College Applications & Admissions
A well-planned college list and carefully developed college application can make all the difference in college admissions outcomes. We realize that the college application process can be a stressful time for both students and families. Therefore, we follow our proven methods to calmly and supportively guide students and their families through the application process, while sharing key insights into each aspect of the process.
We recommend starting as early as possible in the junior year because there is a lot that can be done during that year, which will reduce the pressure on the summer and fall of senior year.
Regardless of your academic achievement or interest, or extracurricular involvement, Capstone counselors are happy to help you navigate the college admissions process and find the right college for you. You don't have to have an A or B grade average to find a great college where you'll fit in and excel. If you have concerns that your high school GPA or extracurricular involvement may be too low, please reach out through our free consultation form so we can answer your questions about how we can help you make progress towards your college goals.
Consulting Services
We provide students with guidance on every aspect of the application process
- College list development
- Demonstrating interest
- Test planning and preparation strategies
- Letters of recommendation
- Résumé for career, athletics, and education
- Application essays and other writing sections, including Personal Statement, UC PIQs, and College-Specific (Supplemental) Essays
- Financial aid strategies
- Interview preparation
- Completing the applications
- Application strategies and review
- Admissions decisions
- Preparing for orientation and college
Team Approach
We have built the Capstone team with professionals who are experts in their fields. Our team includes professional college admissions consultants with many years of experience who understand the importance of professional development to keep up with this constantly changing field. Our team includes essay specialists who are professional writers and writing coaches and have years of experience guiding students in their writing. Our team includes client experience management staff who are here to answer questions and support students and their families throughout the process.
Our goal is to help every student matriculate to a college that is a great fit for them through a process that supports, educates and empowers the student.
Writing & Essay Coaching
College application essay coaching is a key—and highly valued—service provided by Capstone as part of the College Application Consulting services, and strong writing skills are essential for most professional careers today. Our essay specialists, Kate Rackham, Tia Bach, and Kristen Booth offer a range of personalized writing-coaching services, and they help keep students on track and on time with their application essays. While colleges require more than just strong essays to gain admission, strong essays can help tip the balance in favor of a qualified applicant.
Our essay specialists offer a range of personalized writing services that include:
- Structured tasks designed to improve planning, drafting, self-evaluation and self-editing.
- Creation of individualized work including reading materials, field work activities and creative writing tasks.
- Individualized lesson plans including a range of activities from analysis, synthesis, idea exploration, formative feedback and evaluative tasks.
- Tasks and activities designed to prioritize creative joy, exploration and inspiration, and build key language skills and confidence in writing.
- Exploration of different writing styles through analytical and exploratory activities from a wide range of texts, including comics & graphic novels, and modern & classical fiction.
- Creative approaches to visualization with activities such as illustration, found poetry, stimuli boards, character portfolios and other world building activities.
- A gentle focus on grammar and punctuation and how writers can use them as a creative tool.
Support for Learning Differences
With years of expertise, Carolyn Weirick and the Capstone team help families with high school students to evaluate the quality of college LD programs and determine the level of support needed for their students. Our goal is to assist neurodiverse students to identify the types of campuses and learning environments where they will thrive both academically and socially, and then provide the guidance they need as they transition to college. For more information about K-12 education planning for students with LDs, please see Middle & High School Planning.
In our college admissions program, we:
- Research college options, evaluating both the learning disability programs and the social support provided at each campus.
- Assess which colleges will offer the best overall location and social environment for each student to thrive and be successful, based on the student’s unique needs.
- Offer encouragement and proven strategies for the students as they work through the completion of each of their applications and essays.
- Gather the required documentation needed to register with college LD support programs.
- Research all necessary accommodations to prepare the student to meet with college disability program counselors.
- Assist students as they request accommodations for their unique learning, health, housing and dining needs.
- Investigate pre-college summer programs and early orientation programs for students with learning disabilities and/or ADHD.
Our goal is to help our students find confidence and success in high school, and then find the colleges with the best academic fit, LD support, and social setting for them. We strive to provide a meaningful contribution to our students as they grow as independent learners and self advocates who recognize their strengths and challenges and are ready to ask for the help they need as they begin college.
Transfer Admissions
Capstone consultants offer expert guidance to college transfer students, including students transferring from community college to a four-year university, or from one university to another. All of Capstone's consultants have experience guiding transfer students, but Jill Andersen in particular has worked for years as a guidance counselor at community colleges, where she has assisted a great number of students to transfer to good-fit four-year colleges and universities.
STEM & Pre-Health
Dr. Shelley Enger, a research scientist and longtime mentor for STEM and health sciences students, offers specialized admissions support to students interested in STEM and pre-health fields, including pre-med, pre-vet, and direct-admit nursing programs. She also offers an Internship Development Workshop each Spring, designed to help high school students interested in research science to develop their own summer internships with professors in their chosen fields. A companion guide, the Internship Development Guide, comes free with our comprehensive Consulting Packages, or can be purchased individually.
Dr. Enger offers Medical School Application Package discounts to College Applications & Admissions clients who return for medical school advising after college.
Division III Athletic Recruitment
Capstone consultants provide support to students who strive to play at the Division III level. This division provides a balance of academic and athletic excellence that our students and families are most often seeking.
Adding athletic recruitment into the college admissions process can bring a great deal of excitement and personal growth for the student athlete, but it can also make the process significantly more challenging. Athletes must develop their college lists with a big additional factor—they must find college fits where there are also coaches who want them. If the coach is not interested, the student must move on to the other colleges on their list. This can happen with no notice and at any time in the process.
Our goal is to help each student athlete find the colleges that fit them academically and socially, but which also have coaches who want them on their roster. Our hope is that our process will help student athletes build confidence, self-knowledge, and communication skills as they go through their athletic recruitment process. In addition to personalized counseling, Capstone has developed a custom, up-to-date guide to assist parents and athletes in navigating the complexities of the recruitment process.