your student (based on the average family investment of at least $100,000 in college).

Steve is glad to meet with you for a complimentary conversation about your goals and whether it might be a fit to work together.