Admissions Consulting Archives

Supplemental College Counseling: How To Assess The Right Partner

November 21, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The Fast-Changing World of College Admissions

In today’s fast-changing world, Faya and I believe that a different approach to supplemental college counseling is necessary.

Our students live across the globe from NYC to LA, from London to Paris, from Dubai to Singapore, from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon. And these students are often considering colleges and universities in more than one country, which most commonly includes the United States, the UK, Canada, France, Italy, and Spain.

There was a time when incoming freshmen represented a far less diverse population (broadly defined). When legacy status carried more weight. When development carried more weight. When independent schools were known to be feeders to certain colleges or universities. When a rolodex sat on your desk and the contacts didn’t change that often. When standardized test scores were an absolute requirement with no gray zone. When AP courses were the standard at independent and public schools, and SAT subject tests were available and abundant. When students and parents weren’t expecting very much differentiation or individualization from colleges and universities regarding learning support, housing options, counseling services, and flexible timelines to complete degrees.

That is no longer the situation. All of the above has changed, and it continues to do so. Admissions policies are subject to change year over year, and it seems that nothing has stayed constant for the last four years. Today’s US college admissions process, and many European colleges (not including Bocconi in Milan), are driven by a holistic review process (of varying degrees). Geopolitics and social issues impact preferred schools from one admissions season to the next. Global citizenship means that students are looking at a diversified college list in terms of geography. And colleges and universities regularly make changes to their program offerings, courses and majors, and faculty in response to an evolving economy, new career paths and fields, and consumer expectations.

Global College Exploration

No one supplemental college counselor can be a walking encyclopedia for every college, in every location, and at any moment in time. Given how diversified students’ interests are likely to be, a strong research partner and mentor is a better expectation. Successful supplemental college counseling today requires college counselors that are more nimble, more strategic, more tenacious, more technologically-savvy, and more informed than a college counselor idling in pre-pandemic norms. It’s simply too risky and unrealistic in today’s college environment to only apply to Ivy League schools, for example.

Generally speaking, our students focused on US colleges are applying to 15 schools on average. The UCAS system in the UK only allows for 5 selections. Our students considering Spain or Italy or France, for example, are usually only seriously considering a handful of colleges or universities. Whether we’re pursuing a US-based college process only or a bifurcated or trifurcated approach that spans multiple countries, we’re usually considering 12-15 colleges or universities in total.

Supplemental College Counseling: Checks and Balances

The college application process has checks and balances. Various school-based stakeholders bring different perspectives to the table, including a school college counselor, dean, advisor, or other administrator. These faculty members hold a confidential, big picture view of the entire senior class and competing priorities. They typically have a strong stance on which colleges or universities a student should apply to, which college or university should be prioritized for a binding Early Decision pick, how many colleges or universities in total the school will support, and ultimately they have to endorse the final working list. Their intel is important and useful, but sometimes pushback and negotiation is necessary.

Among their many responsibilities, school college counselors directly facilitate on-site college visits and communications with regional representatives from colleges and universities. They write a necessary student recommendation, they gather – and potentially backchannel – with individual teachers writing recommendations, they shepherd all of the official school documentation through school-based portals, and they communicate the context of their school’s grading system and course offerings. These are critical responsibilities that bolster support for a particular student and the school’s brand and reputation.

With the above responsibilities covered at school, families and private college counselors can focus on other matters. Our approach to supplemental college counseling continues to evolve as we observe changes and intentionally differentiate the experience for each of our students in order to meet them where they are. In large part, we’re focused on the process skills related to the college application process as well as fact-checking or balancing advice that may be coming from other well-intentioned inputs, including school faculty, other parents, other family members, or friends.

Differentiating The Experience With Us

For the families that choose to work with Faya and me on supplemental college counseling, they’re not usually out in left field unsure of what a working college list might include. Creating an initial working college list is important and necessary, but it’s the sum total of all of the components described below that make our process dynamic and unique. Digging into program specifics, comparing and contrasting majors or courses of study, and exploring the resources available at a particular institution is far more interesting work. Application processes and portals have variations, but knowing a portal inside out doesn’t define a good college counselor. Portals change. Application processes change.

What defines a great college counselor – whether you’re focused on US college admissions, European college admissions, or both – is a professional partner with a sufficiently broad perspective and track record of admissions success who can effectively guide your family through all the twists and turns that will surely arise along this journey while keeping you and your student focused, motivated, and engaged. Change is constant in today’s world. Let’s lean in together and go for it!

Our success is the result of hard work, flexibility, dedication to each family, and all of the following:

Our flexible approach and diversified expertise provides families with the option of working on specific aspects of the process or working comprehensively (from grades 7-12), which may include test preparation, private tutoring, and/or independent study and mentorship as well as middle school planning, high school planning, and summer enrichment or pre-college program planning in order to authentically build a strong college application.
Our relational and motivational success with students and parents.
Our keen ability to spot trends, adapt to trends, and avoid “traps” that result from misunderstandings and misconceptions about changes and the current climate.
Our balanced approach to managing an application strategy that is sufficiently broad in order to mitigate disappointment and maximize options given each student’s individual context.
Our expertise with learning differences and scaffolding instruction and tasks to meet the needs of each student.
Our effective and tenacious research skills in order to curate a working list of colleges and universities for each student and present the information in a meaningful way, taking into account any customizations that a family may request.
Our integration of executive function coaching as related to the project management inherently involved with the college application process.
Our intentional digital coaching to help students develop necessary, lifelong skills for: 1) subtasking a larger project, 2) developing email management skills, 3) developing formatting and proofreading skills within Google Documents and Google Sheets, 4) developing organizational skills for Google Drive at large, 5) aggregating online research and virtual college visit notes, and 6) managing various types of portals and being systematic and accurate.
Our success with helping students to tailor their writing to a specific audience of college admissions officers and providing explicit instruction regarding grammar, sentence fluency, organization, and word choice.
Our track record with helping families to strategically manage any outreach or networking that may be applicable.
Our creativity with helping students and parents to troubleshoot and navigate any necessary negotiations or courageous conversations with school counselors, deans, advisors, or other faculty members that may arise during the college application process.
Our compassionate and patient approach to facilitating decision making and any related philosophical conversations in order to compare and contrast possible pathways.
Our hypersensitivity to privacy and confidentiality on behalf of each student and family.

Scheduling An Appointment

Whatever your college counseling needs or wonders may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Board Certified Educational Planners, My Learning Springboard

Short-Term Tutoring and Targeted Skill Building

October 18, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Short-term tutoring is intended to build specific skills and ultimately lead to improved effectiveness and independence. The effort scope — frequency, duration and total instructional time — is driven by a family’s specific goals and benchmarking data.

At My Learning Springboard, our approach to short-term tutoring is quite different. We work in small teaching teams and closely partner with parents and any other professionals with whom a family might want involved.

Every family benefits from a minimum of three (3) educators: Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman, who are both Learning Specialists and the co-founders, as well as the tutor who meets in person or remotely with students per a family’s preference. This approach ensures collaboration, shared expertise, and privacy. Checks and balances are built into the process to be sure that the work is focused and targeted. All engagements are at will and incremental decision making is encouraged.

Key Questions To Inform Short-Term Tutoring Planning

What is currently observed at home and at school?
How is my student performing now?
What is the desired outcome?

Through discussion and close partnership, meaningful planning unfolds. Tutoring efforts range from a single session, to a multi-week engagement, to a longer-term engagement depending on the specific needs and situation.

Short-term tutoring efforts include but are not limited to the following areas:

Language Arts

Reading support targeting decoding, comprehension, and fluency.
Developing a 5-paragraph persuasive essay.
Effectively writing at the paragraph and multi-paragraph level in a way that demonstrates strong organization, varied sentence structure (sentence fluency), and word choice as well as the integration of text evidence and/or supporting details to demonstrate comprehension and/or make compelling arguments.
Effectively proofreading and editing for proper syntax (grammar), accurate spelling, and punctuation.
Incorporating dialogue and quotations with correct punctuation usage.
Studying grammar and applying techniques in order to achieve varied sentence structure. For example, what is a preposition and how does that help me to open with prepositional phrases? What is a noun, a verb and, specifically, a present participle, and how does that help me to start with a gerund? What is a conjunction and how do I combine sentences with correct comma usage? Let’s not rely entirely on tools like Grammarly without an underlying understanding of grammar rules!
Making use of student statements and personal statements for middle school, high school, and college admissions processes to teach the above described writing skills.
Effectively summarizing fiction text to include the title, author, setting (time and place), major characters, theme, rising action, climax, and resolution.
Effectively summarizing non-fiction text to include the source, author, date, main idea, and relevant details that justify the stated main idea.
Creating a structure to build vocabulary at any age.
Writing legibly in manuscript or cursive, which we still believe has an incredible value even in an age of keyboarding and dictation.

Mathematics

Automaticity of basic facts in all four (4) number operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Multiplication with multi-digit numbers and decimals.
Long division with multi-digit numbers and decimals.
Effectively working with fractions, including common fractions, decimal fractions, and percentages.
Algebraic reasoning from an introductory level at the elementary grades and progressing through middle school.
Math problem solving at the elementary and middle school levels that emphasizes universal problem-solving strategies, such as “working backwards,” “making a diagram”, “looking for a pattern”, or “using logical reasoning”.
Reasoning through multi-step word problems that integrate various concepts and skills.

Technology

Developing typing skills with fingers on the home keys and eyes on the monitor
Effectively organizing an email inbox by using labels, filters, color coding, and archiving
Effectively using Google Calendar in conjunction with school-based portals and making use of advanced functionality, including sub calendars, color coding, and accepting and sending calendar invitations
Effectively organizing Google Drive using specific and intentional file names and subfolders, adding shortcuts, and moving files within a student’s “My Drive” main folder or from a student’s “Shared With Me” folder and into their “My Drive”
Effectively formatting and editing a Google Sheet using text wrapping, freezing rows and columns, inserting hard returns for visual tracking, and applying a spelling check within a Google Sheet and its worksheet tabs
Effectively formatting a Google Drive document using horizontal and vertical text alignment, page margins, tables, bullets and numbered lists, indenting features, and applying a spelling and grammar check
Managing sharing settings for Google Drive folders, subfolders, and individual documents and sheets

Organizational and Study Skills

Developing tactics for improved time management, goal setting, and self assessment.
Organizational coaching leading up to midterms, final exams, or surrounding specific project efforts.
Making use of a specific research project to teach students how to determine reputable sources, aggregate information across sources, and strategically use these sources to defend their thesis statement? How can a student more effectively take advantage of office hours and in-school resources to support their drafting process?
Taking advantage of an upcoming assessment to scaffold what it means to study for this subject matter. How should a student backmap their studying from an expected test date? How should a student make use of class notes, previous quizzes and homework assignments, and other classroom resources to effectively study? How can a student more effectively self-advocate and take advantage of office hours and in-school resources in preparation for an assessment?
Preparing for standardized tests, including the ISEE, SSAT, ACT, or SAT among other tests.
College essay coaching and related project management and organizational skill building.

Enrichment Teaching, Internships, and Career Readiness

Independent study with a faculty mentor in any discipline, including but not limited to STEM, creative writing, humanities, or the arts
Researching internship opportunities at the high school or college level while developing specific skills related to drafting cover letters and resumes as well as interview preparation
Creating and enhancing LinkedIn profiles for professional endeavors

These links below provide more information about our differentiated approach and value proposition with regard to short-term tutoring:

To learn more about short-term tutoring for your student, please contact us to schedule a planning meeting so that we can better understand your needs and priorities and further discuss an approach that will work best for your family.

By Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planners and Learning Specialists

Navigating Test-Optional Policies

March 30, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Over the last several school years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of colleges and independent schools adopting test-optional policies. Moreover, some schools adopted a test-blind policy, which is different from a test-optional policy. The intention is good, but the practical navigation is complicated and often more stressful because we’re living in a gray zone. And notably many independent schools and colleges have already started to reverse their test-optional policy.

In theory, doing away with standardized testing seems like a welcome change, but — in effect — it has upended the application cycle and resulted in a HUGE increase of applications and stiffer competition for spots. Moreover, many private schools have just developed their own assessments and placement tests in lieu of standardized testing, and many colleges have required testing later in the process in order to secure certain majors or to opt into more advanced coursework during a student’s first year. Therefore, the majority of competitive applicants continue to submit standardized test scores in an effort to exceed admissions standards and differentiate themselves from their equally competitive peers while keeping all doors open and avoiding unwelcome surprises later in the application process.

While families should consider a number of factors in deciding whether their child should take a standardized test or which test is the best fit, in the vast majority of instances, we recommend that families pursue testing, even in the current climate with test-optional policies in place. Choosing to test makes sense for a number of reasons:

Test scores are a useful data point.

We believe that there are no “false positives” with test scores. A strong score on a given test section, or across the board, indicates that the student has achieved facility with the skills tested, whether they be math, reading, or a subject area such as those assessed by the AP exams. Because tests are generally timed, a strong score also illustrates the student’s ability to perform under pressure. This is helpful data that, combined with the other pieces of information in a student’s application package, helps admissions officers envision how that applicant will fit in at their school. This data can be advantageous and differentiate applicants in a test-optional environment. Moreover, strong test scores help to demonstrate academic mastery in a climate where there is some concern about grade inflation.

Testing sharpens students’ time management techniques.

It is true that, in many situations, a timed closed-book test is not the best way to measure a student’s abilities. However, it is equally true that timed closed-book tests remain popular on the middle school, high school, and college levels. Good test preparation helps students learn to stay focused and to use their time wisely. These techniques can help them perform better and reduce stress as they take exams and various classroom assessments.

Test preparation is a vehicle for skills enrichment.

The SAT asks students to read seminal historic documents. The ACT asks students to think analytically about charts, graphs, and scientific experiment design. The ISEE and SSAT asks students to expand their working vocabularies and enhance their math skills and problem solving strategies. As students undertake test preparation for a specific assessment, the work they do helps them excel in their broader academic pursuits. A test-optional policy helps to reduce the pressure around high stakes testing, but the preparation itself is leveraged well beyond the official testing.

Test scores can clear the path to advanced classes.

In the case of Advanced Placement tests (and previously the SAT subject tests, which were abruptly “retired” by the College Board in January 2021), a high enough score in high school can vault a new college student over the introductory courses and straight into higher-level work. In a test-optional environment, and with distance learning changing the nature of course-based assessment, these strong data points help to further differentiate a candidate.

Test scores keep students’ options open.

After a student takes the ACT or SAT, the scores are generally considered current for at least three years. If a student who took the test in high school later wants to transfer colleges, they only need to focus on keeping their grades up and applying to new colleges. However, if they never took the ACT or SAT, they might have to add test preparation to their already busy schedule. It’s difficult to predict if a future college consideration may have (or maintain) a test-optional policy.

We recommend students begin preparing for their tests well ahead of time, although we recognize that many juniors are getting a later start again this year. That’s okay, we believe any time can be the right time to start becoming a stronger tester. Ideally, we work with students over a longer period of time so that test preparation does not feel like cramming. We find that extended periods of time for preparation help students to significantly reduce test anxiety, master content, and internalize strategies.

As a general process, our students applying to grades 5 through 12 (ISEE/SSAT) and college (ACT, SAT, and/or APs) begin by taking a practice test that serves as a benchmark a year or more in advance of actually taking an official test. Based on this performance, we recommend a plan to maximize preparation time. For the ISEE, SSAT, ACT, and SAT, we most often have an English teacher and a math teacher working with a student as the math, reading, and verbal reasoning sections require specialized expertise. Often they require different efforts, too. With all the changes surrounding test-optional policies, it’s more confusing than ever for parents and students to navigate. We can help.

Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planners and Learning Specialists

Start Your College Essays Early

February 28, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The process of applying to colleges is an arduous one. Standardized tests, campus visits, alumni interviews, and navigating the complexities of Naviance and SCIOR all add up to hours of work, on top of the time students must spend actually doing their schoolwork. The biggest task, however, is writing the many essays universities require for admission – not just the Common App, but the countless supplemental essays and short answers, each with their own twists on “Why us?” Most students, when faced with the yawning chasm of work and the high stakes of completing it “perfectly,” choose to put off this part of the college admissions process until the fall of their senior year, or the summer before it. This is a mistake. Start your college essays early!

While these essays are meant to persuade the admissions committee to accept a student into their school, they are not driven by argument so much as feeling, tone of voice, and narrative. Students trained in the craft of building a sturdy five-paragraph essay or writing a research paper are not well prepared to do this kind of writing, and they won’t learn it formally in school.

The earlier a student starts the process of ideation, composition, and revision, the better off they will be. Because this writing is both uncharted and high stakes, students need time to experiment, possibly fail, and begin again. Often, ideas that don’t work for a Common App essay can be recycled into supplemental essays. The lesson being that the effort of writing, no matter the result, is rarely wasted.

Some students may object to the idea of writing their college essays before the summer of their senior year, banking on the hope that they will do something really interesting in July and August that will provide them with just the right material for an essay. Others will spin their wheels in an effort to find a dramatic tale of hardship overcome or lives radically altered. None of this is necessary to begin writing. As my colleague, Liz Walters says, the best college essays are “vivid, memorable, and a pleasure to read.”

To arrive at such an essay requires work, beginning with students choosing prompts that interest them from the Common App website. Though the portal doesn’t typically become available for rising seniors until early August, the prompts for 2024-2025 are already confirmed and posted. Year to year, the prompts don’t change much, and this year there are no changes at all; the final, open-ended prompt means that if a student has an idea that doesn’t fit into any of the boxes offered, they shouldn’t reject it. Remember that prompts are not assignments; they are springboards meant to help students craft essays that will tell the admissions committee something interesting about this person that isn’t reflected in grades, test scores, recommendation letters, or a CV.

During this initial period, it can be helpful to read examples of past students’ essays, which are usually available on a college or university’s admissions page. They may reveal unconventional approaches to familiar subjects, offer a model of pacing and structure, or show a student that it’s OK to be funny on the page (if that’s their inclination). More importantly, careful reading and analysis will show that these texts did not spring wholly formed from their authors’ minds. Many drafts will be required.

Once a prompt has been selected, students should just start writing. Sometimes a brainstorming session is useful to come up with a list of potential ideas, but don’t let too much time elapse between ideation and composition. It’s best to run with an idea while it’s still fresh. Some students will find they can write through to a completed first draft without help, but others will need prompting after the first or second paragraph. This is where a skillful writing coach can help a student turn a topic into a story, finding ways to dramatize a change that might otherwise seem internal. Always, students should expect to write at least two or three drafts, ideally with some amount of time between rounds to give them a fresh perspective.

Conversely, other students may write a gripping story, but leave out any reflection on what the story means to them or how the event shaped their character or outlook. A common student objection is a fear of sounding “cheesy.” The capacity for self-reflection is a sign of maturity, and simply put, many high school students haven’t had to really examine themselves in a sustained and honest manner. Others may allow that this self-analysis is a necessary ingredient but show a resistance to the idea that they can apply knowledge retrospectively–hinting at things they only knew later.

What is central to all personal college essays is that the author allows themselves to think on the page, thoughts that Columbia professor Phillip Lopate calls “quicksilver and spontaneous” in his book on creative nonfiction To Show and To Tell. “There is nothing more exciting than following a live, candid mind thinking on the page, exploring uncharted waters,” writes Lopate. A great personal essay will exhibit this quality, giving readers insight into not just what the author has done, but how they think about the world and their place in it.

Written by Daniel Penny, an educator and writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, a BA in English from Grinnell College, and an AA in liberal arts from Bard High School Early College, Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed., Board Certified Educational Planner, and Faya Hoffman, M.A., Board Certified Educational Planner.

Math Specialists

January 24, 2024

At My Learning Springboard, our Math Specialists and Learning Specialists support students of all ages from preschool through high school and beyond. We focus on developing conceptual understanding, logical reasoning, and problem solving strategies along with strong number sense, mental math skills, and mathematical reasonableness. Moreover, we tailor instruction to the meet the needs of all types of learners, including students with learning challenges, such as ADHD or dyscalculia, and/or anxiety related to math performance.

We help students achieve success by taking an individual’s learning profile into careful consideration in order to differentiate our instructional approach while also choosing materials that complement the existing school program. For younger learners, we typically find success by first introducing concepts concretely, then progressing to pictorial representations, and finally moving into the abstract representation of math problems. We may employ a similar sequence for older learners if they encounter conceptual challenges in more advanced math.

Our Math Specialists often conduct comprehensive math diagnostic assessments at the beginning of our work together in order to fully assess a student’s performance level. We use these types of diagnostic tools when addressing both remediation and acceleration in order to develop an appropriate and targeted instructional plan. Our approach to diagnostic work is differentiated depending on the particular circumstance and purpose.

Our diagnostic tools, preK through 12, are informed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards, Common Core State Standards, and NYS Next Generation Learning Standards; and we utilize materials and research from known math experts, including Kathy Richardson, Marilyn Burns, and Dr. John A. Van de Walle. Our math work is also informed by the CTP content standards from the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) and IB Standards, as appropriate, for students at schools making use of these assessment tools and/or curricula.

Popular Math Programs

Remediation or Acceleration: preK-5

Counting and Cardinality
Basic Facts and Computation (math fluency), including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
Number Operations and Algebraic Thinking, including fractions and long division
Measurement and Data (representation and analysis), including graphing
Geometry
Problem Solving and Reasoning

Standards for Mathematical Practice

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

$Math Center Manipulatives$

We also help families to create math centers in their homes. We select age-appropriate math manipulatives and resources that support classroom and tutoring instruction. We also teach parents and/or caregivers how to use these resources more comfortably. Since students are used to accessing these materials in their classrooms, it makes sense to have them available at home when completing homework or exploring mathematical ideas. Materials are divided by primary grades (K-2) and intermediate grades (3-5), and these materials may benefit older learners as well. Having a complete math center in your home is a strategic investment in your child’s math education.

Please contact our office for more information.