College admissions advisor
We are looking for a college admissions advisor for our 11th grader. We do not want a full-package deal from someone who walks them through the whole process. Rather, we would like to find someone who is paid by the session/hour to advise at various stages throughout the process, specifically with helping come up with a list of suitable schools and to point out weak spots in his record/ECs that he can work on strengthening now. Would especially love to find someone familiar with Berkeley High and specifically the IB program.
Nov 28, 2020
Parent Replies
My daughter is in 11th grade at BHS (AC), and we're using Sharon Rudnick. She's hourly and really great. sharon_rudnick [at] earthlink.net
Look no further than Elaine Chan, EMAIL: elainechancollegeadvising [at] gmail.com. Here is her website:www.elainechancollegeadvising.com. Elaine worked with our son since 11th grade. He is a BHS AC student (a current senior) but I know she has worked with students from the IB program (and music/arts students) as well. Elaine knows Berkeley High inside and out. Her two children graduated from BHS and she has volunteered in the College Career Center and the Y-Scholars on top of working as an advisor for many Berkeley/Albany families. Elaine is super flexible, knowledgeable, personable and dedicated. She will help your son at any level you need from coming up with various colleges to consider/visit, advising on meaningful summer experiences (that might be interesting for your son not just random ideas), essay brainstorming and editing if you like, filling out applications etc.... If you decide part way that you need more or less, she is flexible. On a side note, Elaine was our second college advisor. We had someone different for our older son and it was much more rigid and expensive. If I had a quick question to ask Elaine, she would get back to me as soon as she could and NEVER complained or charged me extra for those moments, like other advisors will do. Yes, she will work hourly or otherwise, it depends on what you need. Every family is different and Elaine understands that. My son was finished with his applications by November 3rd - way ahead of the deadline. Although you didn't mention this as a requirement, Elaine was able to connect with my son in a way that made him feel comfortable sharing what he thought about different schools and programs so that the list they made together wasn't about us but about him. She was great and I highly recommend Elaine without reservation. My last word of advice, contact her now b/c she fills up quickly! :-)
We worked with Wendy Morrison on an hourly basis to come up with a list of schools for our daughter. Wendy also helped her with the UC applications. Our daughter was in Berkeley High's IB program, and Wendy is very familiar with BHS teachers and programs. She was great. Good luck.
Our son (senior at ECHS) has been working with Amanda Burke at Classroom Matters (https://www.classroommatters.com/) and it's been a really good experience for him (and us). She has been primarily helping him craft his essays and personal statements but has helped with other areas of the application process. We set it up so that they met for 1 hour long sessions on a weekly basis but the schedule is completely flexible. I would absolutely recommend giving her and the CM team a call.